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and the popular movement by helping to make Simultolla a health- resort for the middle classes.

In 1897, my friend, the late Babu Hem Chunder Roy, whose early death we all deplore as a loss to his family and the national party, obtained for me a plot of land on the ridge, one of the finest sites at Simultolla. It was part of a plot secured by the late Babu Behari Lal Chatterjee, then practising as a pleader at Baidyanath. He distributed the plot, which covered the whole of the ridge, among his friends, including Sir Rajendra Nath Mookerjee, the late Babu Pulin Behari Sircar, and others. Having got the site, I started the building without loss of time, and it was ready for occupation in January, 1898.

Mine was the first house built and within the last twenty years Simultolla has become a highly popular health resort. Lord Sinha, Sir Rajendra Nath Mookerjee and others have all built houses there, where they occasionally reside. To many it has given health and life. The late Bhabanath Sen, a well-known municipal con- tractor and a leader of the Kayastha community in Calcutta, while in the grip of a deadly malady prolonged his life by residing here for six months every year.

I have always looked forward to my stay at Simultolla with interest and expectancy, and have always been benefited by the change. It is not that I pass my days in idleness, gazing upon the beautiful scenery around or reflecting upon the memories of the past. Here I composed my presidential speech for the Ahmedabad Congress of 1902. Here I wrote more than one-third of these reminiscences. Freed from the distraction of visitors, canvassing for appointments or soliciting advice, I pursue my work amid con- ditions of health and ease which are a comfort and a stimulus. Here I take rest, but enjoy it all the more with the leaven of work. I do not believe in absolute idleness, with the intellect lying fallow or in a condition of comatose torpor. Moderate intellectual work even in times of absolute rest has been with me a physical tonic, a bracing stimulant which has sent the blood coursing through the veins, chasing away all impurities, stimulating the flow of life and the vital energies through the obscurest corners of the physical system. I believe in a rest-cure, diversified by moderate work. I do not believe in hurried peregrinations from place to place, so popular with so many of our health-seekers.

The year 1898 was marked by a grim tragedy, which at the time roused a considerable measure of public attention among the Indian