The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-01-17
VIEWS OF MARK TWAIN ON THE
SAND WICH ANNEKA TON SCHEME.
ABoUT IL NATTvEs.

only about $4,000, and the whites only
about 5000, chiefly Americans. Ac-
cording to Captain Cook, the natives
numbered 400, 900 less than year ago.
But the traders brought labor and fancy
diseases other words, long, deliber-
ate, infallible destruction; and the mis-
sionaries brought the means of grace
and got them ready So the two forces
are working along tremendously, and
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. It 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 in.
No doubt in about fifty years a Kanaka
viii be a curiosity in his own land, and
as an investment Will be superior to
circus.
1 am truly-sorry 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 a vowel. They would
call Jim Fisk Jimmy FEkki, for they
will even do violence to proper name
if it CRATES too harshly in its natural
state The italian is raspy and disagree
| able compared to the Hawaiian tongue
These people used to go naked, but
| the missionaries broke that up. In the
| towns the men wear clothing now, and
in the country a plug and breeoh-
clout; or if they have company they
put on a shirt-collar and a vest. Moth
ing but religion and education could
have wroght these admirable changes.
The women wear a single loose calico
gown that falls without a 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 ola stranger was regarded as
a contemplate thing for girl or a wO-
man to do; but the missionaries have so
bitterly fought this thing that they have
succeeded at least in driving it out of
sight now it exists only in reality
not in name.
These natives are the simplest, the
kindest-hearted, the most unselfsh
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 him-a trait which has
never existed among any other people,
perhaps. They live only to-day; to-
morrow is a thing which does not enter
into their calculations.
had a native youth in my employ in
Honolulu, a graduate of a missionary
college, and he divided his time between
translating the Greek Testament and
taking care of a piece of property OF
mine which I considered a horse.
Whenever this boy could collect his
wages, he would go and lay out the en-,
tire amount, all the way up from fifty
cents to a dollar, in poi (Which is paste
made of taro root, and is the national
dish, and call IN the native ragamuffins
that came along to help him eat it
And there, IN the rich grass, under the
tararind trees, the gentle sagages would
sit and gorge till all was gone. Ny
boy would go hungry and content for {
day or two, and then some Kanaka h,
probably had never seen before would
invite him to a similar feast, and give
: 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 chief,
worshiped-or rather sought to propiti
ate. Then there was Pele, a goodies
who presided over the terrible fires o
Kileauea; minor gods were not scarce
l The natives are all Christians now
every one of them; they all belong t.
the church, and are fOnder of theolog,
| than they are of pie; they Will sweat GU
a sermon as long as the Declaration o
Independence; the duIIer it is the NOR
| it infatuates them; they would sit Their
and stew and stew in trance of enjoy
5 ment till they fOated away III their owl
grease if the ministers would stant
) watch-and-watch 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 tn
service, they would never draw a sobe
, breath. Religion is drink and meat t.
? the native. He can read his neatly
printed Bible Gn the native tongue
{ every solitary man, woman and httl,
child IN the islands can,) and he read
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 thei
heroes-heroes who walk the world Will
their mouth full of butter, and who ar,
simply impossibly chuckle-headed anC
pious And he knows all the hymns YOU
ever heard in your life, and he sings
them in soft, pleasant voice, to native
words that make son Jordan's storing
banks 1 stand sound as grotesquely
and sweetly foreign to you as if it wer,
dictionary grinding wrong end frs
through sugar-mill.
Now you see how these natives, grea
and small, old and young, are saturated
with religion-at least the poetry anC
the music of it. But as to the practic,
of it they vary. Some Of the noble pre-
cepts ofssChristianity they have Away