The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1899-02-23
ISLAND OF TAHITI.
place Where Life Approaches
the Ideal.


-onitv of the natives has been disturb
"A only once in many months. That
,ras when they heard of the Spanish
american war-half year after the
Rattle Of Santiago. The white inhab-
,,ants Of the island, mostly Frenchmen,
are exeitable, and for a time, month
ago, there was a great stir, and many
,sttisrE and natives fed to the noun
.,inout island of Maria, 20 miles away.
an account of the boisterous conduct of
american and British sailors in the
harbor.
Life in Tahiti is almost ideal. To
those who have visited this coral-reef-
a spot there fingers forever in the
memory a soft sweet haze of shifting
rqbt and shade-a wilderness of happy
silence and everlasting ease.
Think of a generous reef bound ex-
,anse of clear, transparent water, in
whose limpid depths swim myriads of
4nny dwarfs dazzling the changing
ooIors of the dying dolphin. Below them
Garden of coral-the roses of the sea
-bIossoming in a thousand tints. A
tong low stretch of beach, bordered by
tou cocoanut trees. palms and ever
b1ooming bushes. Long rows of cheer
fuI cottages, almost hidden by the
enreading branches of the bread fruit
trees. Tall mountain peaks, rising I'M
I'll thew are lost in a lacework of
clouds. Brawny men darting here and
there in fruit-laden canoes, and bevies
of dark-eyed girls strolling idly along
the sward That is Tahiti as seen
from the side of the incoming ship
tba most exquisite, fascinating and
gorgeous spot on the face of the earth.
Robert Louis Stevenson visited the
island and he and other writer's have
asserted that nobody ever spent a day
in Tahiti who did not leave it with
regret
Tahiti lies somewhere in that mys-
ferrous part of the South Pacific where
two days are rolled into one in order
TO get Alright the conventional calen-
dar: where tomorrow becomes today
with a subtle charm that is almost
OVerWftlIlluS. 1Ou 90 liGlG Ny q llbNlC
white brig from San Francisco. which
skins over the waters of the west,
taking up the best part of a month
before landing you in this world of
idleness and peace.
Life in Tahiti is the nearest approach
to the ideal in all the. world. Outside
of its principal city, Papeete, which is
the commercial center of all the islands
in the Society group, of which Tahiti
is one. the natives pass their days in
a listless dreaminess, at peace with
themselves and all the world. Fancy
being in land where money is spurn-
ed. 1 once had the audacity to offer
Tahitian a dozen dollars for staying
at his home, eating his food. and talk
ing him nearly to death, revealing to
his untutored mind the wonders of
the United States, and to my, surprise
he threw It to the ground having been
greatly insulted.
Much more than has been written
has been heard about the lovely Ia
hiu girl Tall, languorous, with the
modesty of a Castlian; walking like
queen in her Mother Hubbard gown
and her flower wreathed hat with
these two articles the attire Of the Ia
hiti girl ends, with her long black hair,
gstening with 'cocoanut oil, hanging
to her waist. she is one of the most
attractive of her sex. Her eyes are
black, her countenance is expressive
and though the warm sun has tinged
her cheeks with a hue of brown. her
complexion is as clear as the sky. But
of all, she owns her own little home,
where roses always bloom and the
bread fruit tree and taro plant grow
in profusion. certain acreage of land
surrounding it is hers also, and she
Is absolutely independent and can do
exactly as she likes-and she does
Every night in Papeete scores of the
girls and men come down the byways
leading to the market place, where they
congregate and sell their strings of
flowers and shells. and to join in the
daily festivities. Finished with their
evening meal they come to gossip, to
dance and to make merry Around the
great fountain. throwing its silver bub-
bes to the big red stars, they chant
their soulful music to the wailing
the visiting Europeans. the officers of
the French men-of-war, the array OF
municipal officials and their own Draw
ny lovers.
So the evening passes. in melody and
love. Then the curfew on the little
white Catholic church tells that the
hour of 10 has come, and the great
mass of merry makers suddenly stop
their buzzing pleasures, and silently
file through the long lones along the
beach and through the cocoanut groves
to the rows of matched cottages. Red
and radiant the mellow moon fills the
air with a magic light. The dead silence
filled with the heavy perfume is bro
ken only by the unceasing pounding of
old ocean against the barrier of coral,
sending a hollow, rolling boom over the
palltd sea, One by one the lamps go
out, the mosquito nets are spread
around the bedsides, and Tahiti is
asleep.
In Tahiti the conventionality of in .
PRODUCTION is unknown. In Papeete,
the capital, where the foreign consuls
reside, certain form of society is kept
up, resembling in many ways American
customs. But out in the districts out
IN the deep valleys by the rivers. where
the cocoanuts grow. and the vanilla
ard coffee plantations thrive in the
sun, there is where the visitor banishes