Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1876-02-05
The Sandwich Islanders Lament
Wicked bat witty
From the 81. Louis Repubtican


A gentleman. who appears To he "A re~i,.ct
ly reliable person. has been In and rotated
the subs lance of a CO. versatiol' he recently
engaged in with an Intelligent native Of to.
Sandwich Islands who was convertet Ia
Christianity SEINE years ago. and has since
acted as native missionary. the Ssui-
witch Islander is at present ia this corntrv
on tour of information. He has been il
san Francisco several times, but never cas-
of the mountains before. though he speaks
Englisn perfectly, and would scarcely he
taken for foreigner here Were 1T not for the
dark color of his face The gentleman VINO
describes the conversation with the Sand
witch Islander gives the substance of in the
latters own words nearly as possible
Said the newly civilized man. in the course
of a confidential interchange of thought:
Yes. as you say, civilization Is undouot-
edly great blessing, and feel a great deal
more respect for myself since / became a
convert and since my people gave up some
OF their savage practices. We never eat the
missionaries now, no matter how low pro-
visions may run, and the last of the men
who were really entitled TO be considered
eplcCres III missionary meat died some time
ago. L regret To say that when he died he
didn't seem 10 appreciate all the benefits of
christianity as he should have done He was
tough Old fellow, who used To be a kind Of
undcrchief in the old DAYS, and lust hpfore ba
G1ed went around 10 see him and try TO
smooth his pillow, as il were. He wOuldn't
accept any consolation. but grow ed out that
he would like 10 have one more square meal
OF nice young theological student before he
died. and then he turned over with his face
towards the wall aud passed away. know
It's weak and sinful, but sometimes. though
I'm mis- Ouary myself now. dc long for
return OF those good old times when IL seemed
like kind of providence that when The
hshing was bad and good eating of any kind
bard 10 get missionary was always sure to
land. Sometimes one wOuld come so poor
that we'd have To siall-feed him on she'll
fish and things for a few weeks before he'd be
fit for the table: hut this didn't often happen
We generally disposed OF them about as
soon as the bills of fare could be printed and
distributed around. missionary shouldn't
be in too gOoi condition. like fat and lean
coming in streakS together best and that
was the general taste. Onca, when a very
fat mission airy arrived. we had 10 trOt hi IN
up and Gown the beach hours every day for
week or two TO reduce him to a condition
fit for eating Some of the connoisseurs on
the Island used to pretend to distinguish a
difference between the taste of preachers
Of different denomination but | never
could myself OF course there's "A great DIFF
ference in the quality of different Joints
of missionary. Just as there is in beef
or mutton. Some like shoulder of
missionary boiled, with caper sauce and
some always go Tor a drumStlck, ant
others Ike nothing better than TO nibJle
away at finger bTOIled. As for me don,t
want anything better than q nice rib rbnn
scOrched little and brought on with a Sprig
OF parsley To give IL an airO of ueatneSs and
freshness. Once "a missionary came out with
his wife and two year-old boy The wife
died on the voyage, but the missionary and
boy reached us all right. j shall never for
get how that child tasted We baked him
whole, stuffed with bread crumbs and onions
ana thirgs. and no roast pig ever made sucn
a heavenly dish. | nave read what your
Ar. Lamb says of roast pig. and | cannot
but regret that be was not there TO taste that
child. He alone could have done Justice to
the subject. The dish was talked of for years
afterwards by all The epicures on the islanI,
It's all vanity now, know, and as a Chris
t!an missionary l ought lever to think of
such things, but can't always restrain nv
self We were poor, misguided creatures Of
course, but those were halcyon days"