![[Rev. Fred J. Paton], Flier for a Lecture in St. Louis on "Twenty Years with South Sea Cannibals", 1910s](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_2400,h_2400,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/artlogicstorage/dollc/images/view/91e4a4e2a5764cc467e6ffb49e5308e5j/daniel-oliver-rev.-fred-j.-paton-flier-for-a-lecture-in-st.-louis-on-twenty-years-with-south-sea-cannibals-1910s.jpg)
[Rev. Fred J. Paton]
Flier for a Lecture in St. Louis on "Twenty Years with South Sea Cannibals", 1910s
Photographically-illustrated lithograph
8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches
A seemingly-unrecorded flier advertising a lecture by Fred J. Paton on his “twenty years with South Sea Cannibals” in New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), which took place at the YWCA in...
A seemingly-unrecorded flier advertising a lecture by Fred J. Paton on his “twenty years with South Sea Cannibals” in New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), which took place at the YWCA in St. Louis, MO, in 1912.
Born in then-New Hebrides to John G. Paton, a missionary who arrived there from Scotland in 1858, Fred Paton was educated in Australia before returning to Malekula island to work as a missionary himself. He toured the United States for the first time around 1912, lecturing on the Christian and “pagan” populations and their customs including, most luridly, the cannibalistic practices he had witnessed.
Shortly after his visit to St. Louis Paton appeared in Decatur, IL, where he explained to the crowd, “They do not use human flesh as their diet…nor do they ever kill a man merely to eat him, but when a man is killed in a fight and his body is captured they take it home and roast it…The bodies are cut up and wrapped large leaves. The roasting is done with hot stones." He then presented the crowd with a spoon which, as he told them, was used in this practice for nine generations.”
The flier also advertises a lecture by Carrie Barge, Field Secretary for the Women’s American Missionary Society, on “The Conservation of the American Ideal.”
Born in then-New Hebrides to John G. Paton, a missionary who arrived there from Scotland in 1858, Fred Paton was educated in Australia before returning to Malekula island to work as a missionary himself. He toured the United States for the first time around 1912, lecturing on the Christian and “pagan” populations and their customs including, most luridly, the cannibalistic practices he had witnessed.
Shortly after his visit to St. Louis Paton appeared in Decatur, IL, where he explained to the crowd, “They do not use human flesh as their diet…nor do they ever kill a man merely to eat him, but when a man is killed in a fight and his body is captured they take it home and roast it…The bodies are cut up and wrapped large leaves. The roasting is done with hot stones." He then presented the crowd with a spoon which, as he told them, was used in this practice for nine generations.”
The flier also advertises a lecture by Carrie Barge, Field Secretary for the Women’s American Missionary Society, on “The Conservation of the American Ideal.”