Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 92, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1920 — ATTRACTED BY “GOLDEN BED” [ARTICLE]

ATTRACTED BY “GOLDEN BED”

tfarqeoeae Islanders Fasalnatod by tight of ArtMo of Furniture Now to Thom. An amusing tai* is told of the com tag of the first brass bed to Atuona. Atuona is one of tho Marquesas islands, a place of coconut palate, and people who ar* still ornamentally tattooed and who used to be cannibals before the missionaries arrived and taught th*w> better. But no missionary had ever disembarked a brass bed on the beach es Atuona; it came with the luggage es a curious traveler who had aeon the island from the deck of a steamer, and felt an impulse to live there a while and see what it was like. Ho could not depart, he says, “without penetrating into those abrupt and melancholy depths es forest, without endeavoring, though ever so feebly, to stir the cold brew of legend and tale, fast disappearing under stupor and forgetfulness.” And so one day tho boat brought him ashore, and the populace welcomed him, marveling at tho sight of the "golden bed” and nearly overcome with delight at the elasticity of the springs under the mattress. They took turns bouncing on It, while he drove an easy bargain with the possessor of a house for the use of that domicile in return for leaving the “golden bod” with the^owner when be departed. Then, the bargain concluded, the wife of the chief who owned the house had the unique privilege of sitting on the bod, happily bouncing up and down, till it was lifted on the tattooed shoulders of four Marquesans and inarched with honor to Its destination. X