St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1891-08-20
MISCELLANY.
LIFE IN SAMOA.

Another Interesting Letter IrOu COm-
missioner Ide.
The CALIFORNIAN presents its read
ers this week with liberal extracts
from another letter from Henry c.
Ide. The letter was written from
Apia, Samoa, the day before the
Fourth of July and was received by
his family last week, nearly five
weeks later.
1t does not seem possible that the
summer is so far along and that to-
morrow is to be celebrated as our
great national holiday. You
will be surprised to learn that there
is to be a great celebration here also.
Nearly $500 have been raised by
subscription and there are to be
horse races, foot races, boat races,
canoe races, sailing races, hurdle
races etc. The occasion is called
Midsummer SPORTS" so that all
nationalities here may take part, but
the festivities always occur on July
4th | am to dine tonight at Mr..
Sewall's with the cOnsulS, Captain
Foss of the German war ship ETC.,
which means a hard evening, a late
meal and a bad feeling all day to-
morrow. Tomorrow / am invited
to lunch at Mrs. Hamilton's. Sheis
a Samoan woman, the widow of an
American, Capt. Hamilton, and
dresses in the American fashion and
has a very pretty cottage near Mr..
SewalPs, standing by the harbor
with a beautiful garden of flowers,
palms, bananas, breadfruits etc. in
front The man of the house is a
Mr. Turner, a relative of the family
from Chicago, and a very pleasant
man to meet. frequently stop and
rest there on the veranda when on
my way Mr.. Sewall's.
Last Sunday walked up to Mr.
BIacklock's, the U. S. vice consul,
and made a call. He has a very
pretty place about a mile and a half
from town, up towards the noun
tains, and about his house were
growing pine apples, oranges, cocoa
nuts, bananas, pawpaws, bread
fruit and other fruits and a fine
variety of vegetables. On one side
of the premises were large wire
screen yards where fine duck and
fancy hens enjoyed themselves, and
off in front over the feathery tops of
the palms on the lower ground, was
a fine view of the ocean. He has a
Samoan wife and three pretty chill
dren, the oldest, Eva, was celebra-
ting her fifth birthday when 1 was
there. The table was spread on the
veranda with tea, fancy cakes, and a
fine variety of fruits from his own
garden The children speak Samoan
and very little English, which is
great mistake on the part of Mr..
Blackjack. They can never be good
for anything any where else-in fact
l do not see how any man, American,
can afford to tie his children down
to these Islands for life
Tuesday l took a horseback ride
with Mr.. Sewall through another
large plantation, Vaitele, six miles to
the westward, a younger one than
the one l wrote about before. We
rode through a magnificent rich
green roadway between mango
trees. and called at the managers
house, and drank the inimitable
German beer. Cotton pickingis now
going on upon the farms and will be
until about November. About $50
black boys are then employed all the
time and many Samoan children
work during cotton picking time
We passed one of the most immense
trees that l ever saw. 1t had sup
ports or buttresses, six of them,
growing out from the tree some six
feet from the base and extending OBJ
liquely downward to the ground.
These butresses are very heavy,
solid wood, but they look like great
rocks or lodges out of which the trees
are growing.
July 9Th. 1t is Sunday, 10 a. m
here, but at home it is 5 p. m. on the
4th. To find the time and day here
at any moment compared with the
time at home, you must remember
that one day, lacking seven hours,
is jumped, so that you want to add
II hours to your time and you have
mine. In going round the world to
the west, you lose one whole day,
and the jump of one day is made at
the $50 meridian, and as we are very
near that meridian, and as the early
European settlers here were mission
aries who came from Australia, New
Zealand etc, the Australian reck on
ing of days was brought here and
has ever since prevailed. Really the
difference of time between this place
and St. Johnsbury is about seven
hours or a little more, so that when
the sun is just rising here at 6 a. M.
it is little after 1 p. m. at home.
do not attend church Sunday morn
ings, but usually attend the English
church in the evening. In fact, there
is no evening service here until even
ing, as the middle of the day is to
hot for profound religious Devotion
THE CELEBRATION.
The celebration of the 4th was
quite a success. The horse and foot
racing was at low tide along a