The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-06-19
AN ELOPEMENT IN SAMOA.
TRUTH ABOUT III MARRIAGE OF A
WANDERING NEW YORKER.

~ WV NNAu
and Of n HALF BPeed-secrocy or an lmpns-
sive EBrlde-The authoritarian on the scenr.
Somehow or other, possibly By reason OF the
notorious historical inaccuracy Of the sperm
whalers OF tho south Sea, the idea has Gained
currency that In the case OF girls OF the Pacific
islands tho marriage tie 10 very much like those
knots which tho Spiritualists find so valuable in
establishing Communication with tho dead. be-
cause they may be shaken loose by a simple
turn OF tho wrist. Like many another mis-
stated phase OF tho island life, this may DO
proved to DO truo and equally proved to he false
just in proportion to tho degree Of knowledge
with which tho investigator pursucs his re-
search. In reality, the Samoans have always
had u most formal and complicated system of
marriages, paralleled by an absolute freedom
In the formation and tho rollnquishment of
purely voluntary and temporary associations.
Samoan marriage. with all its formalily, its
ceremonies, and its expense, concerns itself
only with the tdupou. the village maids. For
them alone exists no freedom of choice; their
future is fixed by the council of the town elders;
they must marry rs they are directed or they
must run away and give up their rank and
glory. Sometimes they arc secretly encouraged
to run away. The family sometimes prefers
the sacrifice Of the glory rather than be at the
expense of tho wedding presents. That expense
Is no light one. 1t is only a year ago that when
a village maid was married near Apia the
presents given by her family to the husbands
family might easily be valued at Sl5,
That consideration had a great deal to do with
the elopement of n recent American settler and
a village maid from one Of the hamlets outly-
ing Apia. He had the satisfaction of feeling
that he had overcome the most mountainlike
obstacles in securing the woman of his choice;
her family had the more lasting satisfaction of
looking aloft at the bales of costly mats still
resting on the ~rafters OF their huts and of recog-
nizing that their girl had been advantageously
married without the expenditure of q single one
Of those treasured possessions.
Cartwright. the man in the case, was o practi.
toner of one of those mechanical arts which
almost become professions. Hailing originally
from New York, he had packed his little kit Of
tools TO remote parts Of the earth. and had piled
his trade successfully enough to keep himself
supplied with that substitute for moss which
abundantly s~atisfes such rolling stones. He
had worked his way through Java and those
seas; he had found his way down to the French
criminal settlement at Noum6a; he had drifted
over to Fill, but when he landed on the beach at
Apia he felt a sudden impulse to settle down.
For one thing, he found himself the only practi-
toner Of his art, and he felt sure that with a
somewhat permanent, even If limited, white
population there was business TO be done. Then
thoro seemed a certain charm to life in a king
dom whore the royal standing army amounts
to three men. but can mobilize only two be-
cause the third uniform has fallen into de-
cay; in q municipality where the majesty
OF the law is set into view by three po-
licemen who go into private life at sun
down. For these or for any one of o dozen
reasons which might most readily come into
mind under the Gathering shade Of tho cocoa
nuts Cartwright became a denizen of Apia. He
rented q cottage on tho beach road, whore his
northern horizon was spanned by the rusting
ribs and plating Of the German cruiser Adler,
cast upon the shore reef In the great gale. A
certain disposition to assist In offsetting the
climatic humidity by the administration of trade
gin established him on good terms with tholead-
ing citizens of Apia, and he soon discovered
that each leading citizen was at daggers drawn
with every other leading citizen, and was pre-
pared to disclose exactly why all the rest were
citizens Of Apia rather than Of the places from
which they last came, a topic that is not always
safe In Alsatia.
Practically. there Ia but one subject on which
these leading citizens of Apia are agreed, and
that Is that in O community where women run
loose it is not good for man to be alone. Like
SO many matchmaking women of a New Eng
land village. they catch the newcomer at the
several public houses and him with
$40 hNS SOiiO jill
tanglement, and seldom rest content until they
have him anchored hard and fast in tho haven
of lawful wedlock with some native girl.
Cartwright took one or two trial trips of the
irregular sort just by way of experiment.
Those things are as public as MONDAY on tho
beach, and everybody knows Just on whose &C.
count this or that brown wench has assumed
the dignity of a gaudy Mother Hubbard, the
recognized mark of association with n white
49, MI.
v~estigAte the possibilities of fortune which
awaited the planter Of cacao; that led to the
study of the manner of acquiring land. and
when a man takes up that study and iS single.
or at least has no wife in Samoa, which Is held
to amount to being single. he 10 on. the high
road to appearing before his Consul along with
a native woman and demanding that they be
pronounced man and wife. The man gets hold
OF native land, the, woman can add shoes and
hat to her Mother Hubbard costume in token OF
the lawful character of the association, and
this is supposed to be the holy estate of wedlock.
proceedings he had to call on his Consul to be
set straight on the citizenship register. which
parts whore the Consul has judicial powers. Like
every other native-born American. he had no
papers such as oLher nations insist their sub
jects shall possess, and 1t was necessary to con-
duct an examination. But when the Consul is
q New Yorker and the applicant for registry
claims to DO from tho same city, 1t becomes az
easy as 1t would be for u Sovereign Grand In
spector-Gensral of, the thirty;third and last de-
SIco " eSLHpilsh tho plolcholOlo VI IL hDlRnL
Kadosh. Incidentally 1t developed that much
wandering had worked changes in the mans
name. knocking Off q syllable here and lacking
on another there, a thing that might happen to
almost anybody, and probably would happen to
anybody II there should happen 10 be q reason
IN the background; The right name went down
was good enough for the beach. where there
were several such.
Shortly afterward Cartwright turned up at
the consulate in the evening In the company OF
a half-caste young man: The latter was inter
eSted in learning II his COMPANION stood in
proper shape on the official registry, and Cart,
wright was perfectly willing that any doubts
which the half caste might have should be fully
resolved by the official. Such IA call could have
but one meaning; the young hall cnste was tax
ing all reasonable precautions before allowing
some member, of his family, to marry the new
one Of the best Of his class. He was not sc
polysyllabio as Charley Taylor, the half
caste poet and general rOmancer. but quite
successful in his effort to found himself on a
Europegn model, in which, he was assisted
widowed, and it was easy to jump at the con
CartMright. FINALLY Nili naked the nnoslinu