The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1910-09-10

Cences 40 dinner, which ON steamer
days boosted frozen oysters, fresh
meat and chocolate caramels. thank.
to the ever thoughtful courtesy of tuen
friends the chief stewards.
But the menu of any meal at Val
lima mattered so little, i'm comparison
to the tales of wide diversity, ANA eif
of humor SO prevalent throughout mi.
notable family that dry toast and
pickles would have created as happy
and lasting a memory of the event u
after years. For platimdes We're
strictly forbidden within the spacious
portals of Vailima. This was an un
written law, consequently the CONVEX
sation over the dinner table. whether
the steamer did or did not favor them
was such a succession of ripping hu.
NOR and lunging, parrying and ne.
treating Of parlance as would have nt.
fully graced as it often had in former
years, many a salon of royalty and
the nobility abroad.
There was a strong reason besides
those Of health and climate which per-
suaded Stevenson to drop anchor in
Apia harbor and make his home in the
hilly wilds, on the mountain slopes Of
Vaia three steep miles up from the
heart Of Apia town.
He wanted rest and peaceful quiet.
and a mild atmosphere, but more than
these he wanted seclusion, total and
absolute from, and exclusion of any Of
the grosser attributes of society, which
otherwise he would have been forced
to endure. Practically, there We're
but two themes in life which appealed
to the great writer; these were litera-
ture and love, which fortunately were
awarded him with such generosity that
no man with similarly gratified ambi-
tons could have been more content to
live. He was loved devoutedly by all
those whose love he valued. The Sa-
means respected, admired and adored
him, as their reliable friend and help
meet, recognizing in the man whose
soul was large, and whose manners
so simple qualities never before en-
countered in the "papalagis' or those
from beyond the horizon who had
been washed ashore" on their island.
His family not only admired and loved
him, but being better able to define
these qualities of mind and soul, held
him sacred above all else in the world.
What wonder, then, that but for his
andless physical suffering he should
have been happy? For, being what he
was, a man with a greater mind than
! any of his time, he needed not the tri-
, vialities which to smaller minds are
so essential. And also, being what he
was, he understood all men, and with
all his propensities for great things he
was as simple in heart as a child.
Vailima, under his kindly care, be-
came playhouse, so far as his family
were concerned, where social nance
vers kept its hosts in rounds of merri-
ment, and at times almost upsetting
the equilibrium of the perfectly re-
gulated household. During the day
the ladies of Vailima were free to in
dulge their fancies, USUALLY in the
nature Of picnic lunches, riding or
driving or reading, as nobody in Apia
ever was rewarded by their presence
at small social functions) while the au-
thor, in his unpretentious little den
created characters which have won
him fame and fortune, and have as
sured for his name one of the greatest
places in the history of English litera-
ture.
There was one unfailing and unques-
tionable rule, however, which, in the
authors household, never varied and
which was never offended, and this to
a degree betrayed the innate craving
for refinement and niceties of the out
er world which characterized Robert
Louis Stevenson.
The rule in question involved dress
ing for dinner, which though simple,
its celebration thus was greatly in con-
trast to the partial nudeness of the Sa-
moa serving men, and the lonely soil
tudes of their mountain home.
Naturally enough there were times
occasionally, when the passing of some
dull period created subconsciously a
spirit of mild discomfort among the
Vailima folk, which was especially pro-
voked by the absence of a steamer and
prospective chocolates and oysters,
and which was dimly perceptible by
gradual slackening of the customary
brisk repartee.
Not to anyone was this condition so
noticeable as to the keen perception of
the author, who by his never failing
wit and imagination, naively managed
10 nil In hid