The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-06-10
No Labor Strikes, No Financial
Worries on Pitcairn Island

New York Sun. Think of a land
innocent of ice cream sodas, sight
seeing automobiles, vacuum clean
ers. women's clubs, baby weeks and
other modern delights.
Pitcairn Island, situated In the mid
die of the Pacific ocean, Is SO mac
cessible to civilization that the visit
of only one ship a year, an English
government vessel, is assured its
people. Yet Pitcairn mothers may
rest confident that the diet upon
which their children subsist contains
almost every element of dietetic val
ue from a scientific standpoint and
exempts every undesirable element.
For there are no ice cream sodas TO
be had on the island. Lollypop yend-
ers are unknown and the lever OF a
chewing gum slot machine has never
been pulled in that place. Whatever
the people eat must be taken off the
land and out of the waters surround
ing the land This affords menu
prepared by the Lord, instead of ar
ranged by man, yet it includes every
thing that civilization exacts, accord
ing to Miss Emily Mccoy, the well
educated native of Pitcairn Island
who has just been discovered at
Bridgeport, Conn, harboring plans
to return to the home of her birth.
Miss Mccoy was found by the
Evening Sun reporter at the Gradu-
ates club, 246 West street, where she
lives when not doing duty as train
ed nurse Her description of the
quaint little island which was her
home until she was 20. savored more
Of fiction than reality.
1--WE have all the necessary carbo-
hydrates, calories, starches and other
products of dietetic value" she said,
answering the reporters question
as to what these abandoned people on
an island seven miles in circum-
ferance may live upon. "Of course we
can have nothing but natural foods,
none Of the combinations and concoc-
lions that an effete civilization has
learned how to create and to crave.
1.-The foodstuffs consist OF sweet po-
tatoes, white potatoes. tarrow, which
is a tuber product; and vans. For
meat we have the flesh OF goats,
which is excellent, and chicken and
fish We have no horses nor COWS.
But the cocoanut, which is used for
many purposes, furnishes milk to
drink; the fruit is used also for
shortening, for we use it to make
flayoring is achieved by drawing the
water off from the nut and then
chopping the meat into small pieces.
This is moistened with water and put
in a cloth and the cloth twisted. The
milk or fluid is forced through the
mesh Of the fabric and kept for use
as an extract The oil OF the cocoa
nut is used for frying. The green
beans on the island are very valuable.
They grow almost all the year around
and are as tender as French peas.
"One thing in the household line
l hope to take back to the women is
the knowledge OF how to make soap.
Their laundering facilities are very
limited. About all they have to do
with is water. Before my time they
utilized the I've which is indigenous
to the soil. but that was later dis
carded. They have substituted an
other process. whereby they can
create a sort of suds, but this is not
to be compared with real soap.
How many inhabitants are there,
what does the island town look like
and what are the social conditions
under which the people live?"
I'VE have about ITO people there
now. One paper said 190," she inter-
polated with exactness, but the num-
Der is about 10. The houses are all
one storied-I like them that way
don't you?-with matched roofs. It's
very pretty, the little grass topped
habita tions cuddled among the lux
uriant growth of trees. Each famliy
lives by itself When a young man
and girl decide to get married, every
body joins hands and helps build the
house for them.
You know the history OF the Is
land? Briefly, the mutlneering crew
Of an English vessel landed at Tahiti,
took off some of the. women and SET
sail again. When the captain saw,
in the distance, an unpopulated island
on, the chart he turned toward it and
landed there. This group was the
nucleus of the Pitcairn Islanders.
They lived there for twenty-five years
before being discovered. Finally, an
English man-o'war came to port.
John Adams was the accepted leader
of the islanders and when it vas
found that he had done so we'll IN
irving to establish a sense of moral
and social responsibility there the
inhabitants were permitted TO re
main unmolested. During the reign
of Queen Victoria she sent a colony
of the Pitcairn ISLANDERS to Norfolk
island, which is near New Zealand,
for educational purposes. or the
three families that went two repre-
sentatiyes were homesick. and re-
turned One of them was my grand
father, Simon Young, and his daugh-
ter. Rose My aunt has written a
history called The Story OF Pitcairn
Island published by the PACING