The Republican journal., 1904-12-01
R { 0
A NAPOLEON OF SAMOAN FINANCE.

a face like skate, barring his eyes,
which were long, narrow Sits, appar-
emily expressing nothing but indiffer-
ence to the world in general. But they
would light up sometimes with merry
twinkle, when the old rogue would mar
rate some of his past villainies.
He came to Samoa in the old days,
long before treaties aid imperial COM
missioners and other gilded vanities
were dreamt of by us poor, hard work
ing traders. He seemed to have dropped
from the sky, when one afternoon, as
Tom Denison and some of his friends
sat on Charley the Russians veranda
drinking lager, he marched up to them,
sat down on the steps and said Good
evening"
Hello" said sehluter, the skipper Of
the Anna Goddetfroy. who are you?
Where do you come FROM
He waved short, stumpy and black
clay pipe to and fro, and replied vague
ly, "Oh, from somewhere"
Some one laughed, surmising, correct
ly enough, that he had run away from a
ship. Then they remembered that no
vessel bad even touched at Apia for a
month. Later on he told DeniSOn that
he had jumped overheard from Bak-
er's Island guanoman as she was run
ming down the coast, and swan ashore,
landing at 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 hungry.
What do you want, anyway asked
Sehluter.
.'Son'e tobacco, please. And dollar
or two l can pay you back
'When?" said Hamilton, the pilot,
incredulouSly.
The pipe described a semicircle. "On,
tomorrow 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 combined store and grog
shanty over the way.
He's gone to buy bottle of square
face" said Hamilton.
He deserves it" said Denison,
gloomily "a man of his age who
could jump overheard and swim ashore
to this rotten country should be pre-
scented with case of gin-and knife
TO cut his throat with after he has
finished it,
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 veranda, and then, squat
ting down on the Sward near by, began
10 uncoil the lines and bend on the
hooks. Denison was interested, went
over to him, and watched the swift,
skillful manner in which the thin
brown fingers worked.
'Where are you going to fish?" he in
CURED.
The broad, fiat face lit up. Outside
in the dam deep water-sixty, eighty
fa'am."
Denison left him and went aboard
the ancient cockroach-infested craft Of
which he was the heartbroken super
cargo. Half an hour later REQ padded
past the schooner in a Wretched old
canoe, whose outrlgger was SO insecure
~ fastened that it threatened to come
adrift every instant. The old man
grinned as he recognized DenisOn; then
pipe IN mouth he went boldly out
through the passage between the lines
of roaring surf into the tnmbllng blue
beyond.
At ten O'Clock, just as the supercargo
and the skipper were taking their last
nip before turning in, the ancient
slipped quietly alongside in his canoe
and clambered on deck. In his right
hand he carried big salmon-like fish,
weighing about twenty pounds. Lay
ing it down on the deck he pointed to
it.
Plenty more in canoe like that. You
want some more?"
Denison went to the side and looked
over The canoe was loaded down to
the gunWale with the weight of fish
fish that the lazy, loating Apian natives
caught but rarely. The old man passed
up two or three more, took a glass of
grog and padded ashore.
Next morning he repaid the borrowed
money and showed Denison $15-the
result of his first nights work i'll Samoa.
The saloon keepers and other white
people said he was a treasure. Fish in
Apia were dear and hard to get.
On the following Sunday marriage
procession entered the Rarotongan
Chapel in Matafele, and Tarreo (other-
wise REQ was united to one of the
prettiest and least disreputable native
girls in the town, whose parents recOg-
niZed that REQ was likely to prove an
emlnently lucrative aud squeezable SON.
in-law. Denison was the best man,
and gave the bride a fve-dollar gold
piece having previously made a private
arrangement with the bridegroom that
he was to receive value for it in fish,.
'Reos wife'S relatives built the newly
married couple a house Oh Matautu
Point and REQ spent much in giving
the brides local connections a 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 hos
pitality He did his best, but, in a day
or so, remarked sadly that he could not
catch fish enough in poor canoe. If
he had d boat he could make $50 week,
he said; and with $50 week he could
entertain his wife's honored friends
continuously and in BETTING manner.
The relatives consulted, and thinking
they had good thing, subscribed, and
bought boat ION credit from the Ger
man firm, giving mortgage on piece
Of land as security. Then they present
ed REQ with the boat, with compliment
tary speeches, and sat down to chuckle
at the way they would make the old
fool work." and the ''old fool' went
straightway to the American consul and
declared himself to be a citizen of the
United States, and demanded his coun-
try's protection, as he feared his wife's
relatives wanted to jew him out of the
hOat thew had piyan him