The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1857-01-15

suppress them, provided they are got up under the
protection of a foreign consul
That the females engaged in these exhibitions are
the lowest and vilest Of that class of abandoned wo-
men who are to be found in every sea port, all the
testimony produced in court proved most conclusively,
and we suppose there is not a doubt on this point In
the mind of any one in the community whether he
frequents the entertainments or not at all events
there was not the slightest evidence to disprove it.
It is idle to talk of the reformation of these females.
or of attempting to improve the native character by
establishing such assemblages, the main object of
which is the entertainment Of seamen or the allure
ment of resident young men, into an open acquain-
lance and intimacy with the yilest females Of the
city.
We are aware that public dancing houses exist in
every seaport city of the world, but no one viii pre-
sumo to saw that they are reputable places of resort.
There the communities are so large that there is a
broad line of division between reputable and disrepu-
table places of resort for amusement. Here the case
is different. 1t is a small community and all classes
are brought more or less in contact with each other
and consequently have some influence on each others
character. Our kingdom comprises every class from
the finished scholars who have graduated with honors
at Oxford, Berlin or Harvard University, and who,
however roughly fortune may have dealt with them,
possess all the mental re6nements of European life
and manners. Here are also to be found those who
have long strayed from the paths of virtue and sunk
to that depth OF mental bondage and darkness, where
the rays of hope rarely penetrate There are some
perhaps from all classes in our community, who look
upon these dance exhibitions with pleasure, and who
visit them for the amusement they afford. There are
others who view them with perfect Indifference ; who
care little whether they exist or not who believe that
the public morals viii take care of themselves, and
that all legislation on them is supertiuous and I'M
called for, and seldom results in benefit to the State.
There is still another class which regards public vir-
tue, Justice and truth as the foundation of all ma
tional prosperity, and which in every civilized nation
exercise a healthful and perhaps a controlling inf1u-
ence in the body polite.
There are many in our community and kingdom
who consider that certain rights are guaranteed to
them by the constitution and statutes, and that those
rights are now invaded. They have immigrated here
with their wives and children, they have established
as laborers, mechanics or merchants, and
have added or are adding to the real wealth of the
kingdom. They have sons and daughters coming
on the stage of life, whose virtue and welfare
is as sacred to them as their own lives. They main
that certain rights are pledged to them by the
State, and that the State cannot cede them away or
invade them. How can these fathers lock calmly on
and see these entertainments opened in our most
popular public houses, sanctioned, yes, established by
the perverted justice of the country, to allure their
into the acquaintance and companionship of
acknowledged prostitutes, and not shudder at the
result
We said that this subject threatens to disturb the
peace and quiet of our community. Is there a sane
man who believes that the intelligent portion of it will
sit quietly by and see these dance houses kept open
solely under the influence of foreign treaties, be they
women selected for the partners of their sons in the
dance, from which they must turn to associate with
and perhaps contaminate their daughters. Are they
TO sit quietly by and see an inefficient ministry smiling
its procrastinating diplomacy in completing a
new and liberal treaty or a venial government press
winking at thwarted justice and cooling over the i'm
proved social condition of the oily-scented maidens.
An indignant public viii not sit quietly by and
see their constitutional rights invaded and trampled
under foot, or the judiciary of the land made a hollow
But one voice pervades this community,
md that is, that the public exhibition of abandoned
females shall be suppressed, and if the government
acknowledges itself as unable to do it, other steps
must be resorted to to maintain our common rights.
the laws of the land are not broad enough to meet
he case, let a new law be provided which shall at
east secure to subjects those rights which the consti-
luton and statutes intended TO secure, but of which
diplomacy has robbed them.
Supreme Court.