The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1856-11-20
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20.

In places where the ordinary means or recreation are
accessible to all, the standard is q just one. But
such a test applied to the society of Honolulu, would
be obviously incorrect. 1t would be unjust to judge
of our tastes wholly, by the character OF our amuse-
ments, because in our isolated position we are not
able to choose for ourselves. The thousand and one
resources of rational and el%evating amusements which
are within the reach of other communities are denied
to us. We are beyond the sc beat'' of those talented
and literary men who, by their able lectures and es-
says, delight and instruct the residents of more favor
ed locations. We are deprived of the pleasure of
listening to celebrated orators, singers and perform
ers of visiting collections of paintings and sculpture.
Even "Welch's Menagerie,'' or "Jarley's Wax
Works. has never crossed the ocean for our benefit.
1t is true we have been honored by a visit from
yankee Sullivan with his exhibitions of the " no
BILE art of self defence.' We did have a circus too {;
but the hotel keepers petitioned the Legislature against
a renewal of their license, it being considered an in
jury to the prosperity of the place, as sailors spent
the money in visits to the circus which would other
wise have been invested in bad grog and worse dance
houses and so the circus company, fearing perhaps
that the prayer of the petitioners would be granted,
has not returned.
W. have too good an opinion of our community
however, to believe that it should be judged lacking
in the desire to enjoy, or the taste to appreciate the
more rational sources of amusement merely because
of our inability to procure them. As justly might
we be charged with an invincible repugnance to green
peas, fresh oysters, peaches, or ice cream. The full
attendance generally found at the few lectures or
addresses that are delivered here, even upon subjects
of but little general interest, and the Juror created by
the accidental visit of Kate Hays, are evidences that
we do not lack the desire for more intellectual enter
tainments than those of our ordinary life. Would
that our residents had more frequent opportunities of
gratifying their tastes in this respect.
But that we do not endeavor to the best of our abil-
tiles to provide agreeable and innocent amusements,
that shall be attractive to the young, is perhaps, a
charge to which we must plead guilty. We are too
little apt to consider that young people must and
should have amusements, and that it is our duty to
see that they are provided with them, and that if we
do not render the home circle and it's pleasures at
~tractive, the young men at least, will seek for pleas
ures elsewhere. What are now our chief sources of
social recreation and amusement? Are they as vari-
Gus and attractive as they might be We think not.
The meetings of the different benevolent societies as
at present conducted, can hardly be classed under
this head. though they might easily be rendered such.
There are a few private social parties, where an eve
ming may occasionally be spent in agreeable and
harmless recreation. In these days of large public
dancing parties however, these smaller, but infinitely
more agreeable reunions, are but of infrequent occur
renee. 1t would be much better if we had more of
them, and fewer grand miscellaneous balls, where
crowded and heated rooms, late suppers, and later
hours, render the penalty at least equivalent to the
enjoyment.
But is dancing the only means ofamusement within
the reach of our young men and ladies? Many per-
sons find no pleasure in this species of exercise, and
a large and most estimable class of our society, are,
from religious training and education opposed to dan
cling. They have been taught from infancy to look
on it as an immoral amusement in itself, unworthy
Of a Christian, and upon those who practice it as un-
fit associates. And though there are some of the
class who believe there is no improperly in dancing,
viewed as a recreation, and who would gladly partic-
ipate in so agreeable an amusement, yet force of habit
or fear of giving offence, prevents them from over
stepping the conventional line. And at any social
gathering where the young of both sexes are met, i
a dance is proposed to enliven the monotony of the
occasion, it is the signal for this class to rise at once
shake the dust from off their feet and depart from the
communicating sight of this so-called sinful pleasure
Hence well-bred persons will decline to propose a
their parties, an amusement which they know to be
offensive to a large and worthy portion of their guests
and as this portion do not usually assist with mucI
zeal in the effort to substitute other less Objectionable,
means of entertainment, the natural consequence il
that these parties, whether meetings of sewing circles
or private gatherings, are voted intolerable bores
and those gentlemen who are compelled by a sense o
duty, or by positive instructions from the petticoa
powers, to attend, with a few courageous exceptions
congregate on the verandahs and while the ladies
within talk collars and hoped skirts, their husbands
or beaux settle the matter of the weather, and havin.
talked over the rate of Whaler's Exchange, and tn,
price of putty, sit and smoke in moody silence, til
the welcome orders are received to "get unde
weigh"
The natural result is, that many of our young mel
for whom these lively "reunions'' have no attrac
tons. and who have few or no resources within them
2 selves, seek amusement in scenes and places unwor
thy of them, but for which, alas they only too saor
render themselves completely worthy. The articl
over the signature of &C Hulahula' in our last issue
/, though the keen edge of its quiet sarcasm would b
; hardly noticed by the casual reader, has attracts
public attention to the vile character and tendency G
! some of these scenes, and recalls to the thoughtles
frequenter of them, a consideration of the enormit
of the wrong he is doing to himself and to society
d 1t is hardly credible that such things are for q me
ment suffered to exist in Honolulu. That person
e claiming respectability in society, could descend t
It such vile expedients for the sake of pecuniary gain
or that persons who from their education, wealth