file of the upper office-holders frequent the shade of the mangos and
the palms, but themselves confessed it deadly dull there. Bureaucracy
is ever mediocre, ever jealous, and in Papeete the feuds among the
whites were as bitter as in a monastery or convent. Every man crouched
to leap over his fellow, if not by position, at least by acclaim. None
dared to discuss political affairs openly, but nothing else was talked
of. It was a round of whispered charges and recriminations and audible
compliments. A few jolly chaps, doctors or naval lieutenants, passed
the bottle and laughed at the others.

Every now and then a new governor supplanted the incumbent,
who returned to France, and a few of the chiefer officials were
changed; but the most of them were Tahitian French by birth or long
residence. Republics are wretched managers of colonies, and monarchies
brutal exploiters of subject peoples. Politics controlled in the South
Seas, as in the Philippines, India, and Egypt. Precedence at public
gatherings often caused hatreds. The procureur was second in rank
here, the governor, of course, first, the secretary-general third,
and the attorney-general fourth. When the secretary-general was not
at functions, the wife of the governor must be handed in to dinner
and dances by the negro procureur. This angered the British and
American consuls and merchants, and the French inferior to him in
social status, although the Martinique statesman was better educated
and more cultivated in manners than they.

The indolence of mind and body that few escape in this soft, delicious
air, the autocracy of the governing at such a distance from France,
and the calls of Paris for the humble taxes of the Tahitians, robbed
the island of any but the most pressing melioration. The business
of government in these archipelagoes was bizarre comedy-drama, with
Tartarins at the front of the stage, and a cursing or slumbrous
audience.

Count Polonsky, a Russian-born Frenchman, appeared in court to answer
to the charge of letting his automobile engine run when no one was
in the car. He was fined a franc, which he would take from his pocket
then and there, but must wait many days to pay, until circumlocution
had its round, six weeks after the engine had been at fault. I was
assessed two sous duty on a tooth-brush. I reached for the coins.

"Mais, non" said the prepose de le douane, "pas maintenant. No
hurry. We will inform you by post."

These officials ha