The Hawaiian gazette., 1880-06-09
.aluaiia1t Q5azette.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE Q. 1850.
Review.

Review. @
nard Clancy Boston Roberts Brothers, 1880 u mo
PIP. 299.
In Rev. G. L. Chaney's book, aloha Hawaii
mel has received another of the complimentary
notices with which these Islands have been so
often favored. 1t is very pleasant reading. The
author has not only the faculty of putting on
paper thoughts that breathe and words that
burn which only natural enthusiasm can enable
any one to do: but he has also the skill of the
practised artist, whose words show us the sights
they describe, and whose style of expression gives
the vividness of actual life to the language in
which his mind communicates to us his impress
sions and experiences. Waikiki and Hilo, Cocoa
nut Island and the Waikiki Valley stand out
from these pages of his outline, proportion, and
distinctness, as objects of real vision not shad-
owy, misty, vague conceptions of the mind. We
sit with him on the upper veranda, and lose all
consciousness of the flight of time as we lose our
selves in the may mysteries of fern lore. We are
churned into listless wearisomeness as we ride
rabbit-legged steeds over Mauna Loa's lava-strewn
slope to Kilauea,s fiery chasm. We enter with
full sympathy into the experiences of discomfort
and the logged endurance of travelling for plea
sure board our inter-island vessels. Our reason
approves as fair and Just the opinions expressed
of men and things of habits and hopes, of policies
and practices that come under the travellers OBJ
servation in the brief time of his soiourn these
Islands. We admire highly some passages in
which the author gives the reins to Pegasus and
scars above the visual and the commonplace to
the realm of the ideal and the spiritual
But-and what would criticism or conversation be
without this expression of honest difference of
opinion ? The book is sketchy, and therefore,
from its very nature unsatisfying. 1t gives bits
of scenery that will for cabinet pictures not
a full-sized, full-mounted canvas with land
scape of wellproportioned breadth, and depth, and
height. 1t may be answered that the book does
not profess to be an exhaustive treatise, sta
tistcal survey and to complain that it is sketchy,
is like finding fault with gold nugget because it
is not diamond crystal For all that readers will
be as unreasonable as lovers. and expect in any
book every conceivable excellence as in the be-
loved of the soul is fancied every imaginable
chasm.
Aside from the sketchiness and its attendant
unsatisfyingness, the book shares with Miss Birds
charmingly written - Six Months in the Sandwich
Islands, general quality which may be called
romancing" One fond mother was wont to ex-
cuse her boys bouncing" talk by saying that
the dear child had so much imagination" AS
the steamer came up to the pier, veracious trav-
eler says, the entire population seem to have
assembled on the wharf, % Everything and every
body look merry and festive" "The universal
interest which visiting stranger excites is not
due in the least to his rarity, or probable superb
Ority, In any respect to the usual society of the
city" One does not like to deny that these
things are so,-but it seems somehow to take away
ones breath to notice the way in which persons of
unquestionable veracity will put things" 1t is
a stunning style of expression. You will miss
the sweetest spot earth, if you do not go to
Hilo." Whew-w-wl Do the Just twelve white
families in Hilo " know what paradisaical home
theirs is?
This world is all a heeting show
For mans illusion given"
But if TO Hilo you II only 20,
You'll find it next TO heaven.
Dispel the illusion Break down the romance
Never. Let people go to Hilo and find out for
themselves what "the sweetest spot on earth "
really is. Such language calls to mind the saying
of Father Taylor, the famous sailor minister. He
was asked if his son-in-law was Christian man.
HE is not exactly saint" was the reply, "but he
is a very sweet sinner" The exact truth may not
have been told about Hilo, but the description
given is all Sweetness and light" In this ex-
the author of this book is not " sinner above all
others" But we feel in regard to this as one
Mandatory description after another is published
to the world, very much in the mood of the Arkan-
sas jury, pronouncing their verdict ON a friend,
q Not guilty but better not do it again.
Descriptions of natural scenery are too apt to
be tame and fat but in this book we have some
admirable word painting. Take this as speci
men. Above all stands Mauna Kea, the perfect
mountain. Its rise is so gradual and its summit
SO far away, that there is nothing threatening or
impending about it. One is not startled. or over
powered about il. At first he rather wonders that
1t does not look higher, with its fourteen thousand
feet of stature. 1t has the greatness of the angels
above us, yet with us or, to keep within the range
of human observation, it has that fixed and tran
quill look which long experience meekly borne,
TO the faces of the WlSpSt and hest
have known. Its greatness was achieved, not
merely native or compulsory. For unnumbered
years. it had patiently built up its great mass and
drawn its noble outline against the sky. 1t had
gone through the waters, and they had not over
flowed it, and though the flames had enveloped
it, no smell of fire was in its garments. Among
historical characters, it reminds most of John,
the Evangelist IN youth, a son of thunder, invok-
ing fire to come down and consume an unbelieving
world in ripper years, the calm, receptive soul,
into whose brooding mind the spirit of truth
poured the revelation of the Word. "Dost thou
tarry till He come r! we ask, as We look up at this
permanent prophet of a better world; and far up
on the mountains summit light, "white and
giistening," seems to say, He cometh now.''
" He cometh nowi See clouds of heaven Frightening
And golden street across the waters laid
From East 10 West: behold! His coming shineth,
Loves kindred see Love in the things He made.
In the opinions expressed of the present condi-
ton and future prospects of the people and the
country there is the evident udcious fairness that
commends itself for its candor and general truth
fulness. The necessity of prohibitory liquor leg
islation is shown to be measure of vital import
ance life here is to be worth the living for or this
nation is worth the saving. Like every genuine
New Englander, trained to habits of provident
economy and intelligent industry, our friendly
critic think there is woful lack of thrifty habits
and dilgent labor and proposes "trade schools
and industrial art institutions" as panacea for
remedying the defects of the tropical ways of liv-
ing and working. AS to the standard of religious
morality of the native population, he says very
10 Clrtc4
average Hawaiian are about equally successful
Very properly he compares the success of mission
airy effort in bringing about Christian civiliza-
ton here, and the results of Christian effort for
the American Indians during period of time four
times as long. His estimate of the value of mis-
sionary labor in these Islands is the estimate of
one who believes that men have souls and his
hope for the future of the nation the wel-founded
expectation of an intelligent and friendly observer
of the resources and capabilities of the country
and the people.