The real Dr. Funk - Tiki Drinks and Food

T TikiTomD Grand Member (6 years) Flagler Beach, FL Joined: Sep 20, 2009 Posts: 700	T TikiTomD Posted posted on Tue, Mar 27, 2012 10:43 AM Though Dr. Funk was the only resident physician in Western Samoa, he routinely got assistance from the doctors and medics stationed on warships anchored at Apia Harbor, be they German, British or American. This especially helped in times of civil warfare or when epidemics were raging through the island populace. These ships’ doctors also filled in when Dr. Funk was out on malanga or vacation, and when he was himself incapacitated, as observed in Sven Mönter’s 2010 University of Auckland PhD thesis, “Dr. Augustin Krämer: A German Ethnologist in the Pacific”... The Stevenson household made frequent demands on Dr. Funk in his professional capacity, and on those occasions when he wasn’t able to immediately respond to their call because of other patients, he got an earful, as in this example from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson – Volume 8, edited by Booth and Mehew... January 8, 1893 (Louis writing to Graham Balfour) January 7, 1893 (Louis writing to Maggie Stevenson) Louis really enjoyed Funk’s discomfort at what was an obviously idle threat. This was quickly forgotten, as Funk was truly good at what he did, and he was a close friend of Louis. Some more examples of Funk’s service on behalf of the Stevenson family, again from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson – Volume 8... May 21, 1893 (Louis writing to Maggie Stevenson) Young Isla Stilwell succumbed to tuberculosis less than two years later on February 5, 1895. October 5, 1894 (Louis writing to Dora Norton Williams) Belle was Isobel Strong, Louis’ step-daughter, to the immediate right of Louis in the 1893 photograph below (photo from this excellent RLS web site)... Louis stated in Our Samoan Adventure and originally in A Footnote to History... Should Apia ever choose a coat of arms, I have a motto ready: “Enter Rumor painted full of tongues.” The majority of the natives do extremely little; the majority of whites are merchants with some four mails in the month, shopkeepers with some ten or twenty customers a day, and gossip is the common resource for all. The town hums to the day’s news, and the bars are crowded with amateur politicians... The quarters are so close and the scale is so small, that perhaps not any one can be trusted always to preserve his temper. Everyone tells everything he knows; that is our country sickness. Nearly everyone has been betrayed at times, and told a trifle more, the way our sickness takes the predisposed. And the news flies, and the tongues wag, and fists are shaken. Pot boil and cauldron bubble! That is a good lead into the following portion of our tale: Belle and her husband, Joe Strong, had a publically messy divorce while in Samoa. Louis heard through gossip that Dr. Funk had said something favorable in regards to Joe, greatly upsetting him... October 29, 1892 (Louis writing to Sidney Colvin) In this excerpt from Ernest Mehew’s 1997 compilation, Selected Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, Louis recounts the ugly outcome of conflict between warring native Samoan factions, with the dead and dying accumulating even at Dr. Funk’s house... July 9, 1893 New Zealand and Samoan group, during the 1888-1889 civil war in Samoa, 1899 Reference Number: 1/1-006636-G New Zealand and Samoan group, photographed in 1899 by reporter Malcolm Ross, during the 1888-1889 civil war in Samoa. Includes troops crouching with rifles. Two Samoan women stand on the left. Naval machine gun crew with maxim gun, during the Samoan civil war of 1888-1889, [between 1888-1889] Reference Number: 1/1-006638-G Naval machine gun crew with maxim gun, during the Samoan civil war of 1888-1889. Photographer unidentified. Samoan war canoe, between 1891-1939 Reference Number: PAColl-5426-02 Samoan war canoe, photographed by Thomas Andrew between 1891 and 1939 To be continued... -Tom Edit Note: Replaced photo of Isobel (Belle) with one of higher resolution. [ Edited by: TikiTomD 2012-03-29 11:13 ]

Though Dr. Funk was the only resident physician in Western Samoa, he routinely got assistance from the doctors and medics stationed on warships anchored at Apia Harbor, be they German, British or American. This especially helped in times of civil warfare or when epidemics were raging through the island populace. These ships’ doctors also filled in when Dr. Funk was out on malanga or vacation, and when he was himself incapacitated, as observed in Sven Mönter’s 2010 University of Auckland PhD thesis, “Dr. Augustin Krämer: A German Ethnologist in the Pacific”...

The Stevenson household made frequent demands on Dr. Funk in his professional capacity, and on those occasions when he wasn’t able to immediately respond to their call because of other patients, he got an earful, as in this example from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson – Volume 8, edited by Booth and Mehew...

January 8, 1893 (Louis writing to Graham Balfour)

January 7, 1893 (Louis writing to Maggie Stevenson)

Louis really enjoyed Funk’s discomfort at what was an obviously idle threat. This was quickly forgotten, as Funk was truly good at what he did, and he was a close friend of Louis. Some more examples of Funk’s service on behalf of the Stevenson family, again from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson – Volume 8...

May 21, 1893 (Louis writing to Maggie Stevenson)

Young Isla Stilwell succumbed to tuberculosis less than two years later on February 5, 1895.

October 5, 1894 (Louis writing to Dora Norton Williams)

Belle was Isobel Strong, Louis’ step-daughter, to the immediate right of Louis in the 1893 photograph below (photo from this excellent RLS web site)...

Louis stated in Our Samoan Adventure and originally in A Footnote to History...

Should Apia ever choose a coat of arms, I have a motto ready: “Enter Rumor painted full of tongues.” The majority of the natives do extremely little; the majority of whites are merchants with some four mails in the month, shopkeepers with some ten or twenty customers a day, and gossip is the common resource for all. The town hums to the day’s news, and the bars are crowded with amateur politicians... The quarters are so close and the scale is so small, that perhaps not any one can be trusted always to preserve his temper. Everyone tells everything he knows; that is our country sickness. Nearly everyone has been betrayed at times, and told a trifle more, the way our sickness takes the predisposed. And the news flies, and the tongues wag, and fists are shaken. Pot boil and cauldron bubble!

That is a good lead into the following portion of our tale: Belle and her husband, Joe Strong, had a publically messy divorce while in Samoa. Louis heard through gossip that Dr. Funk had said something favorable in regards to Joe, greatly upsetting him...

October 29, 1892 (Louis writing to Sidney Colvin)

In this excerpt from Ernest Mehew’s 1997 compilation, Selected Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, Louis recounts the ugly outcome of conflict between warring native Samoan factions, with the dead and dying accumulating even at Dr. Funk’s house...

July 9, 1893

**New Zealand and Samoan group, during the 1888-1889 civil war in Samoa, 1899
Reference Number: 1/1-006636-G**
New Zealand and Samoan group, photographed in 1899 by reporter Malcolm Ross, during the 1888-1889 civil war in Samoa. Includes troops crouching with rifles. Two Samoan women stand on the left.

**Naval machine gun crew with maxim gun, during the Samoan civil war of 1888-1889, [between 1888-1889]
Reference Number: 1/1-006638-G**
Naval machine gun crew with maxim gun, during the Samoan civil war of 1888-1889. Photographer unidentified.

**Samoan war canoe, between 1891-1939
Reference Number: PAColl-5426-02**
Samoan war canoe, photographed by Thomas Andrew between 1891 and 1939

To be continued...

-Tom

Edit Note: Replaced photo of Isobel (Belle) with one of higher resolution.

[ Edited by: TikiTomD 2012-03-29 11:13 ]

Post #630224 by TikiTomD on Tue, Mar 27, 2012 10:43 AM