The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-10-19


 II am afraid I don't understand,' he said, shortly, turning away. "Wa will talk it over later On."
 
 T suppose I've been unforgivahiy foolish" was her greeting when he re- turned several hours later from a rpund of the plantation. ''I've been to the hospital, and the man is getting along all right. 1t Is not a serious hurt"
 Sheldon felt unaccountably pleased and happy at the changed aspect of her mood.
 You see. you don't understand the situation" he began. "ln the first place, the blacks have to be ruled sternIy. Madness is all very well, but you can't rule them by kindness only. accept all that you say about the Hawaiians and Tahitians. You say that they can be handled that way, and l believe you. I have had no expert ence with them. But you have had no experience with the blacks, and ask you to believe me. They are different from your natives. You are used to Polynesians. These boys are Melane- sians. They're blacks. They're piggers look at their kinky hair. And they're a whole lot lower than the African niggers. Really, you know, there is Q vast difference
 They possess no gratitude, no sym- pathy, no kindliness.. If you are kind to them they think you are fool. If you are gentle with them they think you are afeaid And when they think you are afraid, watch out. for they will. get you Just to show you, let me state the one invariable process in a black mans brain when on his native heath he encounters . stranger. His first thought is one of fear. Will the stran- ger kill him? His next thought, seeing that he is not killed is. Can he kill the stranger? There was Packard, colo nial trader, some twelve miles down the coast He boasted that he ruled by kindness and never struck blow. The result was that he did not rule at all. He used to come down in his whale boat to visit Hughie and me. When his boats crew decided to go home he had to cut his visit short to accompany them. remember one Sunday after noon when Packard had accepted our invitation to stop to dinner. The soup was just served when Hughie saw a nigger peering in through the door. He went out to. him, for it was violation of Berande custom. Any uigger has to send in word by the house boys and to keep outside the compound. This man, who was one of Packard's boats crew, was on the veranda. And he knew bet ter, too. What name? said Efughie. You tell m white man close up we fellas boats crew go along. He no come now, we fella boy no wait. We go.'
 And just then Hughie fetched him clout that knocked him clean down the stairs and off the veranda."
 But it was needlessly cruel" Joan objected "You wouldn't treat a white man that way"
 And that's just the point. He wasn't a white man. He was a low black nigger, and he was deliberately insult ing, not alone his own white master, but every white master in the Solo, mons. He insulted me. He insuited Hughie. He insulted Berande."
 "Of course. according to your lights. to your formula of the rule of the strong'-
 1Yss," Sheldon interrupted, but it was accor11ng to the formula of the rule of the weak that Packard ruled. And what was the result7 I am still alive. Packard is dead. He was un- swervfngiy kind and gentle to bis boys, and his boys waited till one day he was down with fever. His head is over on Malaita now. They carried away two whaIeboats as well filled with the loot of the store. Then there was Cap- tain Mackenzie of the ketch Minota. He be%.,'ved in kindness and paradsd around the deck without even a re- volvar on him. He was tomahawked. His head remains in MaIaita. It was suicide. So was Packard's finish sui eide. You must understand one thing. Berande, bar none, is by far the worst plantation in the solomons so far as the labor is concerned. And how It came to be so proves your point. The previous owners of Berande were not discreetiy kind. They were pair of unaduiterated brutes One was a down east Yankee, as believe they are call cd. and the other was a guzzling Ger man.
 They were slave drivers. To begin with, they bought their labor from Johnny Be-blowed, the most notorious recruiter in the solomons. He is work ing out ten years sentence in Fiji TOW, for tho wanton killing of black boy During his last days here he had made himself so obnoxious that the natives on Mnlaifa would have nothing to do with him. The only way he could get recruits was by hurrying to the spot whenever a murder or .1eries of murders occurred. The mur- eerers were usually only too willing to sign on and get away to escape ven geance. Down here they cali such escapes pier head jumps There is suddenly roar from the beach, and 8 nigger runs down to the water pur- sued by clouds of spears and arrows. Of course. Johnny Be-blowed's whale boat is lying ready to pick him up. Jn his last days Johnny got nothing but pier head jumps.
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