Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1922-01-19
LURE IS VARIED
Men Have Odd Motives for Seek.
ing Exile In South Seas
Sometimes II 10 More or Less Humsp.
Gus, Occasionally Deeply Tragic,
but Always Interesting.

have often speculated % the me
tives actuating the men and women
who come to the South seas-most Of
them of class neither adventurou,
nor imaginative. Why have they ieft
home at all, and why have their wan.
derlngs led to 4 place - LaSiEnincant
and remote,
In some cases, Of course. the motives
are not complex. I remember a mid
dle-aged Californian, who did not hest
tate to be frank. We were sitting on
the hotel veranda, wasting an after
noon in Idle talk
why did come to Tahiti r he said.
That's simple-I wanted to live in Z
place where I could have drink with
out breaking the law. I reckon I'm q
good American, but I like to be let
alone. The French are great fellow,
to mind their own business; / found
that out during the war. Yes, 1 was
there-over age, but I got into the
National Guard at the start. When /
got home / took look around and
then made my partner a proposition
to buy me out We had nice little
business; my share of II, turned into
bonds, brings In about three thousand
a year.
when the deal was fixed, got q
map and hunted up the nearest French
colony-I reckoned It would be quieter
there than in France. guess TIL leave
my bones on Tahiti. My house will be
finished in another month; it's close
to the water and big shady veranda
where you can SIT and look out across
the lagoon TO Morea.
II don't want any women, or ser
wants, or newspapers. or plantations,
or business of any kind Just want
TO be let alone; but any man who
doesn't talk politics will be welcome
TO drop in for a drink"
Here was one accounted for. A few
another man told his story in eight
words. pregnant NJ they were brief.
There was an Engl!shman with Us
n traveller. who was stopping over
steamer in the course Of an eastward
tour around the world He had been
lection Of photographs Of that land
While the pictures were passed about,
I noticed an elderly American. Of mo-
rose and corpulent nien. sitting At
some distance from the rest Of the
company and taking no part In the
h. ri
time to time a series OF nasal sounds
vaguely suggestive Of French and cor
rectly interpreted by the native siri
to mean: zone rum punch
In time we came to the inevitable
picture OF the Tai Mahai; and while
we gazed at II. marveling anew, the /
tourist spoke Of the vast expense Of I
raising such monument When be !
had finished. the man who wanted 70 |
be let alone was the first to speak. !
"JuSt think Of that guy he re
marked, spending 10 million dollars
10 bury his Wife,
Musing on the ancient and costly !
nit Of sentiment. we sat for a moment
n siIercc-n silence broken By q
'epulchral voice.
"I'd give more than that to bury
nine!"
II was the orderer Of rum punches
Who spoke, addressing the company |
or the first and last time. He said Il
Without shadow Of humor-so earn
'stly. so convincingly, that several
seconds elapsed before any Of NJ
miled.
He had placed himself. Curiosity re-
-artling him was at an end; II he
hose to spend the rest Of his days IA
he South seas gossip would pass hirs
", to whisper OF others less cornnuni-
ever-present ryrruored
or defaultlny hnancier. For
II we knew. the morose gentleman
night have been quite capable o.
= second Tai Mshal.-Charles
bernard Nordhoff in the Atlantic