Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1882-09-23

have for season listened in vain for it, how
the heart throbs as the eye grows dim with
the memories Of the past which it awakens.
lis the old, old melody" Island slaves
Miseries of the Serfs on the Sugar Plantations
"A Gloomy Picture Of Wretched Men-What
an Impartial Observer relates Of the hard
ships endured by Laborers in Hawaii - etc.
How well we remember the Impartial OBJ
server above referred to He was tall; very
tall; awfully tall There was something wrong
about him, but just what that something was
it were difficult to state. The head was too
small for the body, or the heart was too large
for the trunk, OF the legs were too long, OF the
memory to, short; at any rate he didn't seem
like any other man but like individual portions
of several men swept up and patched together,
and this creation is known in the CbyoHicle
office as an Impartial Observer.
lie never did anything-but smie may not
have been obliged to do anything but smile;
this was his affair. Vet, stay There was one
thing he did and he did il with avengeance; he
| sought introductions, he even demanded them,
and when this failed him he was wont to step
up like little man and introduce himself
This sort Of thing would have looked like
=" cheek " in any one else; it would have been
called "brass or "impudence in any one
else; but the Impartial Observer is a rare bird,
and is not to be judged 10y the laws that govern
common humanity
lie talked fuently, and was never weary of
asking questions, foreveran Impartial Observer
gets his data at second hand and in his pursuit of
knowledge under the difficulties that are likely
to beset his path in this kingdom, he must ask
few questions now and again.
oh, yes And then he went to Hawaii and
stemmed the CORY tide of life on a sugar plan
tation. He became a luna: it must be that
he became lima for the purpose of more i'm.
partial observation; at all events he became
one, and drove his men into the field. Having
called the miserable creatures about him, he
said unto one do this, and to another do that,
and forthwith he opened japanese parasol and
lay down under palm tree to read. He could
not bear to see those serfs toiling in the rain,
and the sun, and the bottomless quagmire; it
was as much as he could do to draw his salary
without paralyzing his conscience. 1t was hot
ter than tophet; the white slaves from the far
north were gradually melting and running
down like rivuets into the mire; bitter blasts
blew from the snowy submits of Mauna Kea
and froze the South Sea Islanders in their
track. This was worse than slavery in the
ante beiinm days; this was quite too much; so
the Impartial Observer readjusted the parasol,
turned over on the other side, for he was high
and dry, and opening volume he read sadly
under the palms.
Under the palms The boss overseer passed
deep sea; the pathetic after-glow was dying
out of the west; the serfs had evidently re-
paired to their miserable quarters, for it was
supper time and now they were compelled to
stop toiling; but the Impartial Observer slept
the sleep Of conscious innocence; centipede
kindly kept the place in his book for him and
the sprightly spider had spun gauzy veil over
the rim of the parasol, exquisite web that
sheltered the beautiful dreamer from the cool
dew that was gathering under the palms.
He left very shortly after that experience;
the heartless manager of the plantation did not
care for reader; the "miseres of the serfs -
were in no wise ameliorated by the presence OF
an Impartial Observer with literary turn; the
light of his countenance did not soften the
gloomy picture" little while they saw
him coiled under the weird palm tree, impair
tial and observing to the last; little while
and they saw him no more forever.
He folded his paraso; repaired to the me-
tropolis; took few brief turns in the gay
waltz at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel; listened,
longitudinally, to the matinee concerts in
Emma Square, and then faded away in the di-
rection of the coast
No one seemed to know Just when, or why,
or how he came to the end; no one seemed to
care. 1t was his business; it begins to look as
if everybody's business was his business; and
now, no70, because between the parasol, the
palm tree and polise literature he fell into dis
credit, he takes sweet revenge by gratuitously
contributing his mite toward flooding the sew
erage in the Chronicle Office.