Billy Malkeela, the South Sea diver, summed up the Japanese question --
"Seems to me dis Islan' soon b'long Japanee altogedder.
One time pa-lenty rickatta (plenty regatta), all same Isle of Wight.
Now no more rickatta. All money go Japan!"

An English new-chum made his appearance there lately --
a most undefeated sportsman. He was put down in a diving dress
in about eight feet of water, where he bubbled and struggled about
in great style. Suddenly he turned, rushed for the beach,
and made for the foot of a tree, which he tried to climb
under the impression that he was still at the bottom of the ocean.
Then he was hauled in by the life-line.

The pearlers thought to get some fun out of him by giving him
an oyster to open in which they had previously planted a pearl;
he never saw the pearl and threw the oyster into the scuppers
with the rest, and the pearlers had to go down on all fours
and grope for that pearl among the stinking oysters. It was funny --
but not in the way they had intended.

The pearlers go out in schooners called floating stations
(their enemies call them floating public-houses) and no man knows
what hospitality is till he has been a guest on a pearling schooner.
They carry it to extremes sometimes. Some pearlers were out in a lugger,
and were passing by one of these schooners. They determined
not to go on board, as it was late, and they were in a hurry.
The captain of the schooner went below, got his rifle and put two bullets
through their foresail. Then they put the helm down and went aboard;
it was an invitation almost equivalent to a royal command.
They felt heartily ashamed of themselves as they slunk up on deck,