The Leavenworth weekly times. [volume] (Leavenworth, Kan.) 1870-1880, 1873-01-16
TIE SANDWICH IsLAHDs.
A Characteristic letter from Max
Twain.
The Land that the Urited States
Ought 70 OWJ.

Vu80t % wv.
From the New York Tribune, Jan, 6.l
10 Tie Edissv Of ~ 7FiSsne:
SIR: When you do me the honor to sug.
zest that l write IN article about the Sand.
wich Islands, just nov when the death Of
The King has turned something Of the pub
lie attention in that direction, you unkennel
4 man whose modeety would have kept him
10 hiding otherwise. could gil you full of
but mott human beings like gossip
better, and 40 you will not blame me il / pro-
ceed after the largest sudience, and leave
other people to worry the minority With Ar
iihmetic.
APARADIsE FOR ALL SORTS.
spent several months in the Sandsich
Islands, six years ago, and, If could have
my way about it, would 60 back there and
remain the rest of my days. 1t il paradise
for an indolent man. II man i rich he
can live expeneively, and his grandeur will
be respected q in other paris OF the earth;
il he Is poor be can herd With the natives,
and live On next to nothing, hecan sun him
self all day long under the palm trees land
be NO more troubled BY his conscience than
= butterfly would.
When you are in that blessed retreat you
are SAFE from the turmoil Of life; you browse
your days away in long deep dream Of
peace; the past 10 forgotten thing, the pre-
sent is heaven, the future you leave 10 take
care of itself. You are in the center of the
Pacific Ocean; you are two thousand miller
from any continent; you are millions of
miles from the world; - far % you can zee,
on any hand, the crested pillows wall the
horizon, and beyond this barrier the wide
universe il bat . foreign land to you, and
barren Of Interest.
The climate is simply deliciou--never
cold ut the SEA level, and never really too
warm, for you are At the halfway house
that ia, twenty degrees above the equator.
But then you may order your own climate
for this reason; the eight inhabited islands
are merely mountains that lift themselves
out of the sea- group of bells, il you
plea.e, with come (but not very much
clare" at their basis. You get the idea.
Well, you take Thermometer, and mark on
il where you want the mercury to stand per
manently forever with not more than l2'
vsriation) winter and sGmmer. II a2 in the
shade IL your figure with the privilege Of
going down or up 81 or s. degrees At long
intervals), you build your house down on
the fare"-the sloping or level ground BY
the ssa.shore-aLd you have the deadest
surest thing in the world on that tempera-
ture. And such 10 the climate Of
Honolulu, the capital Of the
kingdom. II you mark 20 - your mean
temperature. you build your house on any
mountain aide, 400 or 500 feet above sea
level. If you mark IS or 60. 20 1000 feet
higher. II you mark for ginirY weather,
90 ON climbing and v.tching your mercury.
II want snow and ice forever and ever, and
zero and below, build on the summit Of
Mauna Kea, 16, 900 feet up in the air. II
you must have bot weather. you should build
at Lahania, where they do not hang the ther-
mometer on nail because the solder might
melt and the instrument get broken, or you
should build in the crater Of Kileaua, which
would be the same a. going home before
your time. You cannot end as much climate
punched together anywhere lp the world as
you can in the sandwich Islands. You may
stand on the summit of Mauna Kea, in the
midst of snow banks that were there before
Capt. Cook was born, may be, and while
you SILVER in your furs you may east your
eye down the sweep Of the mountain side
and tell exactly where the frigid zone ends
and vegetable life begins; stunted and tor
mented growth of tees shades down into a
taller and freer species, and that in turn, into
the full foliage and varied tints Of the tenn
perate zone; further down, the mere Ordi-
nary green tone of = forest washes over the
edges Of broad bar of orange trees that EN-.
braces the mountain like belt, and 10 %
deep and dark green that distance MAKES it
black, and still further down. you eye rests
upon the levels of the sea shore, where the
sugar-cane ia scorchine in the sun, and the
feathery cocoa-palm glarsing itself in the
tropical waves; and wher syou know the sin.
full NATIVES are lollipg about in utter naked
ness, and never knowing OF caring shat you
and your snow and your ohattering teeth are
so close BY. So you perceive, you can look
down upon all the climates of the earth, and
note the kinds and colors Of all the vegeta.
tons, just with glance Of the eye-and this
glance only travels over about three miles as
the bird dies, too.
ABOUT TIE NATIVES.
The natives of the isl.nds number only
about so, 900, and the whites about 8. 900,
chiefly Americana. According to Capt. Cook,
the natives numbered 400, 900 les than q
hundred years ago. But the traders brought
labor and fancy diseases-in other words,
long, deliberate, infallible destruction; and
the missionaries brought the means Of grace
and got them ready. 80 the two forces are
working along harmoniously, and anybody
Who knows anything about figures can tell
exactly when the last Kanaka will be in
Abrahsm's bosom, and his islands In the
hands Of the whites. il is the same - cal.
culating an eclipse-if you get started right
you cannot miss il. For nearly . century
the natives have been keeping up . ratio Of
about three births to five deaths. and you can
zee what that must result in. No doubt in
fifty years Kanaka will be curiosity in
his own land, and . an investment will be
superior to circus.
! am truly sorry that these people are
dying out. for they are about the most in
tere,ting savages there are. Their Ian.
euaee il soft and musical, it has not q
Kissing sound in it, and all Their words end
with . vowel. They would call Jim FIX
Jimmy Fikki, for they will even do violence
to proper name II it gFsses leo harshly in
its natural state. The Italian " raspy and
djsagreeable compared TO the Hawaiian
tongue.
These people used to 20 naked, but the
missionaries broke that up; in the towns
the men wear clothing nov, and in the
country a plug hat and breech-clout or
if they have company they put on shirt
collar and vest. Nothing but religion and
education could have wrought these ad
mirstle changes. The vonsn vsar . single
loose calico gown, that falls without break
from neck to heels.
In the old times, to speak plainly, there
vas absolutely no bar to the commerce Of
the sexes. To refuse the solicitations of q
stranger vas regarded - . oontemptible
thing for . girl or woman to do; but the
missionaries have % bitterly fought this
thing that they have succeeded At least in
driving it oct Of sight-and now 1t exists
only In reality, not In name.
These natives are the simplest, the kind
est-hesrted, the most unsel6sh creatures that
hear the image of the Maker. Where white
influence has not changed them, they will
make any chance stranger welcome, and
divide their all with him-a trait which has
never existed among any other people, per-
haps. They live only for to-day; to-
morrow ia thing which does not enter into
their calculations. had . native youth in
my employ in Honolulu, . graduate Of
missionary college. and be divided his time
between translating the Greek Testament
and taking care Of piece Of property Of
mine which l considered . hcrse. When
ever this boy could collect his wages, he
would 70 and lay out the entire amount, all
the way up from fifty cents to . dollar, in
moi which II . paste made Of the taro root,
and il the National dishl, and call in all the
native raeamu6lns that cane slook TO help