Talk:Wild Justice
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| Information about this edition | |
|---|---|
| Edition: | Extracted from Adventure magazine, 1923 Feb 10, pp. 68–76. |
| Source: | https://archive.org/details/madcommanders00robe |
| Contributor(s): | ragpicker |
| Notes: | Accompanying illustrations may be omitted |
| Proofreaders: | ragcleaner |
(From the "Camp-Fire" section of the issue, p. 182.)
SOMETHING about South Sea pearling from J. Allan Dunn in connection with his story in this issue:
- The story of Oku is reported, in somewhat niggardly fashion, by the Pearling Commission, held at Thursday Island in 1904.
- It does not say where Oku hid the pearl, only that his brother dug it out of the gullet of the dead shark, where Oku had thrust it from his palm. There is where the story teller must clothe the skeleton of fact with flesh, imbue it with life and make men walk and talk and reason.
- It is notorious that the captains of the pearling luggers of the Straits administered the law of the high and the low over their native crews and that injustice and cruelty were frequent.
- There is no doubt but that the ordeal to which Oku was subjected had a peculiar appeal to the Kanakas owing to their own trials for guilt or innocence, almost as common in the South Seas as in South African kraals. Like the alligator in New Guinea, a shark was supposed to be an efficient arbiter in such matters with a nice discrimination between right and wrong.
- Thursday Island is the smallest of the Torres Island group and is a fortified coaling station and port of call. It is part of the Australian division Queensland.—J. Allan Dunn.