The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1905-02-17

ESs=H7iYli!s! in the Isle of Tristan
@2=4 da Cunha. For, though
seventy-seven white folk
1nhabit this fly speck of an island in
the South Atlantic. there is no money
in circulation among them, and, sig
niicantly enough, there also is no
wrongdoing of any description.
Wrote a recent visitor to the island:
Money would be useless for there is
nothing to buy" And he continued:
Living in honesty, sobriety and har-
mony, free apparently from all crime
vice, dissension or double dealing, the
inhabitants of Tristan da Cunha seem
unconsciously to have carried out the
purpose entertained by the original
settler of 1911, Jonathan Lambert, by
keeping themselves beyond the reach
of chicanery and ordinary misfortune
"They have no written laws. All be-
ing lawabiding, they need none, each
doing what seemeth right in his own
eyes. They have no jail. Crime
among them being unknown. such an
institution would be a superiority.
They have no form of government and
pay no taxes. They enjoy perfect
independence and freedom which
never degenerates into license. The
community is absolutely moral"
CONTENT WITH THEIR LOT.
The outsider who recently visited
this later-day Arcadia did SO for the
purpose of finding out whether its in
habitants really wanted to leave it.
Tristan da Cunha belongs to England,
and, in January, 1903, a British man
of-war called at the island and after
ward reported that most of the people
We're weary of their life of isolation
and wanted to get away from the
place.
SO the government of Cape Colony
sent representative to offer the ISL
anders free transportation to that
country if they wished it, as well as
The means of making new start in
life. But when the agent explained to
the folk of Tristan da Cunha how diff
ferent the outside world was from
their island home the little community
of seventy decided to let well
enough alone.
And the visiting official thinks they
acted wisely, for he says that "having
lost the instincts Of suspicion and cir
cumspection, they would fare ill If set
adrift in any civilized community
where each man plays lone hand in
~f e. WI
loses so long as he himself wins"
Just as there are no newspapers in
Tristan da Cunha, no postoffice, no
churches and no schools, there also are
40 shops. The only time, in fact when
the inhabitants think of anything like
bargaining is when they trade with
ships passing the island. Even them
however. there is no competition
among them.
All provisions or produce OF any Klnd
supplied to ships are regarded as the
common property of the community
and the proceeds of their sale in CLOTH
ing or stores are distributed equally
among the several households, the
blowing of a horn summoninG repre-
sentative Of each family to the dlVl-
sion To make the system work Out
fairlv each family takes its turn Ill
supplying what ship needs.
tristan da Cunha was discovered IL
15co by the Portuguese navigator
whose name it bears. Great Britain
took nossession of it some 800 years
Joter and while Napoleon was 1mprls
opod IN ST Helena, 1900 miles distant
nlaced a detachment of British soldiers
there as a sort of outpost garrison
IN the death of Napoleon in 1871 th'
soldiers were withdrawn, but certain
Cornoral Glass. with his wife ana lam
;,,, ord q few other men, were allowed
TO remain.
In 1888 the population numbered
forty souls and in 1852 had risen T.
eighty five.
IN the course Of the next two decade
twenty-five left the island for III
Irpited States and forty-five migrated
10 +ha cape. reducing the number o
those remaining on the lsland I
tbirty-six. An enumeration made Il
1000 showed 100 living there, and thes
figures have remained the high-wate
mark of population. There have bee
two violent deaths, but they wer
oosas of suicide, due to mental dc
fangement
MORAL TONE HIGH.
What makes the high moral recor
of +be little community so remarkabl
Is the fact that the original stock wa
Inv no means picked" as is the cas-
WITH many more ambitious attempt
to establish ideal colonies which hay
1,.,ol,v failed. The male prOgenitol