The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1871-09-16
Letter from Hilo.

HILO, August ~, 1911.
| To the Editor Of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser
DEAR SIR The KATE Lee made her last round
trip hence to Honolulu and back in sE doys, and
were we blessed with such a schooner so well handled
all the year round, it wouldn't much matter if the
steamer never came to Hilo at all. As it is, these
monthly asthmatic calls of
THE VENERABLE "KILAUEA,"
giving one just time to read without answering let
tiers, are of precious little benefit to Hilo, any how.
Still there is something pleasant in the sight of a
marine smoke-stack approaching harbor, and as the
people subscribed to her subsidy suppose they feel
u sort of right to show some interest IN her move
ments. And so. this suporifc little city being so in
sufferably dull at times, even her peacock scream Is
heard in the offing with something like excitement,
aud brings the population from their hiding places
towards wharf aud post office with sn energy almost
resembling business. The freight, as it Is thrown on
the wharf, stimulates curiosity, and the native pa
pers, and written correspondence laboriously orna-
mented, have a sort of soothing charm, though
much of the latter must be fearfully attenuated and
like the comets tail, covers infinite space with the
smallest modicum of matter. Yet, being a result Of
civilization and scboolmasters, one may give it a pat.
Our events, however, are not always void of the
sensational element even though Pele be sleeping.
You have heard ere this Of the very
EXTRAORDINARY RECEPTION
lately held by His Elk. the French Commissioner and
Consul General, who was remarkably ut home on the
occasion, and underwent the presentation with u de-
gree of calm establishment never sufficiently to be
admired. What in the name of Bedlam broke loose
ever possessed those six bovine eccentricities in their
mad antics that they should unanimously protest
against an honest contract and bill OF sale, and like
a band of Ultra Social Communists go on the ran
dan at such a pace, cross the rlver, and with heads
down and tails ON end kick their contemptuous heels
at the court house and its otherwise highly respected
occupants, and make straight wake to invade Mr..
Coney's or rather NJ. Ballieu's hall and dining room
without the first form of ceremony, and pirouette
round the promiscuous furniture, then to disappear
in similar rampancious disorder, to the unspeakable
confusion of three polite little boys who were lunch
ing,-can only be imagined or paraleled by those
who remember the story of a certain herd of swine
who {" ran violently down and jumped into the sea 20
Whether the evil spirit which took these horned
shapes came direct from Paris, or is the comical fore
shadowing of the cattle plague impending or other
element of trouble threatening our own quiet king
dom, remains for the spiritual and far-seeing states
man to cipher out. My own opinion is that they
were not cattle at Tall.
| believe it is capable of scientific demonstration
that black cannot be 6acker, 50 when l speak of
DULL HILo,
it admits of no degree. The noun is a synonym of
the adjective, and Hilo in its normal state,-and the
profoundest depths of dullness, like Sam Weller's post
boys and donkies, always go together. That stone
loaH is a fact accomplished, and | fear that its ami
able designer, though secretly ashamed of it and as
secretly repentant, now processes TO admire what he
really detests. And stands the wrong sided court
house, in sheepish awkward helplessness, like an
overgrown cart horse in the parish pound, an elegant
efigy Of departmental taste in its own ugly circum-
ambience. But what then ? "Experientia doesn't
- never! You might rs well forbid the sea for TO
obey the moon as by counsel to shake the fabric of
somebody's folly.
The assessors ore going round with their books and
presently will ONE that other man of horrid mien
y'clept the tax collector, and
SKELETON BUGBEAR OF KANAKADoM.
How or by what earthly means three-fourths of his
victims manage to rummage out from their miserable
huts the yearly requirements of feasting satraps and
road projectors. foreign embassies and the
like. is a mystery. Yet, they do it, and when the
is stripped. pounds of flesh are demanded
in never ceasing calls from mahind hou and alma e,
ianai kumu and manGDatea, building funds and ar
teeth, until the attenuation comes very near
the cracking point. Was there ever such another
cheerful exhibition of groaning jollity under the
sun
IT'S bot to-day that free poverty rejected $50 90
or a trip to Kona and back, with pocket flask galore,
four days pleasant jaunt, yet he'll probably eat
and salt for supper and ship to a plantation at
n month Tomorrow Yours truly