The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1873-01-17

1HOJ never Se6 enough. II Jnel
If was physical as well as mental il
n tOxication in this limb of the Sc
2. vice, they would never draw a sobC
r breath. Religion is drink and mes
d ! to the native. He can read his nea
0 ly printed Bible lin the nativ
9 tongue-eVe-y solitary man, VIC
e man, and little child in the island
can J, and he reads it over and owe
t again. And he reads a whole worlt
OF moral tales, built on the good oil,
t Sundsy-school book pattern exag
gerated, and he worships their he
7. roes-heroes who walk the wOrlC
over with their mouths full of but
ten, and who are simply impossibl,
chuckle-headed and pious. And h.
knows all the hymns you ever heard
IN your life, and he sings them in
a soft, pleasant voice, to native words
that make "On Jordan's stormy
banks 1 stand" sound as grotesquely
and sWeeCly foreign to you as if Il
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-at least the poetry
and the music of it. But as TO the
practice they vary. Some of the
minor precepts they as naturally do
not practice. and as naturally thew
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 a thing
which they cannot be made to com
prehend is a sin. Adultery thew
look upon as POLITICALLY wrong but
practically proper.
These people are sentimentaIIy re-
hglous-perhaps that describes it.
They pray and sing and moralize in
fair weather, but when they get into
trouble, that is "businesss-and
then they are tolerably apt to drop
poetry and call on the Great Shark
God of their fathers to give them a
lift. Their ancient superstitions are
IN their blood and bones, and they
keep cropping out now and then in
tne most natural and pardonable
way.
The natives make excellent sea-
men,, and the whalers would rather
have them than any other race.
They are so tractable, docile and
willing, and withal so faithful. that
they rank first in the sugar planters
esteem as laborers. Do not these
facts speak well of the poor, brown
Sunday school children OF the far isl
ands?
There is a small property tax, and
any native who has an income of $50
a year can vote.
THE WHITES AND SUGAR.
The 5000 whites in the islands
handle all the money and carry on
all the commerce and agriculture
and superintend the religion. Amer
leans are largely in the majority.
These whites are sugar-planters,
merchants, Waleship officers and
missionaries. The missionaries are
sorry the most of the other whites
are there, and these latter are sorry
the missionaries don't migrate. The
most of the belt of sloping land that
borders the sides toward the bases
Of the mountains is rich and fertile.
There are only 100000 acres of this
productive soil, but only think of its
capabilities. In Louisiana 100000 |
acres of sugar land would only Weld |
10000 tons Of sugar per annum, and |
possibly not so much; but in the
Sandwich Islands you could get at
least 100000 tons out of it. This |
is good, strong statement, but it is
true, nevertheless. Two and a half |
10 the acre is a common yield in the |
three and a half tons is by |
no means unusual; five tons is fre-
luent; and / can name the man who
lOok fifty tons of sugar from seven
acres of ground one season. This |
zane was on the mountain-side, g {
500 feet above the sea level, and it
.ook it three years to mature. Ad-
lress your inquiries to Capt. Mckee,
Island of Maui, S. I. Few planta-
ions are stuck up in the air like that,
ind 80 twelve months is ample time
or the maturing of cane down there.
And l would like to call attention to
wo or three exceedingly note
worthy facts. For instance, there
7ou do not hurry up and cut your
ane when it blossoms, but you Just
ct it alone and cut it when you
hoose-no harm will come of it.
And you do not have to keep an
rmy OF hands to plant in the plant
ng season, grind in the grinding
easOn, and rush in frantically and
ut down the crop when a frost
hreatens. Not at all. There is no
Iurry. You run a large plantation
nth but a few hands, because you
liant pretty much when you please,
nd you cut your cane and grind it
7hen it suits your convenience.
here is no frost, and the longer the
ane stands the better it grows.
ometimes-often, in fact-part of
our gang are planting a field, an
ther part are cutting the crop from
n adjoining field, and the rest are
rinding at the mill. You only
liant once in three years, and you
Ike off two ratoon crops without re-
lanting. You may keep on taking
Il ratoon crops about as long as you
lease, indeed; every year the bulk
f the cane will be smaller, but the
lice will grow regularly, denser and
cher, and so you are all right. ! :
now of one lazy man who took off
xteen ratoon crops without re- {
Ianting!
What fortune these planters made
1ring our war, when sugar went up :
ito the tWenties! 1t had cost them
bout ten or eleven cents a pound, :
elivered in San Francisco, and all
larges paid. Now if any one de
res to knoF why these planters
ould probably like to be under our
ag, the answer is simple: We a
axe them pay US a duty of four d
,nts a pound on refined sugars at r
brokerage, freights and /
1.-TWO or three times }, costs &
Tree cents more; rearing the cane, q
ID making the sugar. is an item of d