558 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Ruins of Tahitian Tr.-uding Company Building, 

 this place was one of the first to suffer from the german shells. it was the property of an american 



firm of which e. t. allen is a director. 



horses, honking automobiles, men, 

 women and children on foot, running 

 until the}" were out of breath; yelling, 

 screaming, accompanied by the reports 

 of the guns from the cruisers. Some 

 went up Fataua Valley, some up Pirae 

 Valley; some went to Arue, some went 

 over the hills to Point Venus. On our 

 side whole crow^ds went up into the hills. 

 The houses were emptied, the doors left 

 open. The people grabbed the first 

 thing that came to hand and flew. 

 In carriages, in automobiles, on horse- 

 back and on foot, they streamed along 

 and the first valley they were not too 

 scared to notice they went up. 



"My little cottage sheltered thirty 

 persons. I was forced to move out 

 and a little higher up to a small house 

 by the hill where I had a fine view of the 

 firing. It was five days before the 

 excitement subsided as the news kept 

 flying about that the cruisers were still 

 in sight. They fired in all about seventy 

 odd shells and they killed one native boy 

 and a Tinito (Chinaman). 



"The amount of damage done in the 

 bombardment reaches 2,000,000 francs 

 which the local Government will try 

 and pay the losers by lumber, goods, 

 etc., etc., out of the German store, the 



S. C. O. And we all think this right. 

 It was only the grit of our head officials 

 in refusing to pull down the flag that 

 saved us from paying indemnity and 

 other demands which would have been 

 imposed upon us all. 



"Eighteen days after the great event 

 there was another stampede, a false 

 alarm. Some Chinaman with a Chili 

 imagination saw a lot of drifting trees 

 out at sea off Papenoo River and hearing 

 yams about submarines and destroyers, 

 took the trees for these kind of craft. 

 He gave the alarm and came rushing 

 into town with the tale that the Germans 

 were coming again and had sent two 

 small men-of-war ahead to seize the 

 port. And then there was another 

 stampede. Hundreds and hundreds left 

 town as before. They tore away in 

 carriages, in autos, on horseback and 

 on foot. Old people were put in hand- 

 carts, wheelbarrows were trundled along 

 to bring luggage. Some sixty stopped 

 at my place this time. 



"And before evening it turned out 

 to be a false alarai. And some people 

 went out to find the Chinaman and 

 some simply returned to town. It was 

 not much fun for the ones who had run 

 all the way. When they came out they 



