The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-09-27
m THE SOUTH SEAS.
4 Narrative of Life With a
Gilbert Island King.
sy ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
rhe Horrible Liquor Traffic-A Petition
20 the United States Praying
for It's Suppression.

rSpecial Correspondence. 1T rained in
The night, sudden and loud, fin Gilbert ISL
and fashion. Before the day the growing
Of acock aroused me, and I wandered in
the compound and along the street. The
souall was blown by, the moon shone
With Incompatible lustre, the air lay dead
asiu a room, and yet all the isle sounded as
under strong shower, the caves thickiy
psttering, the lofty palms dripping at Ion
rer intervals and with louder note. In
this bold nocturnal light the inte-
nor of the houses lay inscrutable,
one lump of blackness. save where
the moon glinted under the roof
and made belt of silver, and drew the
sIanting shadows of the pillars on the
floor. Nowhere in all the town was any
lamp or ember; not creature stirred. /
thought ! was alone to be awake. But the
police we're faithful TO their duty-secretly
vigilant keeping account of time; and a
little later the Waterman struck slowly
and repeatedly on the cathedral bell 4
o'clock, the warning signal. 1t seemed
strange that in town resigned to
drunkenness and tumult curfew and re-
veilIe should still be sounded and still
obeyed, and to find in what seemed the
dissolution of the body polite the police
observing their routine. But we have lost
the notion of such legal saturnalia; our
institutions press upon us with uninter-
rupted force. That which was wrong on
Tuesday will be still wrong on Wednes-
day, and we conceive with effort a state of
society where any part of the local deca-
logue may be suspended.
The day came and brought little change.
The place still lay silent; the people slept,
the town slept Even the few who were
awake, mostly women and children, held
their peace and kept within under the
strong shadow of the thatch. where you
must stop and peer To see them. Through
the deserted streets and past the sleeping
houses deputation took its way at an
early hour to the palace; the king was
suddenly awakened, and must listen
probably with headache) to unpal-
atable truths. Mrs. Rick, being a
sufficient mistress of that difficult tongue,
vas spokesman. She explained to the
sick monarch that was an intimate per.
sonal friend of Queen Victoria; that i'm
mediately on my return l should make
her report upon Butaritari, and that if
my house should have been again invaded
al
patched to make reprisals. 1t was scarce
the fact rather just and necessary para
Bile of the fact, corrected for latitude; and
1t certainly told upon the king. He was
much affected. He had conceived the
notion, he said, that / was a man of some
Importance but not dreamed it was as bad
as this: and the missionary house was
tapued under q fine of $50.
SO much was announced on the return
OF the deputation; not any more; and /
gathered subsequently that much more
had passed. The protection gained was
welcome. 1t had been the most annoying
and not the least alarming feature of the
day before that our house,wa periodically
filled with tipsy natives, twenty or thirty
AT time. beggiRs~drink, lingering our
goods, hard to be dislodged, awkward to
quarrel with. Queen Eictoria's friend
twho was soon promoted to be her sony
was free from these intrusions. Not only
my house, but my neighborhood as well,
was left in peace; even on our walks
abroad we were guarded and prepared for,
and, like great persons visiting a hospital,
saw only the fair side For the matter of
aweek we were thus suffered TO go out and
In and live in a FOOLS paradise. surprising
the king to have kept his word the tapu to
be revived and the island once more sober.
Tuesday,, July 22.-We dined under q
bare trells erected for the Fourth of July,
and here we used to linger bv lamplight
over coffee and tobacco In that climate
evening approaches without sensible chill :;
the wind dies out before sunset; heaven
CLOVIS awhile and fades, and darkens into
the blueness of the tropical night; swiftly
and insensihle the shadows thicken, the
rars multiply their number: you look
around you and the day is gone. 1t was
then that we would see our Chinaman
Draw near across the compound in lurch-
Ing sphere of light. divided by his shadow.
ana with the coming of the lamp the night
Closed about the table. The faces of
the company, the spars of the trelis,
$1,000 out suddenly bright on a ground
OF blue and silver, family designed
WIN palm tops and the peaked roofs of
houses. Here and there the gloss upon a
ieal or the fracture of stone returned an
Isolated sparkle All else had vanished.
We hung there illuminated like a galaxy
OF stars IN rGcuO; we eat, manifest and
pind. amid the general ambush of the
darkness, and the islanders, passing with
light footballs and low voices in the sand
OF the road, fingered TO observe US unseen.
On Tuesday the dusk had fallen. the
lamp had Just been brought. when n mis-
SHE struck the table with a rafting smack
and rehounded past my ear Three inches
to one side and this page had never been
written, for the thing travelled like a can
non ball. 1t was supposed at the time to
be a nut, though even at the time 1
thought it seemed small one and fell
Strangely.
Wednesday, July 23.-The dusk had fall.
len once more and the lamp had just been
carried out when the same business was
reneatpd And again the missile whistled
past my ear. One nut | had been willing
70 accept. second / rejected utterly.
cocoanut does not come singing along on
a~indless evening, making an angle OF
about fifteen degrees with the horizon
eoooanuts do not fall on successive nights
az the same hour and spot; in both cases,
besides, a specific moment seemed 10 have
ueen chosen, that when the lamp was just
carried out; a specific person threatened,
ana that the head of the family. | may
nave been right or wrong. and local opin-
.ea on the point was much divided. but at
Tue time | believed l was the mark of
some intimidation believed the missile
Sass stone. aimed not to hit, but to
nRhten, not so much an aggression in
HseiI as menace of aggressions in the
future.
No Idea makes man more angry ran
INTO the road, where the natives were. as
usual, promenadlng in the dark Maka
joined me with a lantern, and ran from
one to another. glsred in quite innocent
isces, put useless questions. and proffered
Idle threats. Thence l carried my wrath
(Which was worthy the son of any queen
in history TO the Kicks. They heard me
with depression, assured me this trick of
Throwing stone into family dinner was
not new; that ii meant mischief, and was
OF piece with the alarming disposition of
nat, - Il.