The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1873-01-18
VIEWS OF MARX TWAIN w THE
SAND WICH 4NTEEA TON SCHEME.
ARorr nnr NATIVES.

VIE WS Or MA RK4 49, - - - -
SAND WICH ANNEKA TIoN SCHbAE-
ABOUT TIE NATIVES.
The natives Of the islands number
only about $4,000 and the whites only
about 1900, chiefly Americans. Ae-
cording to Captain Cook, the natives
numbered 100000 less than a year ago.
But the traders brought labor and fancy
diseases-in other words, long, dehber-
ate, infalhble destruction; and the MS
sionaries brought the means OF grace
and got them ready. So the two forces
are working along tremendously ana
anybody who knows any thing about
figures can tell exactly when the last
Kanaka will be in Abraham's bosom,
and his islands in the hands OF the
whites. 1t is the same as calculating an
eclipse--if You get started right you
cannot miss it. For nearly a century
the natives have been keeping up a ratio
of about three births to five deaths, and
you can see what that must result H.
No doubt in about fifty years hanaka
Will be curiosity in his own land, and
as an investment will be superior to
circus.
am truly sorv that these people are
/ dying out, for they are about the most
interesting savages there are Their
language Is soft and musical, it has not
kissing sound in it, and all their
words end with vowel. They would
call Jim Fisk JiHanay FFkki, for they
viii even do violence to proper name
if it CRATES too harshly in its natural
state. The Itas.ass raspy and disagree
/ able compaeel <.e Hawaiian tongue.
TTesza sr-E7 naked. bat
/ the missionaries roEe that up. In the
towns the men wear clothing now. and
in the country a plug and a. breech-
clout; or il they have compang, they
put on shirt-collar and vest. Moth
ing but religion and education could
have wrogbt these admirable changes.
/ The women wear single loose calico
gown that falls without break from
neck to heels.
In the old times, to speak plainly,
there was absolutely no bar to the com
merce of the sexes. To refuse the so
licitation Of a stranger was regarded as
contemplate thing for a girl or wo-
man to do; but the missionaries have SO
bitterly fought this thing that they have
succeeded mt least IN driving it out OF
sight-and now it exists only in reality
not in name.
These natives are the simplest, the
| kindest-hearted the most unselfish
creatures that bear the image of the
Maker. Where white influence has not
changed them, they Will make any
chance stranger Welcome, and divide
their all with nina trait which has
never existed among amy other people,
perhaps. They lire only to-day: to-
morrow is a thing which does not enter
into their calculations
had a native youth IN my employ in
Honolulu, graduate of missionary
college. and he divided his time between
translating the Greek Testament and
taking care of a piece Of property OF
mine which 1 considered a horse.
Whenever this hey could collect his
wages, he would goand lay out the en-
tire amount, all The way up from fifty
cents to a dollar, inpoi (which Is paste
made of taro root, and is the national
dish, and cali in the native ragamuffins
that came along to help him eat it.
And there, in the rph grass, under the
tararind trees, the gentle savages would
sit and gorge till all was gone. Ny
boy would go hungry and content for &
day or two, and then some Kanaka he
probably had 49, before would
invite him to a similar feast, and give 8
fresh start.
CURIOUS, MORAL AND RELIGIOUS ASPECTS
The ancient religion was only jun
BILE of curious superstitions. The sharl
seems to have been the god they chiefly
worshiped-or rather sought to propiti
ate. Then there was Pele. a GOODIES,
who presided ovr the terrible fires o
Kileauea; minor gods were not scarce
The natives are all Christians now
every one of them; they all belong t
the church, and are fonder of theology
than they are Of pie; they viii sweat on
a sermon as Iongas the Declaration o
Independence; the duller it is the NOR,
it infatuates them; they would sit there
and stew and stew in q trance of enjoy
ment till they hoated away in their owl
! grease If the ministers would stanC
wa. ch-and-w and see them through
Sunday schools are a favorite dissipa
ton with them, and they never ge
enough. If there was physical as well a.
mental intoxication in this limb of the
service, they would never draw sober
breath Religion is drink and meat t.
the native. He can read his neatly
printed Bible Tin the native tongue
every solitary man, woman and little
child IN the islands can, and he reads
it over and over again. And he reads
a whole world of moral tales, built OF
the good old Sunday-school book pat
tern exaggerated, and he worships then
| heroes-heroes who walk the world with
their mouth full Of butter, and who are
SIMPLY impossibly chuckle-headed and
pious. And he knows all the hymns you
ever heard in your life, and he sings
them in a soft, pleasant voice, to native
words that make son Jordan's stormy
banks 1 stand sound as grotesquely
and sweetly foreign to you as if it were
a dictionary grinding wrong end first
through a sugar-mill.
Now you see how these natives, great
and small, old and young, are saturated
with religion--stzsast the poetry and
the music OF II ITO the practice
of it they vary. sac of The noble pre-
cepts ofsChristianig they have always
practced naturally, and they always
wall. Some of the minor precepts they
as naturally do aot practice, and as ma
turally they never will. The white
man has taught them to lie, and they
take to it pleasantly and without sin
for there cannot be much sin in thing
which they cannot be made to compre-
bend is a sin. Adultery they look upon
as POLITICALLY wrong and practically
proper.