The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-07-14

Lashlon OF half a world away with I'M
mutable posture and eternal smile.
Kind Jedediah pushed the bottle to-
wards me and withdrew his thought
full glance from the painted divinity.
When 1 had helped myself he poured
him out a glass and drank it slowly.
How does it seem TO get back?"
inquired with banal civility.
It's the very DEVIL he added sober
~. The very devil. I'm not back
yet"
How do you mean?" demanded.
Its the darned Germans he ex-
ploded.
Seized your island?" I suggested,
thinking of Samoa and Pago-Pago.
THE Germans and ambition" an
swered the king. 81 was after too much
and 1 got it."
Il don't understand" I said. Have
they taken Enid?"
Not by darn sight!'' he exclaimed.
But they're welcome 10 it, now. I
don't know what to do
To advise kings is a hardy matter.
4 chose silence.
You see,'' the king went on present
ly, cit was all because of little Ger
man band"
This was his proem. His tale, the
tale of the Waterloo of King Jedediah,
related by himself, was as follows:
1 took up Enid about fifteen years
ago. I was mate of the old bark Hes
per in those days and she had a hard
name. So did I. The crew was as
tough a set of Auckland galley-boys as
ever [ drove. Thurfore, / was set
ashore on Enid one fine night and the
Hesper went on up to the States with
the crew running the ship.
I didn't like being marooned that way,
at first. But Enid was a nice little
island Plenty of cOcoanut and man.
goes and sOursops and pears and kaio
and as decent lot of natives as L
ever did see. Out of the way, that
was the only matter with the place.
But / fixed that all right. l bought the
BesS of Bath three years later off
trader and that way l got a trip to the
Colonies once in a while and a way of
getting my copra and shell to market
Any of the boys will tell you 1 did
pretty well by Enid. 1 married the
chiefs daughter and taught 'em lot
of things about trading. I put Enid on
the map. 1 tell you right now l turn
ed over a lot of money and put it
right back into the island. Why, five
years ago I had a bandstand put up,
besides a big treasury building, and
passed "a law that every man should
drill once a week in my army. You
could have come to Enid and found the
most up-to-date kingdom in the South
Seas. had lot of improvements and
this year ] was going to go to San
Francisco and get a full outfit of these
electric fixings. l was going to have a
waterworks, a lot of street lights and
a town clock. 1 would have, if had
MT got ambitious and run afoul of lit
tie German band.
You see it was this way. There's
little wind down Enid way and it gets
so darned lonesome and slow that a
man wants something doing. I went
in for more white folks. Gimme
somebody that knows what I say
when 1 swear" is my principles.
What I wanted was Americans. I'm
an American and a good up-to-date
island needs em. They're the people
to make things hum. But I couldn't
get 'eIn. 1 had to take what I could
pick up and I got me Himmelfritz from
Tonga, a German; Lavang, a French
skipper that lost his ship and his
papers at the same time down Tahiti
way: and a big, deVil-may-care remit
tance Britisher from Sydney. I reckon
nobody but Jedediah could have hand
led that crowd. But I handled 'em, all
right. 1 made Himmelfritz treasurer
and Boggs, the Britisher, chief engf-
neer and Lavang, head of the customs.
Darn 'em, they worked, you bet. Let
'em swear all they want, was my prin-
ciples, but make 'em work.
You had ought to have seen the army
I got together. And the way the
natives hustled. 1 tell Syou I was
worth a gooA round hundred thousand
a year ago. Then I got ambitious.
man does, thinking nights when the
stars are particularly bright and the
blossoms are thick in the hills.
''Himme1fritz," says one day,
we've got an army and a treasury
building and a park and bandstand.
What we need is a band"
Music" says HimmelfritZ, paving
his beard. lis fOolishness. It's some
thing I don't want. The natives are
bad enough
The Dutchman was correct. But ]
Continued on Page Eighth