The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1878-03-09


Is on trial. As everybody knows, the Commodore, after
giving each daughter about half a million, turned
over the residue of about ninety millions to his
son William H. There was q row of course, and
William H., in order to purchase a peace, gave to
each daughter a sum which made up an even million
all around. Mrs. La Bau alone refused to take his Of
fer, though the money, in a great box, was taken TO
her parlor and spread out before her. She had means
of her own, and determined to break the will. The
daughters who had compromised cannot now ap-
pear in the fight as contestants, but they are secretly
aiding the fighting sister. If the will is broken they
will, of course, come in for full shares. If they can
not break the will, they are to have the satisfaction
of " showing up William H. as a coarse, sinful
creature, who has cheated them out of their birth
rights. The public look upon it as a mere matter of
temper. 1t is hardly possible for them to drive out
of decent society William H., who is now the richest
man in America. Even if he does get covered with
mud, a gift by him of one hundred thousand dollars
to some great charity, will turn the tide in his favor,
| and the verdict will be " not so bad after all!' With
his present income Of ten millions a year, he will be-
come, in twenty years, the owner of some three hun
bred millions. His life has not been Puritanical,
and after burning the candle at both ends, his ten
millions a year will not restore him. Even that sum
CaDuOl Uuy nlIn d SOOu l1d * ID d Hdu "
small capacity, and no general culture, but he has
had a most excellent training for the last ten years,
under the eye of his father.
Cornelius Vanderbilt, jr, who is figuring as a wit
mes in Court, is an odd. half witted fellow, utterly
incapable of taking care of himself. The Commo-
| dore paid his debts q score of times, but it was a
waste of money. Whenever his name is mentioned,
a laugh follows, because he, the half-witted, in some
way became quite intimate with Horace Greeley,
and finally borrowed, and did not repay, the sum
of forty thousand dollars.
The Commodore had coarse, common tastes. He
sneered at education, but he had a marvellous gift of
insight. and power of getting at facts. He was not
a man to work up a scheme, and after he was deeply
involved, discover a mistake, an omission which
was fatal to success. He did his thinking before
hand, and like all great organizers he knew exactly
what be wanted to do.
THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.
For once. in the history of this city, the rum SELL
ers 60 about the streets as mourners, and the grog
shops are generally closed. In 1857, the Legislature
passed a law providing that licenses to sell liquor
should be granted to hotel keepers only. Though
the law was really O dead letter, the liquor interest
got a law passed in 1869, intended to repeal the law
of 1857, so that licenses could be given any persons
of good moral character. From that time licenses
have been SO granted and seven thousand gin mills
have the city. But a perverse and de-
termined temperance man in the country, got hold
ola law opinion that the Legislature had really never
repealed the law which confines licenses to hotel
keepers only. This man got up a test case. 1t
went through the lower courts, and lately our high
est court-the Court of Appeals-has decided that
valid licenses can be granted to hotel keepers only.
Then the temperance man called on the Police Board
to shut up the seven thousand rum shops that were
selling under illegal license. But the Police Board
were afraid to face the vast and concentrated power
of the liquor interest. Here, suddenly a Judge of
the Supreme Court tells the Grand Jury that they
must indict officers who fail to do their duty. So the
Police Board, under fear of indictment, began to ar
rest all men selling liquor without q license. Then
the Mayor, pressed by the liquor interest, steps for
ward and says to the members of the Police Board,
You have behaved badly. Your are bound to keep
the streets clean, and you don't do it. l make
charges against you, and shall remove you from of
fce." His real grievance was only that they were
executing the law, and he did not want them to do
it. All this at once brought to the city a lot of Re-
publican ofice-holders, who flung themselves across
the Mayors track and threatened that if he, a Demo-
cratic mayer, should turn out the Republican Police
Board. the Republican majority in the Legislature
would legislate said mayor out of Office. So the
Mayor abandoned his charges, and said that on the
whole the streets were very clean. If you can de-
tect in all this matter any plan for the public good,
you do well. This is q brief account of the way the
81 machine is run - here. The Legislature is now in
session, and 1 have just learned by g private wire,''
that the Legislature is willing to repeal the obnoxious
law, provided only the liquor interest = will make it
an object, i. e. send $4,000 to Albany to assist
meritorious legislators in meeting living expenses
q simple and practical way of securing equal and
just laws.
NATIONAL POLITICS
Are in great confusion. L remember a picture in
Punch, where four gentlemen after dining and
drinking together quite freely, are placed in O hired
cab by the good host, who kindly says to the driver,
put left hand corner in such a place; put right
hand corner so; put left back seat in such a house.
But when the cab arrives at the first house, the poor
driver finds the four occupants, timber and flexible
from drink, all mixed up together, and lying loosely
on the floor of the cab, a mass of legs and arms in
utter confusion appearing on the seats and through
the window, and he exclaims g them fellers has a
gone and mixed themselves up, so as l don't know
which is which 20 Such is the political situation
to-day. Since Mr.. Hayes announced his civil service
IL NJ