Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-15

of her sex, while the drums were going 90
strong, and the priests carried up the blood
stained baskets of 'long pig"
And now behold her, out of that past of
Violence and sickening feasts. step forth, in
her age, a quiet, smooth, elaborate old lady,
such as you might find at home (mittened
also, but not often 80 well mannered) in a
score of country houses. Only Vaekehu's
m1ttens were of dye, not of silk; and they
had been paid for, not in money, but the
cooked flesh of men. 1t came in nv mind
with a clap, what she could think of it her.
self, and whether at heart, perhaps, she
might not regret and aspire after the bar
barous and stirring past. But when I asked
Stanislao-"Ahl" said he, "she is content;
she is religious, she passes all her days with
the sisters"
The Polynesian Drumbeat.
The drumbeat of the Polynesian has a
strange and gloomy stimulation for the
nerves of all. White persons feel it-at
these ~preclpitate sounds their hearts beat
faster; and according to the old residents,
its effect on the natives was extreme. Bishop
Dordillon might ~entreat; Temoana himself
command and threaten; at the note of the
drum wild instincts triumphed. And
now it might beat upon these ruins, and
who should assemble? The houses are down,
the people dead, their lineage extinct, and
the sweepings and fugitives of distant bays
and islands encamp upon their graves. The
decline OF. the dance Stanislao especially
laments. "Chaque pays a ses coutumes,"
said he; but in the report of any gendarme,
perhaps corruptly eager to increase the
number of deficits and the instruments of
his own power, custom after custom is
placed on the expurgatorial index.
"Tenez, uue danse qui NEST pas permits"
said Stanislao; ssje ne sails pas pourquoi, ellie
est tres jolie, ellie va CONNIE ca" and, stick
sipg his unbrella-uprighteint he, road, he
sketched the steps and gestures. All his
criticisms of the present, all his regrets for
the past, struck me as temperate and sensi-
bic. The short term of office of the resident
he thought the chief defect of the admins
tration, that officer having scarce begun to
be efficient ere he was recalled. I thought
l gathered, too, that he regarded with some
fear the coming change from a naval to a
civil Governor. l am sure at least that i
regard it so myself; for the civil servants of
France have never appeared to any foreigner
as at all the flower of their country, while
her naval officers may challenge competition
with the world.
Teaching Stanislao History.
I recall with interest two interviews with
Stanislao. The first was a certain afternoon
of tropic rain. which We passed together in
the veranda of the club, talking at times
with heightened voices as the showers re-
doubled overhead, passing at times into the
billiard room to consult, in the dim, cloudy
daylight, that map Of the world which
forms its chief adornment. He was natu-
rally ignorant of English history, so that I
had much of news to communicate. He
was intent TO hear; his brown face, strongly
marked with smallpox, kindled and changed
with each vicissitude. His eyes glowed
with the reflected light of battle; his ques-
lions were many and intelligent. and it was
chiefly these that sent US SO often to the
map.
But il is of our parting that 1 keep the
strongest sense. We were to sail on the
morrow, and the night had fallen, dark,
gusty and rainy, when we stumbled up the
hill TO bid farewell to Stanislao. He had
already loaded us with gifts. but more were
waiting. We sat about the table over cigars
| and green cocoanuts; claps of wind blew
through the house and extinguished the
lamp, which was always instantly relighted
with a single match; and these recurring
intervals of darkness were felt as a relief.
For there was something painful ard en-
barrass1ng in the kindness of that separa.
ton. "Ah. Uous deUriez roster ici, mon cher
anil" cried Stanislao. "Vous eteS les gems