davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DIsPATcB. !

-CORRES ESPONDESCE OF THE DISPATCH
OFF ANAHo, MARQUEsAs ISLANDS,
Aug. 2S, 1S9O.-For nearly ten years nv
health has been declining; and for some
while before l set forth upon my voyage 1
believed l was come to the afUerpiece OF life,
aud had oulv the nurse and undertaken to
expect. 1t was suggested that l should try
he South Seas, and L was not unwilling to
visit ike ghost, and be carried like babe,
among scenes that had attracted me in youth
and health.
[ chartered accordingly DR.. Merits
schooner Yacht, the Casco, "A tons register;
sailed from San Francisco toward the end of
June, 1888, visited the Eastern Islands and
was lett early the next year at Honolulu.
Hence, lacking courage to return to my old
lie OF the house and sick room, set forth
70 leeward in a trading schooner, the Equa-
Tor. of a little over 20 tons, spent 1our
months among the atoils OF the Gilbert
-roup. and reached Samoa toward the close
OF lSS9 By that time gratitude and habit
were beginning TO attach me to the islands;
1 had gained 4 competency of strength; l
had made friends; l had learned new inter
ests; the time OF my voyage had passed like
iays In fairylanG. and / decided to remain.
L more days are granted me, they shall
he passed where l have found life most
pleasant and man most interesting. The
axes of nv black bows are already clearing
the foundations Cf my future house, and l
must learn to address readers from the utter
most parts of the sea.
That l should have thus reversed the YER
diet of Lord Tennyson's hero is less eccen-
tric than appears. Few men who come to
the islands leave them; they grow gray
where they alighted; the palm shades and
the trade vino fans them till they die, per-
haps cherishing TO the last the fancy of a
visit home, which is rarely made, more
rarely enjoyed, and yet more rarely repeated
No part OF the world exerts the same attract
i've power upon the visitor, and the task be-
fore me is to communicate 10 fireside travel
e-s some sense of its seduction, and describe
the life, at sea and ashore. of many hundred
thousand persons, some of our own blood and
language, all our contemporaries, and vet as
remote in thought and habit as Rob Roy or
Barbsrossa, the a postles or the Caesars.
The first experience can never be repeated.
The first love, the first sunrise, the first
South Sea island are memories apart and
touched aYirginlty of sense. On the 2Sth
Of July. 1888, the moon was an hour down
by in the morning. In the east radiat-
ing center Of brightness told of the day; and
beneath, on the SKY line, the morning bank
was already building, black as ink. We
have all read of the swiftness of the DAYS
coming and departure in low latitudes; it is
q point on which the scientific aud the SEN
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01

Shelter and hearth are needs so pressing
that man looks not beyond; he is out all
day after bare bellyiul. and at night when
he sayeth. "Aha, it is warmi" he has not
appetite for more. Or if for something else,
then something higher; fine school of
poetry and song arose in these rough shell
ters, and an air like "Lachaber no more" is
an evidence of refinement more convincing,
as well as more imperishable, than palace.
To one such dwelling platform consid-
cradle troop of relatives and dependents re-
sort. In the hour of the dusk. when the fire
blazes and the scent of the cooked bread
fruit fills the air, and perhaps the lamp
glints already between the pillars of the
house, you shall behold them silently as
semble' to this meal, men, women and chill
dren; and the dogs and pigs frisk together
up the terrace stairway, switching rival
tails. The strangers from the ship were
soon equally welcome; welcome to dip their
fingers in the wooden dish, to drink cocoa
nuts, to share the circulating pipe, and to
hear and had high debate about the msdeeds
of;the French, the Panama Cana, or the geo.
graphical position of San Francisco and
New Yo'ko (New York;. In a highland
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01

when paid the return visit as little boy,
I was highly diverted with the backward
ness of Italy; so insecure, SO much a matter
of the day and hour is the pre-emlnence oi
race.
It was so that hit upon means of COM
municatiop which recommend to travellers.
When desired any detail of savage Gus
tom. or of superstitious belief, l cast back
in the story OF my fathers, and fished for
what wanted with some trait of equal bar
barlsm; Michael Scott. Lord Derwentwater's
head, the second sight, the Water KelPie,
each of these I have found to be killing
bait; the black BULLS head of Stirling pro-
cured me the legend of Rahero; and what L
knew of the Cluny Macphersons, or the
Appin Stewards, enabled me to learn, and
helped me to understand, about the TeVas
of Tahiti. The native was no longer
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01

Biscuit, jam, and syrup was the entertain
ment, and, as in European parlors, the pho
tograph album went the rounds. This sober
gallery. their everyday costumes and physi-
ognomies, had become transformed, in three
weeks sailing, into things wonderful and
rich and foreign; alien faces, barbaric
dresses, they were now beheld and fingered,
in the swerving cabin, with Innocent excite
ment and surprise. Her Majesty was often
recognized, and have seen French subjects
kiss her photograph; Captain Speedy-in an
Abyssinian war dress, supposed to be the
uniform of the British army-met with much
acceptance, and the efigies of Mr.. Andrew
Lang were admired in the Marouesas.
There is the place for him to go when he
shall be weary of Middlesex and Homer.
These points of similarity between South
Sea people and some of my own folk at
home ran much in my head in the islands;
and not only inclined me to view my fresh
acquaintances with favor, but continually
modified my judgment. A polite English
man comes to-day to the Marquesans and is
amazed to find the men tattooed; polite
Italians came not long ago to England and
found our fathers stained with woad; and
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01

nor any diver fish it up; and I and some
part of nv ships company were from that
nour the bondslayes of the isles of Vivien.
Before yet the anchor plunged a canoe
was already padding from the hamlet. 1t
contained two men-one white, one brown
and tattooed across the face with bands of
blue, both in immaculate white European
clothes-tne resident trader, Mr.. Regler, and
the native chief, Taipi-Kikino.
Captain, is it permitted to come on
board?" were the first words we heard
among the islands. Canoe followed canoe
till the ship swarmed with stalwart, 6-foot
men in every stage of undress; some in
shirt, some in loln cloth, one in a hand
kerchief, imperfectly adjusted; some, and
these the more considerable, tattooed from
head to loot In awful patterns; some barbar-
sous aud knlved; one, who sticks in nv
memory as something bestial, sqatting on
his hams in canoe, sucking an orange and
splitting II out again to alternate sides, with
an apeIike yivacity-all talking, and we
could not understand one word; all trying
to trade with US, who had no thought OF
trading, or offering us island curios at prices
palpably absurd.
There was no word of welcome; no show
OF civlllty; no hand extended save that of
the chief and Mr.. Regler. AS we still con-
tinued to refuse the proffered articles, COM
plant ran high and rude; and one, the Jester
of the party, rallied upon our meanness, amid
Jeering laughter. Among other angry
pleasantries-"Here is a mighty fine shin"
said he, ito have no money on boardr'
own 1 was inspired with sensible repug-
nance, even with alarm. The ship was
manltestly in their power; we had women
on board; knew nothing of my guests be-
yond the fact that they were cannibaIs; the
Directory (my only guide) was full of timid
cautions; and as for the trader. whose pres
ence might else have reassured me, were not
whites in the Pacific the usual instigators
and accomplices of native outrage? When
he reads this confession our kind friend. Mr..
Regler, can afford to smile
Later in the day, as sat writing up nv
journal, the cabin was filled from end 10 end
with Marquesans - three brown-skinned
generations, squatted cross-legged upon the
floor, and regarding me in silence with en-
barrassing eyes. The eyes of all Polynes-
lans are large, luminous, and melting; they
are like the eyes of animals and some Ital-
ians. The Romans knew that look, ard had
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01

pete. The 'Flying City of Laputa,"
moored for fortnight in St. James Park,
affords but a pale figure of the Casco
anchored before Anaho; for the Londoner
has still his change of pleasures, but the
Marquesan passes to his grave through an
unbroken uniformity of days.
On the afternoon before it was intended
we should sail vaiedictory party came on
board, nine of our particular friends,
equipped with gifts and dressed as for fes-
tival. Hoka, the chief dancer and singer,
the greatest dandy of Anaho and one of the
handsomest young fellows in the world
sulien, snowy, dramatic, light as feather
and strong Us an ox-it would have been
nard on that occasion TO recognize, as he sat
there stopped and silent, his face heavy and
gray. 1t was strange to see the lad so much
affected; stranger still to recognize In his
last gift one OF the curios we had refused on
the first day. and to know our friend, so
gayly dressed, SO plainly moved at our de-
Darture, for one OF the half-naked crew that
had beseged and insulted us on our arrival;
strangest OF all, perhaps, to find in that
carved handle of Il fan, the last of those
curiosities of the first day which had now all
been given TO us by their possessors-their
chief merchandise, for which they had
sought to ransom US as long as we were
strangers, which they pressed on US for
nothing as soon as we were friends. The
last visit was not long protracted. One after
another they shook hands and got down into
their canoe. when Hoka turned his back i'm
mediately upon the ship. SO that we saw his
face no more. Tapi, on the other hand, re-
mained standing and facing us with gracious
vaedictory gestures; and when Captain Otis
dipped the ensign the whole party saluted
with their hats. This was the farewell; the
episode OF our visit to Anaho was held con-
cluded; and though the Casco remained
nearly 40 hours at her moorings, not one re-
turned on board, and am inclined to think
they avoided appearing ON the beach. This
reserve and dignity is the finest trait of the
Marquesan.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01

ashamed, his sense of kinship grew warmer,
and his lips were opened. 1t is this sense
of kinshlp that the traveller must rouse and
share, or he had better content himself with
travels from the blue bed to the brown.
And the presence of one cockney titterer
will cause whole party to walk in clouds
of darkness
The hamlet of Ahaho stands on a margin
Of fiat land between the west of the beach
and the spring of the impending mountains.
A grove of palms, perpetually rufilng its
green fans, carpets 1t Gas for triumph)
with fallen branches, and shades it like an
arbor. A road runs from enc to end of the
covert among beds of flowers the milliner's
shop of the community; and here and there,
in the grateful twilight, in an air filled with
a-diversity of scents, and still within hear
ing of the surf upon the reef, the native
houses stand in scattered neighborhood. The
same word, as we have seen, represents in
many tongues of Polynesia, with scarce a
share of difference, the abode of man. But,
although the word be the same, the structure
itself continually varies; and the Mar
quesan, among the most backward and
barbarous of islanders, was yet the most
commodiouslv lodged. The grass huts OF
Hawaii, the bird cage houses of Tahiti, or
the open shed, with the crazy Venetian
blinds, of the polite Samoan-none of these
can be compared with the Marquesan
paepae-hae, or dwelling plat orm.
NThe pae-pae is an oblong terrace. built
without cement, of black volcanic stone
from 20 to so feet in length raised from four
to eight feet from the earth, and accessible
by a broad stair. Along the back of this,
and coming to about half its width, runs the
open front of the house, like a covered gal
lery; the interior, sometimes neat and al
most elegant in its baroness. the sleeping
space divided off by an end-long coaming,
some bright raiment perhaps hanging from
a nail, and lamp and one OF Whites sewing
machines the only marks of civilization. On
the outside, at one end of the terrace, burns
the cooking fire under shed; at the other
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01

but these panels were in reality movabl
trays, as it were, forming shallow boxes
fitted with closely woven wicker covers, and
filed with charcoal and other porous sub
stances intended to absorb the impurities of
the air, and thus easily changed and renewed
from time to time. Immediately beneath the
ceiling were placed delicate glass globes of
various soft colors, with s1lken shades, NOV
able from below by means of brass rods and
handles. In the ceiling itself there were
very large ventilators, easily regulated as
might be required; and there was a curious
arrangement of rails and wheels from which
depended sort of swing. apparently adapted
for moving person or a weight to different
parts of the room without touching the floor.
In one OF the lounges, not far from the win-
dow, lay a colossal old man, wrapped in
loose robe of warm white stuff, and fast
asleep.
He was very old man, so old indeed, as
to make it hard to guess his age from his
face and his hands, the only parts visible as
he lay at rest, the vast body and limbs lying
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01

like the pinnacles of some ornate and mon
strous church they stood there in the spark
ling brightness of the morning, the fit sign
board OF a world of wonders.
Not one soul aboard the Casco had set foot
upon the ISLANDS, or knew, except by acci-
dent, one word of any of the island tongues:
and it was with something, perhaps. of the
same anxious pleasure as thrilled the bosom
OF discoverers that we drew near these prob
lematic shores.
Winged by her own impetus and the
dying breeze, the Casco skinned under
cliffs, opened out a cove, showed us a beach
and some green trees, and fitted by again,
bowling to the swell. The trees. from our
distance, might have been hazel: the beach
might have been in Europe; the mountain
forms behind modelled in little from the
Alps, and the forest which clustered on
their rampsrts growth no more considera-
ble~than our Scottish heath. Again the
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01

all. And in the first stage of my relations
with natives 1 was helped by two things.
To begin with, l was the Snowman of the
Casco. She, her fine lines, tall spars, and
snowy decks, the crimson fittings OF the
saloon, and the white, the gilt, and the re-
peating mirrors of the tiny cabin. brought
US a hundred visitors. The men fathomed
out ifer dimensions with their arms, as their
fathers fathomed out the ships of Cook; the
women declared the cabins more lovely than
a church; and bouncing Junos were never
weary of sitting in the chairs and con-
templating in the glass their own bland i'm
ages.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01

cliff yawned, but now with deeper entry;
and the Casco, hauling her wind, began to
slide into the bay of Anaho The cocoa
palm, that giraffe of vegetables, SO graceful,
so ungainly, to the European eye so foreign,
was to be seen crowding on the beach,
and climbing and fringing the steep sides of
mountains; and presently house or two
appeared, standing high on the ankles of
the hills, and one of these surrounded with
What seemed garden. These conspicuous
habitations, that patch of culture, had we
but known 1t, were mark of the passage of
whites; and we nigh: have approached a
hundred islands and not found their parallel.
1t was longer ere we spied the native viii
lage, standing Tin the universal fashion,
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01
Didn't Use One There.

Boston Herald ]
Tramp-Don't call me lazy, madam. L
assure you 1 take great pleasure in using
the pick.
Lady-Well, there's one in the barn you
can use to clear the ice from that path.
Tramp-It isn't the right kind, lady.
Lady-Why, what kind of pick do you
mean?
Tramp-A tooth-pick
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01

close upon a curve of beach, close under a
grove of palms, the sea in front growing
and whitening on a concave arc of reef. For
the cocoa tree and the island man are both
lovers and neighbors of the surf.
tine coral wakes, the palm grows, but
one man departs" SAYS the sad Tahitian
proverb; but they are all three, so long as
they endure, co-haunters of the beach. The
mark of anchorage was blow-hole in the
rocks, near the southeasterly corner of the
bar. Punctually to our use, the blow-hoIe
spouted; the schooner turned upon her heel;
the anchor plunged. 1t was a small sound,
a great event; my soul went down with these
moorings, whence no windlass may extract
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01

there is perhaps pen for pigs; the remainder
Is the evening lounge and alfresco banquet
hall of the Inhabitants. To some houses
water is brought down the mountain in
bamboo pipes perforated for the sake of
sweetness.
With the Highland comparison in my
mind, l was struck to remember the
sluttish mounds of turf and stone in which
have sat and been entertained in the Heb
rides and North Islands. Two things,II
suppose, explain the contrast. In Scotland
wood is rare, and with materials so rude as
turf and stone, the very hope of neatness is
excluded. And in Scotland it is cold.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01

traders. and broken white folk living on the
bounty of the natives, are to be found in al
most every isle and hamlet; and even where
these are unserviceable, the natives them
selves have often scraped up little English,
and in the French zone (though far less COM
monly) little French-English, or an eff
cient pidgin, what is called to the westward
"Beach-la-Mar," comes easy to the Polyne-
sian; it is now taught, besides, in the schools
of Hawaii; and from the multiplicity of
British ships, and the nearness of the States
on one hand, and the colonies on the other,
it may be called, and will almost certainly
become, the tongue of the Pacific.
1 will instance few examples. 1 met in
Majuro Marshall Island boy who spoke
excellent English; this he had learned in
the German firm in Jaluit, yet did not speak
one word of German. l heard from a gend-
arme who had taught school in Rapa-iti
that while the children had the utmost diff
Guilty or reluctance to learn French, they
picked up English on the wayside and as if
byaccident On one of the most out-of-the-way
atolls in the Carolines. my friend, Mr. Benja-
min Herd, was amazed to find the lads play
ing cricket on the beach and talking
English: and it was in English that the
crew of the Janet Nicoll, a set of black
boys from different Melanesian islands, COM
municated with other natives throughout
the cruise, transmitted orders aud sometimes
jested together on the fore hatch.
But what struck me perhaps most of all
was word heard on the verandah of the
Tribunal at Noumea. A case had Just been
heard-a trial for infaticide against an ape
like native woman, and the audience were
smoking cigarettes as they awaited the ver-
dict. An anxious. amiable French lady,
not far from tears, was eagar for acquittal,
and declared she would engage the prisoner
to be her children's nurse. The bystanders
exclaimed at the proposal; the woman was a
savage, said they, aud spoke no language:
"Mais vous savez," objected the fair senti-
mentalist; Ills apprennent 81 vite An
glaisg'
But to be able to speak to people is not
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01

farther end three steps descended to dark
door, through the thickness of massive
wall, showing that at this point Unorna's
house had at some former time been Joined
with another building beyond, with which
it thus formed one habitation. Unorns
paused, holding the key as though hesitat-
ing whether she should put it in the lock.
1t was evident that much depended upon
her decision, for her face expressed the
anxiety she felt Once she turned away, as
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01

now in his 10th year. and yet he lived and
was no weaker. Was there limit or was
there not, since the destruction of the tissues
was arrested beyond doubt, 50 far as the
most minute tests could show? Might there
not be. in the slow oscillations of nature, Q
degree OF decay, on this side of death, from
which a return could be possible, provided
hat the critical moment were passed in .
'tate Of sleep and under perfect bodily con
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01

Number Six, the latest born in the Ger
man Emperor's family, is not rarity, but
his parents are so proud of his being
another boy" they are to give him great
"send-of at his christening. Every
crowned head in Europe, save the Gar. is to
stand sponsor for Number Six, and il he
manages TO survive all these royalties prom
ising every sort OF thing for him. he will be
smarter" than most boys.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01
SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. .

ii
Wande there
lien her
search
o
and lin o
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01
Robert Louis Stevenson Describes His First Day
With the Marquesans.
THEY TOOK HIS SCHOONER YACHT BY STORM.
Delighted With the Pretty Ship but Scarcely Up to the Usages
of Polite Society.

The Balm the Pacific Isles Completely Captured the Popular Author
Will the First Glimpse of
Polynesan With
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01
For Theater Lovers.

Geyer's Stati0ner.
A lovely little blank book called THE
Record of Plays Seen" is pleasure to thea
ter goers. 1t has printed blanks upon which
to record the time. play, theater, cast Of
characters. notes. etc.
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01
CHAPTER V.

n o R N A passed
through a corridor,
which was, indeed.
only u long balcony
covered in with
arches and closed
windows against the
outer air. At the
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01
BY F. MARION CRAWFORD,
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH

Iaac" Czaudiusv Singer" and
Other Stories Taken
Standard LITERATURE
Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01
Emperor Williams Number Six.

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.