CHAPTER VI 



The Cercle Bougainville — OffioiaUlom in Tahiti — My first visit to the Bou- 

 gainville — Skippers and merchants — A song and a drink — The flavor 

 of the South Seas — Rumors of war. 



IN Papeete there were two social clubs, the Cercle 

 Bougainville and the Cercle Militaire. Even in 

 Papeete, which has not half as many people as 

 work in a certain building in New York, there is a 

 bureaucracy, and the Cercle Militaire, in a park near 

 the executive mansion on the rue de Rivoli, is its arca- 

 num. Only members of the Government may belong, 

 and a few others whose proposals must be stamped by 

 the political powers. There is a garden, with a small 

 library, but not many read in this climate, and the at- 

 mosphere of the Cercle Militaire was tedious. The gov- 

 ernor himself and the black proaireur de la BepuhUque, 

 born in Martinique, the secretary-general, naval officers, 

 and the file of the upper ofiice-holders frequent the 

 shade of the mangos and the palms, but themselves con- 

 fessed 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 comphments. A few jolly chaps, doctors 



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