A Souvenir: A Poem
Improvement Era, vol. 2, no. 6, April 1899, p. 441
Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
POLITICAL SAMOA. 441
England's possessions in India and elsewhere. be covered with plantations and — " black boys Upolu " would soon from the Gilbert and other groups, while the native Samoans would either be killed off or speedily emigrate to the more humane government of England
on Savaii, or the still more free Republican government of the United States on Tutuila. As an experiment station to test the effects of an absolute and a limited monarchy alongside of a republican form of government among the same race of people this scheme might be considered a success, but surely the United States is too great too brave and we hope too honest to become a party to any such a steal. We know that there is no love lost between the Germans and the Samoans. All the German plantations are worked by contract labor from other islands. Samoans cannot be induced to work on them. The Germans will never forgive or forget the blood of their sailors which was shed by Samoans at Vailele. Woe unto the Samoans if Germany ever gets unhampered control over them!
A SOUVENIR. I found them in a book last night, These withered violets, A token of that early love That no man e'er forgets. Pressed carefully between the leaves. They keep their color still; I cannot look at them today Without an old-time thrill.
Ah, me! what tricks does memory play! The passing years have fled. And hopes that lived in vigor once, Alas! have long been dead. And this is all that I can say When all is said and done: Those flowers remind me of some girl I wish I knew which one. SOMERVILLE JOURNAL.