New-York tribune., 1901-06-09
L!TIA'S WAR CLAIM.
q LITTLE FRAGMENT OF SAMOAN HIS
TORY.
United States Naval Station.
Tutuila. Samoa. May :.

il the last Samoan The statement Oh
claims has all been made ready for the arpitra-
,or. in Washington. Berlin and London the cases
lavc all been prepared for submissions hiis U.s.
ar If Sweden and Norway. King also Oh 'ie
c,tls and Vandals has accepted the task of
arb. rating The claims put forward bE uiiei-
~, traders on the beach at Apia will be fully
Loo ked after by learned counsel, ana IL is
rot necessary to waste much sympathy on them
after all Much of the responsibility for this
,,l preceding Samoan wars must rest upon their
shoulders They have been potent factors Tor
making mischief and more than one OF theii'
may Justly lie under suspicion OF having sup
oiied the rebellious natives with arms anu am
~nunition to carry out their raids
I'm, there is one American claim. probably not
of any great number of dollars an 'oi"' ""iN'
must excite sympathy because the property ue
.tr,,ad WAS n widows all. I.tia, the Widow
zoe is nothing but barefooted island woman
Iut she has been making an earnest eiiof' l"
lrine her children up white; and that she shouid
lave such an aspiration at all speaks highly in
favor.
n the early days of Samoa there were two
o,, whom everybody knew and whose memory
- Yet green although each went to his last ac-
cunt long ago Theodore Weber land that was
n,anp even before there was a German km-
,ir. had a dream of a German colonial empire
and worked INSCRIPTIONS years To make II d
fact in Samoa Such was Misi Ueba' the eohsui
,f the Free. State Hamburg AT first, then OF the
North German Confederation, then OF the Ter
,,,,,, Eronre But Misi 10. Jonas NJ. coe, the
American Consul for long string ot years
while Just as INSCRIPTIONS. was not such "A man
as Weber. Through all the years of their asso-
cation they stood master and man. lion ana
.. kal and the servant was Coe.
U-i,b a full appreciation of the free ard easy
DE in the islands in the old beachcombns days
., 80. had many families. but he was not OF a mar
,.,,,. t,,r, Of mind Some strange accident has
preserved in the archives of the American Ooh-
o,,te in Aria all the early records of marriages.
.hue many other records have miide"ed so as
- he undecipherab!e or have vanished alto
,ether. But in none is there a scratch oi pen
10 show that Jonas NJ. coe ever took the 'rouoie
10 marry any mariner % his fortunes until tow
"a the close of his life he turned all others
ad-ift and wooed a young Tongan girl who had
the prudence to lead him 10 the consulate FOR "A
lecal marriage which is duly recorded In the
book That is how Iitia has he -oIne the "ld""
coe: for her husband died in time ana WAS
burie 4 under "A frangipanni bush IN ms o""
backward and IA white marble slab was SET over
Inn With a record of his domestic virtues which
he himself would have grinred AZ. FOR with All
his faults Coe had no Illusions ftIt"AS inns
tombstone may figure in war damages. but IL
matters not for it was Of little worth. Under
,he will I.itia was to have life interest in all
HE property and to provide a home for her chii-
dren who should inherit al r her death l-itia
could scarcely speak a word Of English. yet she
had the general equivalent of grammar scho"i
.aucation I'm her native tongue. the Tongan' she
uos versed in Fijian also; she spoke samoan
ela.,y when she was left widow with two
,o,,pe- children a girl and boy, she had no
"a cr,ia.. her. her native friends knew less OF
civilization than she did. ard of her civilized
friends she knew enough to know that they
,,oul5 cheat and trick her if she should consult
with them
But somewhere in her mind she recognized
that il did not comport with the fact that sfr
had a marriage certificate with a cons r @ral
Ia hermit her children to grow up Samoans. as
other half castles did. She determined that they
were To be as good as their father. the goodneSS
Of the father being a fond wifely delusion for
which she might be forgiven. since TonSIn and
Samoan standards are not quite the sarle as
those which obtain in countries of the higher
civilization. Accordingly Ii;a made her chill
dren wear the clothing Of white people. and
that means shoes and stocl lgs as well which
are n hardship to the islander. Litia could
wear them herself but by beginning early the
children might manage il. The little ones
put To school. al first with Mrs. Bell. with whom