Published: Pioneer, 14 August 1888; Civil and Military Gazette, 14 August 1888.

Attribution: In Scrapbook 4 (28/4, p. 77).

Text: Pioneer.

Notes: Onandorf (‘on and off ’) plays on the name of Heinrich Godefroy Ollendorf (1803–65), deviser of a popular ‘step-by-step’ method of foreign language teaching.

The subject of this burlesque is the case of Arthur Travers Crawford, C.M.G. (1835–1911) of the Bombay Civil Service, who in 1888 was charged with having received bribes from natives and official subordinates. Evidently it was first intended that he be tried in the regular courts. He was tried instead by special commission, which held sixty-seven public sittings reported at tedious length in the press. The commission's report did not find Crawford guilty of corruption but did confirm the charge of borrowing from natives in the division that he administered. After further reviews of the case, Crawford was removed from the Civil Service at the end of March, 1889, some weeks after RK had left for England. The case raised several legal difficulties and excited great public interest. It is reviewed at length in William Wilson Hunter, Bombay 1885–1890: A Study in Indian Administration, London, 1892, pp. 414–20.

‘An Exercise in Administration’ has been reprinted in ‘Turnovers’, iii, 1888, and in Harbord, iv, 2099–101.

Q.– What is that Thing over there?

A.– That is a Bombay Government attempting to administer a Presidency.

Q.– But why is it hunting the elderly gentleman with the grey hair among the trucks of the G.I.P. terminus?

A.– Oh it has a notion about him, and I think that the constables rather enjoy the fun.

Q.– But the old man is mad – anyone with half an eye can see that. Look! He has attired himself in a fez and gaberdine and is dancing sarabands in front of the Inspector of Police. Ah! They have caught him by the collar! He must be a distinguished burglar in disguise

A.– On the contrary, he is a civilian of thirty-three years’ standing, a C.M.G. and one or two other things which are generally considered respectable.