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About The Omaha morning bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 1922-1927 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 1924)
I, THE KING * . Ry WAYLAND WELLS WILLIAMS. (Copyright. 3924.) ^_ _——____ j (Continued from Xcaterday.) It took a good deal of time and pa tience to argue down this sort <>f thing, but he made progress. Kit was weak on experience of sociology and law, but he had the sense to use the Council’s own weapon against them, the power of boredom. Point after point he won from them by the sheer force of reiterated statement. First murder, then rape, destroying trees, arson, fouling fish nets, adul tery—the Code Nuei gradually took shape. Imprisonment was revived, the old German jail renovated and a jailer Installed. People were tried for offenses, acquitted or convicted according to sound principles, impris oned (In a few cases)—actually lan guishing In obedience to justice as he saw it. The neat mind func tioned. II. One thing worried him from the very first, and he knew no rest till he had righted it. There were two springs on the island, both on the thickest part, near the main village; and by their medium skin diseases were kept flourishing. It was Kit’s idea to place strict tabu on all bath 1 ing and washing in them, and sur I round them with a neat coping and pavement of coral blocks. The Coun cil protested; fresh water, though brackish, made much better wash ing than salt, us Nuei would know if he tried. Nuei had tried; he was not placing a tabu on washing in fresh water, merely a tabu on wash ing in the common supply. The Coun cil were impervious to this logic, as they were to the references he made to Naituvi's and the smaller villages' comparative freedom from yaws; all ^ they could see was an infringement of liberty. The King was guilty of playing politics. He had observed that the two Naltuvian chiefs and one Naira van, representatives of springless dis tricts. were inclined to be amused at the thought of the more fortunate ones being partially deprived of their natural blessing. He talked with them privately, got» them talking for him and finally won a majority for the measure. The coping was built, the tabu launched, and within a few weeks yaws actually showed a de crease. • ' We have with us today,' said Kit in grim triumph, "the Surgeon Gen eral Gorgas of the South Seas. ’ III. A man of the lower class died, leaving a widow, one Fe (Blossom), and two young children. Kit found that he was expected to adopt them all. It came in very neatly, as they could live in the stockade and keep house for him, thus relieving Aitaki's wife of the burden. ITe quite unmis takably hinted that she was not un willing to receive her new possessor , „-—--v I New York --Day by Day 4.—-j By O. O. McINTYRE. New York, Nov. 10.—I spent an eve nlng recently In New York with a group of cowboys as the guest of my friend Tex Austin. Here were y real and hardy riders of the purple sage—bronk busters, calf ropers, steer wrestlers and kings of the lariat. More than any men I know the cow-punchers link America of the past with the present. They are as genuine, unspoiled and sturdy as our virgin forests. There Is not an ounce of four flush in the whole outfit. Af ter living in New York many years you appreciate this. Kven their names smack of the pristine purity of the plains—Nowater Slim, California Frank, Scout Maish, Buff Brady, Hank Burnell. Soapy Williams. Red Sublett and Bel Bled soe. After the silk hatting verbiage of the Manhattanese you warm to the cowboy's drawling “Howdy.” He is the rough and ready adven Hirer of the first water. He pays his own expenses and entry fee to e\ery rodeo without receiving a cent of guarantee and relies only on liis own skill to win the prizes. He ex liausts the fury of a bucking horse as nonchalantly as he smokes a cigaret. The cowboy Is smugly indifferent to the wonders of the metropolis. Many of them come here to the Madison Square Garden. They cat at. the chuck-wagon. The world of horses and steers satisfies. After the great arena had been cleared and nil lights save two small Incandescents were extin guished 1 grossed through the build ing with Austin. A shadowy fig ure on horseback was galloping about. it “He's moonlightin' a bronk.” said Austin. At the hour when Broadway was being whipped Into II s aerated pleasure froth there was something tremendously im pressive to me In that lonely cow boy galloping about a deserted, ghostly building in the very heart of America's pleasure ground. The cowboy's lingo Is also Inter esting to the tenderfoot. When he Is thrown from a bronk or wild steer, he calls it "eating gravel." The word "Broncho-’ is from the Mexican word for "mean.” It has been short ened to "bronk” in cowboy parlance. The easterner regards polo as one of his most dangerous sports. It Is polite bean-hag compared to the cow boy's sport of hull-dogging a steer. If there Is anything more daring than the cowboy's leap from a horse go ing lickety split to the horns of a steer, then twisting the animal to the ground with a wrestling hold I have never seen It. My own experiences with horses have been altogether unsatisfactory. When I am on one I am always re minded of the eartoon of the man on a horse who was asked: -“Where are you going?” "How do I know?" he replied. "Ask the horse.” There wots a calico pony I used lo tide In Rlattsburg, Mo., to visit my grandfather on his farm. It was blind In one eye, had the heaves and was otherwise dispirited. It required great effort to get him Into an ordinary Jog. But one day at the sight of a thresh ing machine he decided to spurt. Tie wheeled about suddenly and made for the livery stable. I lost tho stirrups end 1 have a painful memory of going through the main residential street shouting. "Somebody, please stop >hlm!” And to make It worse a young ladv st whom I had been casting sheep'* <f'es was sifting In a ham mock on her front porch. (Cop) right, 1124.1 in another relation, but Kit forbore, without difficulty. She was a some what faded Blossom of thirty-five, an age at which South Sea women do not retain much allure. Kakaiwia laughed heartlessly at the comedy; Kit chided him. Did he not hold the woman and her children in the sacred trust of Lord Chancellor? Aitaki had from the first favored Kit with a multitude of suggestions. He was a foolish, useless, bothering man, without half the initiative or capacity of his son, but Kit could not but listen to some of his pleas, in the old days under German rule, his had been a prominent and power ful position on the island, quite over shadowing that of the king. He had kept church and kept school, and the Resident had seen to It that the peo ple went. That had changed with the Germans' departure; school was completely dead, and the only hint Kit had received of religion was an occasional sound of hymn-singing. Aboriginal superstition had rearisen in their place; there were grave watchings and witch rites and stories of vampire-like apparitions; all most deplorable. He revived both institutions prompt ly. School was rather a gay affair; it took place after breakfast, in the cool of the morning, and was attend ed by any one who cared to go be tween the ages of one and one hun dred. The scholars were separated according to sex and read from small filthy paper-bound Dlbles and read ers in. Gilbertese, chiefly in concert. They had ‘‘number work,’’ incredibly sketchy, on a screeching blackboard. Kit at one session saw Aitaki add seven and eight as fourteen, fifteen and seventeen, and was inclined to sympathize with the pupils’ attitude toward the man's teaching qualifica tions. When htr could give the time he took over the session himself, and then there was more attention and vigor. On Sundays the same crowd gath ered in the same place for divine worship. The islanders decked them selves out in all the finery they had, though it was neither much nor fine. The women wore holokus If they had them, no matter how ragged and filthy, and invariably hats. Aitaki was formal, not to say ritualistic, on that point. After one horrified glance at the first congregation Kit announced that hereafter flower wreaths would lie deemed sufficient covering, and Aitaki subsequently gave him a hot hour of protest. It was ail like this: all form, no matter. The congregation yawned and slept voluptuously; babies screamed: girls tittered; boys rough housed. Kit did his best to infuse a spark of life into the ceremonies; as soon as he got suf- . ficient control of the language he preached sermons. He coached him self diligently In a Gilbertese Bible and worked hard to make valid to his people some few principles of Chris tian ethics, giving theology anil dog ma a wide berth. At first the people. Impressed, attended scrupulously; then ns the novelty wore off they would succumb, and the exercises be came duels between Nuei and Mor pheus. When he saw any one drop off Kit would drop his argument, point and yell; the offender's neighbors, shouting with laughter, would poke him awake, and soon he was laugh ing ns loudly and merrily as the rest. “Shut up. now,” the king-priest would order wearily. “Don’t laugh in church. 1 won't have laughing in church; Tedo Kirito hates that. Well: Blessed are the pure in heart ..." His voice labored on: the dim raft ers brooded; the motley crowd stifled their yawns and furtively stretched their agonized muscles. Fans flopped in the breathless heat; flies buzzed; through the open sides of the build ing drifted the inextinguishable whi. per of surf. “We have with us today," Kit not ed, “the Archbishop of Titlpu." Once he took the trouble to write . down a list of the offices comprising that of the king. They were: , Commander-in-chief. Presiding Officer of the Council, Lord Chancellor, Chief Justice, Attorney General, Minister of Health, Minister of Public Works, Minister of Education, Archbishop. A Pooh-Bah in the flesh. And the joke of it was that his exercises of these offices was not merely nominal; he had actually performed their fun' tions. Imperfectly, no doubt, and on a tiny scale, but he had performed them. This was In August, lie had not stopped to reflect before, hut the fact was that the Thing To lie Done was in a measure, done. The hopes and oaths of his accession were being ful filled and redeemed. The inevitable happened: he began to feel pleased with himself. IV. “Oh. God!” he prayed. “Don't l"t me get stuck up over this! Just be cause these people do what 1 say. and take my word on everything from England to obstetrics, don't let me get a swelled head! Don't lei me be like Tarquinius Superhusl Keep me a good fellow, Eord—I’ve simply got to he a good fellow. . . It was hard. His loneliness and his very safety made it harder. For the first week or two he had half believed that the Nashua might rail on the chance of finding hint; she could not have been far away when he left her. Then that hope died, and the roaring empty ocean, laugh ing unceasingly, day after day, seemed to kill all faith in other re lief. Then his security; Tenguiu was perfectly i|Uiet, and the anxiety that would have kept him alert and hum ble was missing. The one remaining danger of the arsenal was solved by a ridiculously simply method that he kicked himself for not having thought of at once: he transferred the padlock from the tool box of the dory to the unbroken hasp of the iron door, then oiled and buried both key and flic. The thing he privately thought of as "Turqulnism" cropped out in curi ous little ways. lie recognized It, he criticised It; but his loneliness ami responsibility, by a perfe<*ly com prehensible process of thought, de mantled that a certain minimum of it be respected. Damn It, he owed some things to himself' There Was the matter of signing the documents which the neat mind decreed should memorialise eueh net and law. In his first expansive mer riment he had signed them "Chris topher R." "Christopher the King." or whatever had suited the fancy of the moment. Ills art of aecession to Tengulu he had signed ‘‘Christopher R I ' This presently came to appear absurd and undignified, yet he could not firing himself t<* use hi* ordinary signature; u king was a king. He presently compromised on “Nuei IV: to his subjects he was universally known n.s Nuei, and no other name was really appropriate. (To Il»* Continued Tomorrow.) Somebody Is Always Taking the Joy Out of Life . (Tomcratulate mf 101/ ; ) -a • hea» V£>o '] GeoRCE-.^HE ‘^UPPEt» l A«e To Be MARRIED - ■NORO / .SAID aShe'D be. a moose / 15 Tne .Tim* -r0 Take °MT, mins - xxJE'RS "To aRoOND \ A lilF'C Po L. I C-Y HfWTGCT J .BE fMARRiEO IK) YbOR. f/ECK | ybc>R FAMILV, iM^ASE^OFa, / A OouPla imoiotws 4Take it- x>i=atm * ,,_._J ^ from me 1 y By Briggs -- - - —— ^ M6a»TYo<-» arc To*B£ Y MAftRieO-I RePR656wT I Tm£,CEM6TERY AGSoCIATiOW - I WJHY MOT SELECT f\ MICE \ Eaivui-V Plot kiolo- bffoRE \it'3 Too late — ^_^ < i ) Mil / IeXANUME YoO FOR VtfUCAiO'T (TfeLL, PephaPS You hale * A FATAL- IHALA-OV- - PERHAPS) I_ t,o&js y?.« (/// \ y\ s ''' / s : ~ ? ^ / ^ THE NEBBS ^ SO • (Copyright 1924) ^THERE'S THAT Super EDUCATED SECRETAQV\ / MR. W\LHAMS,iNTHE future whent! HESA'O SOME LONG WORDS TO ML LAST l f TOU ARE PILGRIMAGING "THROUGH H WEEK - t Don T KNOW tiuST WHAT HE ] th»S OFFICE Do \T AS QU\ETLV AS 11 WAS SAVING QuT from LUS ACWOnS t I POSSIBLE - I know ~thpct 4H KNOW THAT HE WASN'T BOOSTING ME* ( maSSW/E SCAVN \S A BVG LOAD BuT I COULDN'T REMEMBER THE WORDS r*oO vnnQ rcrr p,uT OON’T *TCW Jig ] gJnL t got-rente d.ctom«w- I LL ^IqssI gkllop^g & Igo'u pipo>™h;m UP ^PJW- Miwat/ y^/^ft|pwo,”°p (Copyright, IW4, by The Bell Syndicate. Tnc , f SOUR ANIMADVERSION VS ACTUATED [~ (, ut^uF Tn GlVJE IT TO HINT -THOSE^PI^ BV tlEALOUSV AND IS, NOT Or CEREBRAL /^qqqc, <JuMP OUT OF HlS MOUTH |j|| ORIGIN BUT RATHER A OEBlRC TO £ _,Q^zQ ACROBATS - THER |p! ONLOAD A GR.CAT CONGESTION OT “ *T TOGETHER OR MAT INANE CONFABULATION - MOT BE \ajOROS AT ALL BUT HE'S KA MtSS GLuMM , I WISH NOU carr WITH ME AnO HE KnOwS it GS? \ WOULD CHECK UP THIS STATEMENT kti^T MAO ANT MORE - t'M Mj ^PLEASE VInQUiSiTNE - m ciuST ChECKinGj^ ^ UP ON HIM__ I /XfiW G>Or*-i - i Barney Google and Spark Plug IT’S FULL TIME' OR NOTHING. Drawn for The Omaha Bee by B,l!y DeBeck w .___ .—.. .■ - i . iMu-' ■■ - — ■■■ i > t 1 ■ jrrrrn ii X tueY Yell me x cotta " '"'s\ / LAY "DOWN ten bucks for a \ / \ * l PASSPORT IF X WAMNA GO Yo n . / COMe ON, \ /iL / EUROPE * IO BUCK’S1.1, ALL X GoT j SuNSMiNE- j t" T. To MT AJAME IS A DOLUR- ’J*, — WE LL SEE WMAY 1^1 'fSS V IT LOOKS LIKE SPARKY VoONY m 7t_\ WE CAM t>0 / " "J U \ ATAKe a Bowl ;ai London! . . «« \ J L. I * • \ UNLESS I CAN AiAKE A *■ •* Qj *JJ ; N. "PEAL. WlTM Tl-lESE » • • --—n \ "PASSPORT 5 BIROS \ . fsJ * **•'* %• ' * * I j Britain rights r*arrvrrt __ _____ I - - - --t- ■ ■ — odUVT/^IM^1 I ID FATI4FP R'*l,,<r*d see jigcs and maggie in full Drawn for The Omaha Bee by McManus U r F 1 FI EL. IX U. 3. Patent Office PAGE OF COLORS IN THE SUNDAY BEE (Copyright 1924) -——-y — - f--\ YOOR PAPA HA^TH£ b>HE'^> BEEN CRXIM* MEAbUEa • THAT'b WHY COtTlNUALLX ALL DAY- - I WART -YOU ARE HERE VOTIN' TM(vjn< COODNEbb bHE'b MY POP! Ub * -YOU MU*bT bTOP AbsEEEH AT ■LA'bT • I M WORN CRYIH - COME HERE - ^sWUl,-—— I(D ’924 BY Ikt u Fcatubc Service. I*C. Great Britain ngH * reserved JERRY ON THE JOB Drawn for The Omaha Bee by Hoban (Copyright 1924) I \wfcu. -"TUtv AunMS u&v L EGSS -TUA-T JUST t Pn 'tue- ..)~ \ £66 Cups, yj ■ ) ^At\ IQ I H|S‘ __ — ABIE THE AGENT Drawn for The Omaha Bee by Hershfield a Krientllv Kvenii Z I