The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-04-26

gong 10 tins length, ana 10 put the case SIMPLY
that two men living under precisely similar con-
ditions may, by the various exercise Of Intelligence
and viii, achieve results totally different.
a country parson " has pleasantly set forth
some Of the disadvantages accompanying life in 4
small community 70 pleasantly indeed does he
deal with his subject that many a %city-man and
many q solitary must sigh, as he reads, for a quiet
half hour on the bellry steps at shutdown. be the
cOmmitant evils of such a position even less I'M
mixed with advantage than the country parson
has shown them. The sigh is natural, for almost
every lot has its excellencies to him who seeks
them. Horace, poet-laureate and Il perfect city
man in his day, sings the joys of MIN who
.'Pnterna rura bobus exercet suis,
solutus onni i"notei
Forumque viiat,"
Who, in other words, dwells in n small commu-
nifty. And yet Gray's village youth is pleased to
think the larger world beyond his reach so supe-
rior to his own sphere that he wearies of his
oxen and the paternal fields, and melancholy
marks him for her own. Perhaps bread and
bacon constitute a diet not SO conducive 10 content
as cheese Of Tuscany and ripe FaleInian or per-
haps, as Kingsley would suggest, u blue pill
might have materially affected the views of both
the lettered Roman and the longing rustic. But
it is the commonest failing of our humanity even
when untroubled by indigestion, to value what
is unattainable more highly than that which We
possess and seldom ale we .jostled by the occa-
sional Mark Tapley, who gets along SO amazingly
well by a slight divergence from ordinary mental
usage as to suggest that perhaps his ID the best
philosophy. The great Mr.. Swivellcr's happiness
was perhaps too spasmodic, AMI too much de-
-. ..., H. A ,~t k,uHc - yfSftu e., aro
mend his peculiar system but Tapley is uuim-
peachable.
Our local readers may fairly claim to be
members of q small community and, though
Honolulu is far different from the quiet country
towns of other lands, there is enough of similar
ity between our life and that described by the
country parson to suggest parallel reflections. We
are isolated, oh, We steamboat directors and
packet owners, how terribly isolated from any big
place whatever We get our reading matter by
jerks, If at all we are ever short of something to
talk about, and all the more therefore does our
intimate social compressedness furnish the in
centive TO gossip and scandal. Instead of en-
trusting our gOvernance to mighty almost
unknown beings, who would be mythical but for
the newspapers and tax-cOllectors, we frequently
see our King, (see him with our eyes, ye servants
of the once yelled Mikado ! } and the Ministers of
State are our very neighbors, ordinary men even
as we are. What a sad little world We live in y
neiShboring city, a statesman whom, not knowing,
we might theoretically abuse, would, to us, be
heaven-sent or stock exchange and Il local sugar
market would be paradise!
Without further reference to blue pills, or to
Buckles history of civilization, it may be asked
what view of our case could an optionist, a yeri-
table Tapley, take?
Our nrd-working merchant, to whom the last
chance schooner mail has brought low quotations
for his beloved sugars, is conscious that a fort
night or a month must elapse before the auto
cratic refners can further torment him, and when
the next news comes, two cents a pound rise may
make his fortune. He therefore dcvotes himself
to careful management during the day, and at
eyentide takes an exhilarating ride to bis snug
cottage at Waikiki or in Nuuanu, where a COM
Portable family circle, or Il pretty sweetheart may
await him or he chooses TO his taste whom he
shall visit, or buries himself in books and papers
which, if a month or two old, are to him Just as
if damp from the press. lie cannot. it is true,
hang upon daily and hourly changes of affairs
which make mercantile life IN large cities a
perfect maze of excitement, q constant agony
for him the agony comes but ENTHUSIASTICALLY,
and how is he the worse?
Then our fashionable folk are not tired to death
by an incessant round of gaiety, wherefore a
party, when it happens, is enjoyed all the more:
and if . Demorest :" be dated a month back all
the more opportunity is left for tasteful consider
alton in matters of nothing to wear" There
are larger places where no one gives a party with
out creating a certain number of enemies; but in
go small a community as this no room exists for
heartburning as 10 who is "askcd" or who ought
TO be, for everybody and his wife go somewhere,
and a great occasion 5" calls ont all who care for
that thing.
Perhaps We have spoken of triviahtics; but it
is in trivial affairs more than other that people
jeopardize their happiness. Many a man will
fight misfortune bravely, yot fall in despair be-
oause some other lady has accidental precedence