The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-03-31
At the Court of PeIesu.
(story of the Malay Peninsula, In te

! tered fellow-countrymen in far-off Eng
| land, are to be found scattered broadcast
over the East at the courts of such in
| dependent native rulers as our hungry
! European acquisitiveness has so far suf-
| fered to escape protection" which is one
of the official euphonisms for "annexa-
ton These men form the first line of
| skirmishers in the mighty army Of Eng
lands empire. They are cast as bread up
on the waters; and if any lily-white duck
in the shape of some native potentate
who has yet much to learn Of England's
methods-cones and gobbles them W,
! Great Britain annexes or protects" the
land in which they died and moves one
| step forward over their mutilated re-
mains.
| In modern India the political agent is
more or less "a curled and oiled Assyr-
ian BULL but in Farther India, and in
| frontier states throughout the East. there
| are few harder or more thankless billets
than that of an agent ar native court.
These posts are poorly paid because pay
| in the East is largely a matter of age
and of seniority in the service, and the
! elder men, who have made their mark,
are older birds who are far too full of wis
/ dom to be caught with the chaff OF an
! agents billet. On the other hand, those
| seniors who have never scored their notch
! are usually amiable imbeciles who can
not be trusted TO do the work Accord
| ingly the agencies go to the younger gen.
Grafton; and as there is an element of
danger in most Of these posts, they are
eagerly scrambled for by the boys with
pluck and brains.
1t is a curious trait in the character of
most Englishmen that a prospect of dam
ger always casts a certain glamour over
things which, for that very reason, and
for many others, are eminently unpleas-
ant to the eye of common sense. This
glamour, it is only fair to add, often dies
away entirely on the nearer approach of
the danger from which it is derived, and
the Enghshman will then, not infreQuent-
| ly, turn and run. Such things have been.
Some have been hushed up, and others
which have come TO light, have been elab-
orately explained away, or else we have
all declined to see them, since they tend
! to disprove the theory We universally hold
that all Inhabitants of Great Britain are
brave. Nevertheless, given an English
man with his back to the wall, and who
is thus impeded from making use of his
| back, and it is ordained that he should
fight as no other man can fight. The po-
litical agent, from his position as an iso-
| lated white man in a foreign land, where
| he is usually totally unsupported by any
show of force, has his back to the wall as
a permanent arrangement and he accord
ingly generally shows good sport, and
makes a pretty fight Of it when he finds
himself at last in the inevitable tight
place.
The State of Pelesu had long been an
eyesore to the British government, and
eventually the evil deeds of the king gath
cred sufficient weight to turn the slow
wheels on which runs the ponderous ma
tions of the earth. Treaty negotiations
were started with view to establishing
some sort of control over Pelesu, and its
| irresponsible ruler, but as the State was
somewhat inaccessible, and the king
skilful procrastinator, this was a stage of
the proceedings which occupied many
| months. The government. therefore, look
| ed about for a young officer possessed of
a good knowledge of the natives and of
| the Vernacular, a tough constitution and
a slender stipend, all of which Qualifica-
tons were found united in the person of
| young Jack Norris. Accordingly he was
sent to Pelesu, and when the negotia-
tons were completed and the treaty sign
ed, he continued to perform the duties
of political agent.
He was lodged in a native hut, the
front of which abutted on the main
! SIIaERte0
out over the river on half a hundred
crazy wooden piles. This hut contained
balai, or common-room, a square, inner
apartment with raised platform in its
center, on which Jack squatted to eat his
rice, or to receive his native visitors
Opening out of this on the left hand was
a bedroom, and at the back was a large
square apartment in which his native fol-
lowers lived, and behind that again was
the big kitchen in which food always
seemed TO be in progress of preparation
Norris spent most of his time in the
bedroom, which was obong in shape, and
looked through two narrow windows on
to the river, which flowed by and under
1t. The furniture was not elaborate The
plank flooring was covered with straw
colored mating made from the plated
leaves of the mengkuang palm, and
small mat and pillows spread beneath an
enormous set of chintz decentralization
ed up by day-filled one side of the room.
Near this lay half a hundred books tum-
bled together upon the floor, around
green earthenware jar which was used for
the reception of Jakes cigarette ends and
other similar rubbish. Near the window
stood writing-table. Uttered with pa
perS, and two cane-bOttomed chairs-tha
only signs of European civilization in the
place-were set close 10 ii. In one corner
of the room stood two leather portman-
teaus, with some of Jacks clothes and his
toilet requisites laid out neatly upon them.
The raft moored at the steps, which led
down from the kitchen door. at the back
OF the house, to the river, was the some
what public and primitive bathing-place
OF the queer household of which Jack
Norris was master.
His followers consisted Of about twenty
MaIays-ruffians who had come to PeIes1I
at the heels of Jack Norris. with whom
they had foregathered in other parts of
the Peninsula They were all men who
had known the bad old days before Furo-
pean ideas Of right and wrong unset ma
tive notions Of the fitness Of things: they,
all loved war, or thought that they did
which is often much the same thing: and
they all swore by Jack and believed in
him intensely.
such was the position Of things 81 Pc
iesu when the northeast monsoon begar
to break in November. IS. closing The
ports on the China Sea, and cutting OF all
communication with the outside world
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Facts in Cooking.
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