Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-08-01
LAST OF THE HAwAI1ANs.
A Race Which Is Being Succeeded by
the Chinese.

A Race Which is Being Succeeded by
the Chinese.
San Francisco Chronicle
The laws of nature, which have de-
creed the extinction of this once
powerful people, are working swiftly
and surely, and in a few years more
some one will write the obituary of
the last of the Hawaiian race. lust as
that of the Last of the Tasmaniausn
has been written. Men are living who
can remember the time when Kane
hameha, surnamed the Great, could
summon thousands of strong-armed
warriors to fight his battles. but the
heir Of his throne could not get hun
dreds to-day. His lands are in the
hands of the stronger And that
stronger is the Chinaman. He has
found the place suitable to his tastes.
He has made it his home. and in n
few years it will be his to rule and
enjoy. One thing which has tended
to render him secure in his claim is
the close afiliation he has made with
the dying race. Wherever the Chi
nese have gone, excepting to America,
they have married the women of the
land, and a half-caste race has sprung
up, which has taken the language,
habits and customs of the father
There are thousands of half-caste
Chinese in Australia, the offspring OF
Mongolian fathers and Anglo-Saxon
mothers; there are hundreds of thou
sands in the Philippine Islands. the
Strait settlements and the Malayan
archipelago, the offspring of Mongo-
liam fathers and mothers of Malayan
origin. The same thing is taking
place in the Hawaiian group.
A rigidly-enforced law declares that
no man and woman shall live together
as man and wife unless they are mar
rled. The Americans, English and
French have intermarried with the
native race, but the Chinese have done
so more extensively than any other.
The majority of the native women pre-
fer the Chinese for husbands. Their
habits are better than those of the
natives, They work hard, accumulate
property, become shopkeepers, have
homes and take care of them. The
natives are lazy, shiftless fellows, con
tent with taro patch, mat and poi.
The Cinnamon look out for the rainy
day: the natives do not. Hence the
reason of the choice. The Anglo
Saxon take the cultured few, the Chi
nese the mass of the women. While
the native marriages are fruitless, or
result in the production of weak
progeny, those between native women
and foreigners produce race superior
in intellect and physique to the moth
ers. There are only 235 full-blooded
Chinese women in the kingdom, and
these are all wives. Chinese prostitu-
ton is unknown. Several high bid
ders from this city undertook to intro
duce it, but the better part of the
Chinese merchants protested, and pro.
duced such a commotion as to cause
the abandonment of the system. In
the Glums of Cape Horn, Pensacola
Bay, "The Black Sea, The Japan
Sea, and other disreputable quarters
of Honolulu, all of which, by the way,
have been named by sailors, no Celes-
tlal siren is seen; the women found
there are natives, without exception.
Another curse OF the Chinese peo-
ple-opium--is also absent. A strict
law prohibits its importation in any
form, and woe betide the man who is
caught smuggling it. No fine will be
accepted. A sentence of imprison-
ment in the prison on the reef" is
the only course which follows conyic
ton. The law is followed strictly and
justice dealt out impartially. The
Chinese merchants favor the exclusion
of the drug, though many of their
people resort to every device to get it. |
1t is shipped from here, concealed in
all kinds of merchandise, and the
saloon walters, ETC., on tho Pacific
mail boats and men upon trading YES
sells bring it from San Francisco, Aus
tralia and other places. Attempts
were made to send it ashore at every
calling OF. the steamers and vessels.
but the custom officers are yigilant.
and the smugglers are often caught
and placed on the reef. Opium is in
great demand, and fabulous prices are
sometimes paid for the possession of
small parcels which have escaped the |
vigilance of the authorities, The |
general impression Is that all Of the |
Chinese love the drug, yet there are |
hundreds of them who look upon it
and refer TO it as Cough or Murphy
regards and speaks Of whisky. When
the ChiHese first settled at Honolulu
is now a matter of discussion. One
apparently trustworthy account says
that several of them were there when
the missionaries first came. At all
events the year 1910 found a few Chi