The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1878-03-30
Letter from San Francisco.

To the Editor Of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser
Although the same mail that brings my letter
will bring the papers with details of all matters
of interest to the latest date, I trust 1 have friends
in Honolulu who will care for my words, even rs
one often prefers to hear a story told, rather thar
read for himself. If the papers do not speak of it,
all private letters must tell what the writers 80 know
about the weather. and l must say | have seen
nothing here, so frequently as rain. Oh. the pour
ing showers the d%ribbling mists the penetrating
fogs the whole disa greeable category of watery
forms that the atmosphere IS capable of exhibiting
And not for a day or two, but every day for
weeks Tickle as the wind, has no longer any
force. Uncertain as weather-signs in San Fran
cisco, would have more meaning. The sky may
be spanned by rainbOws at night the sun may
sink into a bed of rose-colored clouds the stars
may wink and blink as innocent as If they never
thought of mischief, and in less than an hour the
rain will be pouring You go out in the bright
sunshine in the morning, a cloudless blue above
you, a soft, pleasant air around you, umbrellas
and rubbers behind you, and by the time you are
as far from home as you wish to be you discover
yourself in a fog, or under a drenching shower.
Lovely, isn't it ! L have wondered lately, if the
contented Shepherd of Salisbury Plain, ever knew
anything about such a climate as San Francisco
has soaked in for the past two months Up at Sacra-
mento there has been a fearful food, resulting in
loss of life and immense loss of property. Early
in the season the prospect of total failure of crop
for want of rain, was very threatening but when
the CLOUDS were OpeueQ, u Fdlu ueSCeuueu anu
the foods came,'' and there is no &c let-up'' yet,
although l believe the sun is making frantic efforts
to get behind the clouds, to-day.
Next to the weather comes the times" and
"hard times is no legendary tradition here,
now. Our city is in a fearful state resulting from
the lack Of work for the thousands who have
focked here. The Chinese have been imported
until 10000 hold the very heart of San Francisco,
and since the greed of gain possesses the souls of so
many capitalists, these Mongolisns are employed to
tho eyclusion 0f the whites because they will work
for wages that an American citizen can not live
upon. Thousands of boys, girls and women are
now idle, or busy In sin, because their places in
the shops and factories are filled by the owners of
the queue and blue nnukeen. 1t would make your
heart ache, to see, as l do, every Sunday, the fair
beardless faces of boys that fill the felons, cells in our
City Prisons Of over two hundred prisoners in our
county jail more than three 4ths are less than twenty
five years of age and more than half about twenty
one or less Think of it Ask them how they came
into this place they tell us " no work idleness
bad companions drink crime" And this result
must follow the c~roWding of the labor market by
foreign Importation, Just as surely in one place
as another. 1t is the effect of a cause.
1t would pay the Hawaiian government to send
a commissioner to California to study the effect
of Chinese immigration, before any more are
brought to your Kingdom. You have not the room
to spare them, and you have not the moral, physical
nor national power to spare, which they will inevi-
tably absorb. 1t is no uncertain problem here.
Its results are figured out, and already marked
upon the bulletin-boards of the future. If the
knife of legislation does not soon excise this mon
strous growth from the fair shoulders of Columbia's
Pacific daughters, she will lose her richest Jewels.
For the Aslatic concer, moral and physical-upon
the body polite will eat from surface to vitals till
we shall become a thing of scorn and repuIsion
among the peoples of the earth. As | read the
records OF lmportations to Honolulu ealthough YOU
number them only by scores, l pity you 1t is not
men who will marry your daughters, increase YOUR
commerce., build up your cities, that are coming.
now 4; 1t is not intelligent industry, and available
wealth that you are importing. 1t is misery and
degradation of the EXTREMIST kind. And Hawaii.
nei has not yet developed enough of national vigor.
has not yet acquired enough of moral power TO
resist and Withstand the destructive influences that
come with these people.
A Californian scribbler long ago gained an ac-
knowledged position in the literary world, by assert
ing that " the heather Chinese is peculiar, but
he left as to find out by sad experience the features
of his peculiarities. But we know John now
know him only to despise him or, if more kindly
inclined, to only respect him when he dies and
goes home to his Celestial Kingdom over the seas.
Political disturbances, excited by demagogues, can
not prevent the spreading of the curse, and now
that We have these people here, te ought to do
the best we can to graft them upon our national
tree, so that they may bring forth desirable fruit.
Bot there is such danger of destroying the parent
branch by this effort, that | think other political
gardeners ought to examine our orchards, before
they attempt the cultivation of the,-alas,-no
rare exotics.
Next to the Chinese and the 8orking-men's prob,
lem, has been the Temperance agitation here.