The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1880-02-04

IT Is sometimes said that Honolulu is the
most hard-working place within the tropics.
Our geographical position gives US, it is true,
right to consider our city as tropical, which
right is quite unsupported by any of the cli-
matte conditions usually appertaining to towns
SO situated. But, on the other hand, there are
many countries further away from the equator
in which the weakening effect of warm
climate upon the physical system of people of
northern race is considered, and where pre-
ventive or remedy is found in an abatement
of the hours of toll appropriate to more tenn
perate lands.
Little is the wonder, then, if when an cpl
demic breaks out here il seeks and finds Us its
objects many people whose constitutions might
under different circumstances have been al
most proof against maladies of ordinary
strength. The atmosphere of the office or
store during the day, varied by that of a lamp
lit room by night, forms from years end to
years end the lung-food of large part of
Honolulu.
Granting that hard work is necessary to us,
and that il is not injurious if within reasonable
tion exists whether we really obtain the great
est amount of real result out of the unhagging
monotony Of work and inaction from seven or
eight o'clock on the first morning of January
until late on the thirty first evening of Deem
Der in each year.
In other countries, where the hours Of labor
are no longer and the climate not more ener-
waiting to the northern physique, sissta dur
ing the heat of the day, a weekly Saturday
afternoon, a summer furlough of ten days, or
a sprinkling of government holidays through
out the year. furnish some means for recreat-
ing the bodies and minds which might other
wise wear themselves out at the grindstone
In Honolulu we hardly avail ourselves of even
the few days annually pointed ont by our gov
ernment as desirable for holiday change
When we are i'll, we overhaul government
sanitary measures with very proper zeal but
this is matter in which certainly official
boards cannot be criticized: and it is for each
individual worker to remember that health
and recreation are very closely connected with
each other.
There are perhaps those amongst us whose
idea of desirable recreation consists in retire
ment to some out Of -the-way cabin in compa-
ny with a case or two of ardent spirits and
this recreation, followed as it may probably
be by a return to work minus spirits of any
kind and plus very uncomfortable headache,
is not calculated to assist the Board of Health
in their exertions tor the general welfare. To
such mistaken holiday makers We would re-
commend whaling voyage, or term of ser
vice on a guano island, as being far better for
body. mind and purse than is suburban
drinking bout.
But for the man who wishes to use his wits
intelligently and proftably, and to give him
self the best chance possible of living as long
as his grand fathers, what opportunities for
enjoyment, physical and mental, what means
of release from anxious care and of refresh
ment TO wearied frame exist within our own
group of islands, even in Oahu itself
A week on the verdant slopes and lofty up
lands of Maui, or ride through the forest-clad
and fern-decked gOrges of windwari Hawaii,
over the cool plains of Waimea, and perhaps
into the neighborhood of the giant mountain
tops where snow and ice are found almost
perennial, would recreate many hard-work-
ing denizen to such degree that in increased
energy of mind and muscle he would soon af-
forwards be able to more than repay the cost
of his excursion. Three days over the Pail,
by the windings of Kahana river, in the dark
coolness of Kaliuwaa, or on the pretty BAYS of
Koolau, would well fit many wearied toiler
for vigorous return 10 his desk or his lathe.
Even a Saturday afternoon ramble to the rock
pools of Diamond Head, or into the fairy-glens
of upper Pauoa valley, would often cause
Monday morning to bring a cheerful and
healthy resumption of labor instead of a
tagged and dismal continuance of the everlast-
ing grindstone.
'' ras, qudndo ego ts aspicia'n," wrote an
ancient poet whose mind was weary of the
busy gaietY of an Augustan court, and whose
thoughts have been echoed and re-echoed for
centuries since he wrote them down Why
should it be reserved for the toilers of Hawaii
alone to deny themselves the true recreation,
of body and of mind, which nature and ma
ture's God have so abundantly offered them