n of allegiance on many occasions.

Taxes of this kind were not burdensome. The one burden that galled and
irritated the people was the liability to be called upon at any moment
to render unrequited service to the government.

[Illustration: HON. JOHN E. BUSH,

Receiver of United States Lands at Little Rock, Arkansas.

Former Principal of Public Schools of Little Rock--Clerk in Railway Mail
Service--Grand Scribe of "Mosaic Templars of America"--An Able and
Leading Republican of Arkansas.]

Every man had something that was regarded as "fanompoana." The people of
one district might be required to make mats for the government, in
another pots, the article required. From one district certain men were
required to bring crayfish to the capital, charcoal from another, iron
from another, and so on through all the series of wants. The jeweler
must make such articles as the Queen would desire, the tailor use his
needle and the writer his pen, as the government might need. The system
had in it some show of rough-and-ready justice, and was based on the
idea that each must contribute to the needs of the state according to
his several abilities; but in the actual working it had a most injurious
influence on the wellbeing of the country. Each man tried to avoid the
demands made upon him, and the art "how not to do it" was cultivated to
a very high degree of perfection. Many of the head men made this
"fanompoana" system a means of enriching themselves, compelling the
subordinates to serve them as well as the government. History does but
repeat itself, as there are not wanting instances in our own country
where certain heads of department "fanomponed" subordinates for private
service.

In many ways are recorded the product of the fertile brain of these head
men. For instance, the centurion, or head man of a certain district,
gave out a notice in the church yard, on Sunday morning, or at a
week-day market, that a hundred men would be required next morning to
carry charcoal for the government. As a matter of fact, he required only
twenty, but he knew that many would come to him to beg off, and as none
would come empty-handed, his profit on the transaction was considerable.
Another illustration was given Mr. Cousins by the British Consul. It was
customary to send up mails from the coast by government runners, but
English ideas being adverse to demanding unrequited service, the Consul
had always sent the usual wages for the runners to