The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1877-06-16
PUBLIC ADJUSTMENTS.

TAX fsffaAs taArfAAs o. II AAAAuE 49, 49,
Willing away the time Of life. MoEalists'
legislators and diyines, philosophers, epicureans,
sensualists and atheists, IN short, every class
Of mankind that has undertaken 10 influence
the destinies of morsals, have all pronounced
widely different views upon this all important
question Of the Daodus rirendi. With some,
enjoyment, varying from the highest intellectual
pleasures TO the lowest and vilest sensual gra-
tifcations, has seemed TO be the natural way
Of spending human existence. Others, again,
have deemed 4 life Of austerities, privations,
and the denial of every mental and bodily solace,
the proper course to follow through this life,
as a means of securing happiness hereafter.
But, whether for this life or that to come,
men. "a a rule, have always, in one way or
another, inclined to the opinion that pleasure
is a condition of humanity, highly to be desired
and sought after. These general remarks are
intended as an introduction to 4 few practical
omment on the festivities of the great national
holiday, 81 Kamehameha Day, just celebrated
by all patriotic Hawaiians with becoming
enthusiasm. 1t is unnecessary to remark that
the celebration of national holidays is a custom
Of all civilized countries. which arises out of
the circumstances of their political, religious,
or social existence. In this Kingdom of United
Hawaii nei, the name OF its great founder has
been very appropriately adopted in connection
with a national festival of annual recurrence.
Some difference of opinion may possibly
prevail here, as elsewhere, as to the best mode
of celebrating the national festival. In some
countries, pompous pageants OF a religious
aspect, form a main feature of the celebration
Of the day of the nation. Operas, theatrical repre-
sen atoms, Nominations, and, in short multifari-
GUS modes, solemn or comic, are adopted as a means
of duly celebrating the national holiday. In our
lovely Islands. with their genial sunny climate,
perhaps no better plan could have been devised
than that followed at the recent celebration of
Kamehameha Day that is, to have attracted
the denizens of the Hawaiian Metropolis from
its sultry streets, with their inevitable grog-
shops, en- m0sse to the " breezy plain'-to use
n royal term very GprOpOS-of Kapiolani Park,
there to enjoy the exciting sport of witnessing
a trial of strength and speed combined between
noble speeds whose ancestral praises have been
sung even in Holy Writ by the patient Job.
'' Hast thou given the horse strength !? Hast
thou clothed his neck with thunder PSI asks
the Patriarch in enthusiasm, at the contempla-
ton of the war-horse who "paweth the
ground who mocketh at fear,'' and
g smelleth the battle afar off. the thunder of
the Captains and the shouting Those who
exclaim against the amusement of racing, as
immoral and Objectionable. are opposed by the
custom of all nations from the earliest history
of the world. Abuses, it is true, may creep
in, by the excessive practice of betting, which
seem to afford an argument against horse-racing.
But, where do not abuses unfortunately break
out? The Humane Societies complaints of
cruelty to the race-horses, are too absurd TO
need conlutation. Men are fogged by the
laws of civilized nations, England included,
more severely than any race horse. Six dozen
of the " cat" on the back of a human being,
is a matter for the meditation of the Humane
Societies, very different from the whipping and
squirting of race-horses. 1t may further be
remarked that all enlightened governments have
encouraged horse-racing, as a means of improv-
ing the equine breed. Thus, in Great Britain
at several of the great race-courses, the
'' Queens Plate'' is one of the prizes. Who
but a fool, would think of accusing Her
gracious Majesty of cruelty and immortality,
in consequence. Here, the Kings PURSE
is very appropriately also bestowed. In
Italy the custom of running horses without
riders, as at the Corso of Rome, called bar
Jeri or barbs, is an imitation of those trials of
strength in which horses in their wild state
voluntarily indulge. Thus, on the boundless
South American pGnPas where immense herds
of horses roam in native liberty, the most excit-
ing races take place between a lot of the young
colts of the herd, under the direction of an old
sire and m the OhServaut Spnota tor tbara nap bo
no doubt that he is looking on at a yeritable
trial of speed, voluntarily undertaken by the
young males of q herd under the eyes of their
own equine progenitors and that their strength
is also tested as we'll as their speed is evident
from the length Of the race, oftentimes more
than a league out from the herd to some huge
solitary tree, round it, and back to the herd
again, or six miles of q run. Such a race is
worth a hundred races among horses in a domes-
tic state. Because, there, the thoughtful observ-
er witnesses the Datural emulation of the noble
steed, sung by job, to Guido his fellows-and is
not human life itself a race in which all vie, like
the wild colts of the pannpas, to leave the
IS ruck - behind? 1t is absurd to laise the voice
against a sport so noble, in vogue from the
most ancient times, aud keenly enjoyed by the
mettlesome steeds themselves. What company
of equestrians, mounted upon spirited horses,
have not experienced the difficulty of reigning
in their pr~ancing coursers, when they all COM
menee to gallop, and each noble brute strives to
head his fellows! In fact, to conclude we may
aver that running races comes as natural to the
horse, as w~arbling to the singipg-bird, or bark
ing to the cur. The immortal Chateaubriand
said toUts nobeSSe Uient du cheUak,"-all
nobility comes from the horse The cheraHer,
the Knight, originally meant a a horseman.''
So, also, the Latin eques and even now, the
most courtly nation of Asia, the FarSecs or Per-
SLAMS, the q horsemen," par excellence, derive