Some are humorists, delighted with the pleasure
of faction for itself. "I never saw so good a place as this Apia," said
one of these; "you can be in a new conspiracy every day!" Many, on the
other hand, are sincerely concerned for the future of the country. The
quarters are so close and the scale is so small, that perhaps not any one
can be trusted always to preserve his temper. Every one tells everything
he knows; that is our country sickness. Nearly every one has been
betrayed at times, and told a trifle more; the way our sickness takes the
predisposed. And the news flies, and the tongues wag, and fists are
shaken. Pot boil and caldron bubble!
Within the memory of man, the white people of Apia lay in the worst
squalor of degradation. They are now unspeakably improved, both men and
women. To-day they must be called a more than fairly respectable
population, and a much more than fairly intelligent. The whole would
probably not fill the ranks of even an English half-battalion, yet there
are a surprising number above the average in sense, knowledge, and
manners. The trouble (for Samoa) is that they are all here after a
livelihood. Some are sharp practitioners, some are famous (justly or
not) for foul play in business.
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