MYSTIC ISLES 87 



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 

 chief er officials were changed; but the most of them 

 were Tahitian French by birth or long residence. Re- 

 publics are wretched managers of colonies, and mon- 

 archies brutal exploiters of subject peoples. Politics 

 controlled in the South Seas, as in the Philippines, In- 

 dia, and Egypt. Precedence at public gatherings often 

 caused hatreds. The procureiir was second in rank here, 

 the governor, of course, first, the secretary-general 

 third, and the attorney-general fourth. When the sec- 

 retary-general was not at functions, the wife of the gov- 

 ernor must be handed in to dinner and dances by the 

 negro procureur. This angered the British and Ameri- 

 can 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, ap- 

 peared 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 



