The record-union., 1897-10-17
BACHELOR, CHEER UP.
DON'T DESPAIR TILL YOU HAVE
VISITED RAPA-NUI.
Women Not Really Beautiful, bat
They Make Good House
keepers.

of matrimonial bliss against you?
Don't despair. Your case is not hope
less. You may yet quan the cup OF
connubial bliss and know the joys or
uxoriaI felicity The unfulfilled de-
sire of your heart may yet be realized
Courage and a stout heart is all you
need. Away on the heaving bosom OF
the blue South Pacific your mate may
now be waiting you. Her complexion
may not be your ideal Of the brunette,
and the contour and lineaments of her
face may not correspond with your
conventional pulchritude; but after all
beggars must not be choosers, and
beauty is only skin deep, and she may
posses other excellencies quite suffl-
cient to recommend her as a domestic
partner for life.
Where is she to be found, this being
who is to supply your long felt want,
do you ask? Take the map of the
PoIynesian archipelago. Let your eye
run to its eastern extremity, and near
" two thousand miles west Of the Chill
can coast of South America it will light
upon a little speck designated Easter
Island. That is the Paradise where
your Eve awaits you. No flaming
sword guards it's portals. All you have
to do is to charter a vessel-you and
your fellow bachelors who are in hard
luck like yourself; there ought to be
enough of you, indeed, to form syndi-
cate and take entire possession of the
island-and sail there. Once there you
will meet a ready and hospitable well
come. You will find about two hundred
native inhabitants, about eighty per
cent. of whom are women, every maid
and spinster among them only too ca
ger and willing to secure a husband
young, old, long, short, handsome or
ugly, without the slightest considera-
ton of his creed, nationality or pre-
vious condition.
MORE INDUSTRIOUS THAN BEAU
TIFUL.
Their beauty, as has been said, may
not throw you into ecStacies, but it will
no doubt inspire you with enthusiasm
to tell you that the very best authori-
ties agree that their capacity for work
and their idolatry of their hege lords
are characteristics sufficient to COM
pensate for any ordinary defects. The
native men, when they were more rum
erous, made it their business to see that
the women did all the labor necessary
for their maintenance and existence,
and this training has not yet lost its
effect.
The glorious opportunities afforded
the hitherto luclxless bachelor in Easter
Island were recently brought forcibly
to notice by the report of the wreck of
a Seattle schooner which went ashore
there. Fifteen of the crew landed safe
ly. When another vessel came along
and offered to bring them home only
eight would go-the other seven accept
ed offers of marriage from native bellies,
and concluded to remain, sending word
to their friends at the old home that
there are plenty of girls just as good
left; that, in fact, eligible young wom-
en- are quite a drug in the market. The
organization at an early date of the
Easter Island Matrimonial Company,
Limited, is not beyond the bounds of
probability.
OF course if you have any idea OF
going into the scheme, you want to
know something about your prospective
abode.
Easter Island was formerly called
Davis land, after a famous buccaneer,
who discovered it in 1857. The name
which it bears among the natives is
Rapa-nui. It's remote situation caused
it to be little known by the outside
world, until missionaries, after much
difficulty, succeeded in effecting a land
ing about 1867, although Captain
Cook, in his voyages, mentions hav-
ing visited the island in 1772. He re-
manned there a few days to examine the
colossal statues which a Dutch sailor
reported having seen, but which Cook
was the first to examine. The island is
of volcanic origin, with a circumference
of about thirty miles.
THE WONDERFUL STATUES.
1t was the presence of these gigantic
statues, or busts, on the island which
first attracted attention to it, Their
origin is to-day as much a mystery as
ever. They are carved of compact
gray trachyte, and are evidently of
great age, some, however, being in
higher state of preservation than 9TH
ers. No less than 500 of them have
been found varying in size from three
feet to seventy feet, the estimated
weight of the largest being about 240
tons.
The heads and faces of the busts are
well carved, the expression being stern
ly disdainful, and the aspect slightly
upward. Deeply set eyes, close under
massive brows; broad, straight nose,
with expanded nOstrils; rudely cut
ears, with long, pendant lobes, are
other distinguishing features. Great
similarity prevails between the profiles.
Nearly all of the busts are so placed
as to look north. Was this prophetic
of the yeaIning which the islands
lovely daughters would have for the
men who should come from that point
of the compass to choose them for
their brides and found new racer
On the backs of the figures are found
hieroglyphic carvings, to which no key
has been found. It is not improbable
that the method of reading these sym
bols was lost to the natives in 1864,
when q majority of the able-bodied
scarce On the islands: there are no
males, including the chiefs and priests,
were kidnapped by the Peruvians and
carried away to work on the guano
deposits. Two of them survived to re-
turn to the island, into which they
introduced the smallpox, which almost
wiped out the population In 1873 800
men were removed to the Gambler ISL
ands, leaving behind not more than
$50. Since then, however, the popula-
ton has slightly increased, but a row.
ing spirit seized upon the males, and
at every opportunity they would sail
away from their native land, leaving
the women behind them
Easter Island when approached pre-
%c H4r11 hor.