Evening star., 1901-02-09
4 MALAYAN FtNANcIER
CREATED a Sensation IN SAMOAN
FINANCIAL CIRCLES.
Various Operations fa Other vicini-
ties-Novel Method Hnrsaed to OBJ
tain Protection Of the U. s.
Louis Beeke in the Pail NAL. Gazette.

world in general. But they would light I'D
sometimes with merry twinkle, when the
old rogue would narrate some of his past
villainies.
He came to Samoa in the old days, long
before treaties and imperial commissioners
and other gilded vanities were dreamt of by
US poor, hard working traders. He seemed
to have dropped from the sky when one af-
terncon, as Tom Denison and some of his
friends sat on Charley the Russians YER
anda drinking lager, he marched up to
them, sat down on the steps and said Good
evening"
Hello" said Schluter. the skipper of the
Anna Goddeffroy. who are you? Where
do you come FROM?
He waved short, stumpy and black clay
pipe to and fro, and replied vaguely "Oh,
from somewhere
Some one laughed, surmising correctly
enough, that he had run away from a ship.
Then they remembered that no vessel had
even touched at Apia for month Later
on he told Denison that he had jumped
overheard from a Bakers Island guanoman
as she was running down the coast and
swan ashore, landing at a point twenty
miles distant from Apia. The natives in
the various villages had given him food, so
when he reached the town he was not hun
CRY.
What do you want, anyway" asked
Schluter.
''Some tobacco, please. And a dollar or
two. I can pay you back"
''When?" said Hamilton, the pilot incred-
ulously.
The pipe described a semi-circle "Oh. to-
morrow night; before. perhaps"
They gave him some tobacco and matches
and four Bolivian Iron" half dollars. He
got up and went across to VOlkner's COM
bined store and grog shanty over the way.
Hes gone to buy bottle Of square
face said Hamilton.
He deserves it." said Denison, gloomily.
"a man of his age who could jump over
beard and swim ashore to this rotten coun-
try should be presented with case of gin
and knife to cut his throat with after
he has finished it,
As Fisherman.
In about ten minutes the old fellow came
out of Volkner's store, carrying two or
three stout fishing lines, several packets
of hooks and half dozen ship biscuits. He
grinned as he passed the group on the ver-
anda, and then, squatting down on the
sward near by, began to uncoil the lines and
bend on the hooks. Denison was interested,
went over to him, and watched the swift,
skllful manner in which the thin brown
fingers worked.
"Where are you going to fish," he in
qrred.
The broad, fiat face lit up. "Outside in
the dam deep water-skty, eighty ia am"
Denison left him and went aboard the
ancient cockroach-infested craft of which
he was the heartbroken supercargo. Half
an hour later REQ padded past the
schooner in wretched, old canoe, whose
outrigger was so insecureIy- fastened that
1t threatened to come adrift every instant.
The old man grinned las he recognized
Denison; then. pipe in mouth, he went
boldly out through the passage between
the lines of roaring surf into, the tumbling
blue beyond. 30
AT 10 o'clock, just as the supercargo and
the skipper were taking, their last nip be-
fore turning in. the ancient Slipped quietly
alongside in his canoe and, elambered on
deck. In his right hand he carried a big
salmon-like fish, Weighing about twenty
pounds. Laying it down on the deck he
pointed to 1t. f, -
'Plenty more In canoe, like that You
want some more?" - Fl --.+-
Denison went to the side and looked
over. The canoe was loaded down to the
gunwale with the weight of fish-fsh that
the lazy loafing Apian natives caught but
rarely. The old man passed up two or
three more, took a glass of grog and pad
died ashore
Next morning he repaid the borrowed
money and showed Denison $15-the result
of his first nights work in Samoa. The
saloon keepers and other white people said
he was a treasure. Fish In Apia were
dear and hard to get.
A Matrimonial Venture.
On the following Sunday a marriage
procession entered the Rarotongan Chapel
in Matafele. and Tarreo otherwise Reo)
was united to one of the prettiest and least
disreputable native girls in the town,
whose parents recognized that REQ was
likely to prove an eminently lucrative and
squeeZable son-in-law. Denison was best
man and gave the bride S. gold piece
(having previously made private ar
rangement with the bridegroom that he
was to receive value for 1t in f1sh.
'Reo's wife's relatives built the newly
married couple a house on Matautu Point,
and REQ spent $35 in giving the brides To-
cal connections feast Then the news
spread and cousins and second cousins and
various breeds Of aunts and half uncles
Travelled up to Matautu Point to partake Of
his hospitality. He did his best but in a
day so remarked sadly that he could not
catch fish fast enough in poor canoe. If
he had boat he could make $50 a week, he
said: and with $50 week he could enter
tain his wifes honored friends continuously
and In beftting manner The relatives
thing. subscribed. and bought a boat Con
crediD from the German firm, giving.
mortgage on a piece of land as security.
Then they presented REQ with the boat,
sat down to chuckle at the way they would
make the old fool work." and the "old
fooi went straightway to the American
consul and declared himself to be citizen
Of the United States, and demanded his |
protection, as he feared his wifes
relatives wanted to Jew him out Of the boat
they had given him.
The consul wrote out something terrifying
on big sheet Of paper and tackled 1t to the
boat, and warned the surprised relatives
that an American man-of-war would pro-
tect REQ with her guns, and then REQ |
went inside his house and beat his wife with
a canoe paddle, and chased her violently |
out of the place, and threatened her male
relatives with a large knife and fearful Ian |
guage.
Then he took the boat round the other
side Of the island. and sold 1t for 500 to a |
trader, and came back to Apia to Denison,
and asked for a passage to Tutuila and the |
German firm entered into and took posses |
sion Of the mortgaged land, while the in |
furiated natives tore un aud down the |
beach, demanding Tarreds blood in loud |
voice. Tarreo with his 500 in his trousers |
pocket, sat on the scfboher's rail and |
looked at them stolidly and Without ill-feel-
Ing. n 1n
ssnaEx9
9cr5n
A Conscientious Man. |
Denison landed the ancient at Leone bay,
on Tutuila. for he had taken kindly to the |
old scoundrel. who had many virtues and |