Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-03-25
IN
AMO

1t it almost impossible for us 10 regard
seriously the recent row IN samoa: Luxe
everything else~that has occurred IN that
group of islands during the past few
wears. if apeals to us as too ridiculous TO
be real. While it is undoubtedly the
uuintessence of tragedy to the poor brown
skinned people who are living the the
story, to us it appears more ike opera
bouffe or a remarkably unsophlstlca'eu
species of child's play.
1t is a farce in which intrigue, greed
and simplicity play the leading parts, put
running through it is the mighty thread
of the worlds politics, for it IS there
among these naive people, that the inter
ests of three great countries, the United
States. England and Germany. have
claShed.
TO those who were acquainted with the
condition of things in Samoa the recent
unpleasantness was not surprising. 1t
was simply a part of the embrOSllos that
have existed ever since the Samoan ISL
ands were chartered by Bougainville, a
matter of a century or so ago. Nearly
every year for a generation or more
there has been a crisis in Samoa. Either
kings were warning against kings or con-
suls were wrangling with consuls.
When anything particularly serious
has happened big warships have sailed
silently into the harbor and have lain at
anchor as powerful reminders of the TACT
that 6. watchful eye was ever open. And
lillS III fldCl has beSll llc Us vi tiiS
trouble with Samoa. The people have al
ways been under the watchful eye of one
nation or another. They LAY not been
permitted to rule themselves, and they
hav objected to this method of treatment.
When the white man came to the ISL
and he found a happy, careless set of peo-
pie who had no ambition beyond that of
fishing and surf-riding. Since then he
has taught them n~ominally to be Chris
tians. singers of hymns and chureh-soers,
but in spite of this they are the same
children of nature that they were years
ago. A visitor to Apia will still find them
fishing and surf-riding, a careless, happy,
superstitious lot of people who would be
more than apt to return to their fetch
worship and head-hunting if left to their
own devices for any length Of time.
In the process of civilization, however,
the Samoan has imbibed the American
idea of freedom, and he seriously objects
to anything that seems to trespaSs upon
these rights. He demands that he be per-
mitted to exercise the privilege of select
ing his own king and when other nations
recently attempted to declare the cleo
ton of the sovereign, the natives insisted
that they We're being deprived of their
constitutional rights. The treaty they
had made was nothing TO them.
They would have their rights or they
would fight. Of course, it was Oper-bouffe,
but such a pathetic little farce withal,
tina one cannot laugh at it.
In these days when there are monarchS
who, like the Shah, enjoy incomes ap-
preaching $50, 00O. 900 a year, it is almost
ludicrous to think of the efforts of a king
to maintain his royal dignity OF $40 a
week, or less than the shah receives every
ten minutes of his life.
Maletoa Laupepa was such a king,
however. and yet there We're few hap
pier rulers than he. His palace was hum
bile and his life was charming1y simple.
Barefooted and clothed like all Samoans,
in a white shirt and flowing waistband,
he received rich and poor alike, ushering
them INTO the audience chamber with. all
the dignity than he had learned from the
Europeans.
But this SO a week monarch insisted
upon being treated with all the Difference
due his rank. When a cruiser entered the
harbOr the Samoan flag that foated above
his cottage was saluted by twenty-five
guns, his barefooted majesty gravely re-
turning the salute. In spite of all this,
however, this king was satisfied with this
humble life, with his queen, a fat and ILL
favored Raratonga woman, who followed
the profession of laundress before the