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garterless stockings held up by the "native twist" above 

 the calf. Accordions and mouth-organs enlivened the 

 talk, and not until only charred boards remained did we 

 leave. 



Besides the occasional concerts of the band, boxing 

 and moving-pictures made up the public night life of 

 Papeete. Attached to the theaters were bars, as at the 

 Palais, and these were the foci of those who hunted dis- 

 traction, and the trysting-places of the amorous. One 

 found in them or flitting about them all the Tahitian or 

 part Tahitian girls in Papeete who were not kept from 

 them by higher ambition or by a strict family rule. 

 From Moorea, Raiatea, Bora-Bora, and other islands, 

 and from the rural districts of Tahiti, drifted the fairest 

 who pursued pleasure, and to these cafes went the male 

 tourists, the gayer traders, the sailors, and the Tahitian 

 men of city ways, the chauffeurs, clerks, and officials. 



Boxing and cinemas were novelties in Tahiti, and 

 though the bars were only adjuncts of the shows, they 

 had become the scenes of a hectic life quite different 

 from former days. The groves, the beach, and the 

 homes were less frequented for merrymaking, the white 

 having brought his own comparatively new customs of 

 men and women drinking together in public houses. 

 And there had crept in on a small scale an exploitation 

 of beauty by those who profited by the receipts at the 

 prize-fights, the cinemas, and the bars. The French or 

 part castes who owned these attractions were copying 

 the cruder methods of the Chinese. 



Llewellyn, David, and McHemy were habitues of 

 these resorts, and I not an infrequent visitor. We went 

 together to a prize-fight, which had been well advertised. 



