The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1910-11-26


waila Nambuka. ''the Child of the SUM-" To the
simple-minded islanders he was always looked
upon as supernatural being His recent death
has plunged his people In gloom. The mourning
robes Of his subjects have been brought out of
the napa huts and worn In the dead kings honor.
His two little SONS. the princelings of ~Naikeva,
will reign in his stead and King waila sleeps at
the crest of gentle slope overlooking coral
reef. where the leaguelong breakers thunder
hour after hour. His bones lie far from those Of
Scotch-Amerfcan forbears, who settled in south
ern Illinois nearly century ago.
disappointment In love started him out upon
the long road of adventure when he was a youth
OF nineteen or twenty years One of these unfor-
tunates' who run to extremes in matters of senti-
ment, he fell in love with one of the pretty vii
lage girls of old Albion. Things move slowly in
this one of the oldest and proudest towns of ILL
nois. In the natural course of events it was to
be expected that the two would marry in the full
ness Of time. There was home to be built and
preparations made for start in life. Something
of the methodical slowness of their English an
cestors chung then, and still cngs. to the every
day life of the citizens of Albion. The town has
changed but little in the years that have flown
since Thompson left under cover of nightfall. The
same houses line the spacious public square The
same homesteads that sheltered the pioneers now
shelter their descendants OF the third and fourth
generations Red brick homes, low-eaved and
the little southern Illinois town.
outwardIy the town has changed but little
and In spirit not at all, since the days when
young Thompson waited for his grlish sweet
heart at the halfighted corner of the court house
square. The Albion of the Flowers. the Thomp
sons the Hulmes. the Birkbecks, Of Park House"
and Marlborough Place" still remains. Had the
white monarch Of the savage isle of Naikeva
:omc back to the place of his birth in the last
year of his life he would have found Little Brit
AIM as the region is known, much as he left It.
1t is the little city of schools and churches.
" quiet homes and quieter streets that 1t was
when he was barefoot lad stealing away to
Ash and loaf along Bonpas creek. The future
ruler Of Naikeva spent many an Idle hour with
hook and line along the shadows of Old Banpas.
II the traditions of the folk of Little Britain
true He was fond of making long trips to the
shores of the Wabash with his chums, but he
seemed to lack the ambition dear to every boyish
heart the hope of getting out and seeing the big,
round world There was nothing to set him
apart from his fellows one who would taste of
strange adventures before his death in the an
-ipodes The prosy, uneventful life of farmer.
storekeeper or at the most humdrum profess
,iopal man In q country town was all TO which
he could look forward
There came an interruption, an awakening to
us loves young dream that drove him out of his
,ome town between shutdown and sunrise one
summers night This spur to his pride. this
wound to his self-love sent him adventurng
,mong the spicy isles of the south seas and made
i'm king in his own right before he was twenty
ive He was of that shy. retiring loyal type OF
he Scotch who love deeply when they love at ALL
lie had become engaged to the village beauty.
rhe day had been set for the ceremony and the
Unmarried youth of the town looked upon him as
ne already lost to the fun and folics Of the
ingle state
About this time new business house was