The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1883-08-13
A MYSTERY "
THE OREENT r!
tBy Our Special Reporter)

captains whom for the sake of dis
tincton we shall call captains a.
and n. One of them is now retired
from active service but the other
still ploughs the waters of the briny
deep or as he himself puts it "takes
dig up the channel occasionally"
The conversation turned on Honolulu
and its amusements and occupations.
Said captain A. as he drained the
dregs of his glass of lemon soda and
took another whiff at his Manila
"1ou newspaper men never take a
tumble even though house should
fall on you. You go writing up the
Chinese Theatre and its acrobats,
and the Band concerts, and other
trhlng little things, but you never
get hold of anything to interest the
public" eyes, that's so,' chimed
in Captain N, "'the papers are us
dull as the paint on a whaler after a
three years. cruise" "Well," said
your reporter, show can we help
that. Nothing ever happens here"
"Oh, give us rest," said captain
A., "why don't you write up the
fashionable opium dive 'The
what 2" exclaimed your special.
'The fashionable opium dive" re-
peated the captain, "don't you
know anything about it, and you
newspaper man ?'' The scribe had
to confess this ignorance. "Well,"
said captain A., you come along to-
morrow night and N. and l will take
you there and show you some of
the sights.
Next night according to appoint
ment we three met and after supply
ing ourselves with the needful we
started out. AS am not going to
supply your readers with information
as to how to get to the place shall
skip this portion of my adventures
simply stating that the Hawaiian
name of the place is Ai mah0nah0
OLE. 1t is at the end of a long lane
behind a high fence with but small
gate opening OH the interior and to
the ordinary observer would indi-
cate that nothing of an unusual or
suspicious nature was going on be-
hind it.
Once however you have stopped
and passed the Rubicon of the small
gate the unusual cleanness of the
yard arrests your attention. Inside
the yard every speck of dirt OF mud
is scrupulously removed. A wooden
pathway to the house is kept so
that, to use common phrase-you
might eat your dinner off of it.
The house was an ordinary frame
building with verandah and the
usual stairs. At the door sat the
host smoking long pipe and on a
little table beside him stood blank
book of Chinese paper. My COM
panions accosted him rs All Ming,
being apparently well acquainted
with him. They motioned to lie to
do as they did and put down five
dollar piece each. / did the same
and we were each handed d slip of
paper after he had inscribed some
characters Oh it. He pointed to the
door and we went inside. Here
nothing beyond the usual furniture
of a Hawaiian room was to be seer
and we went into the back room
Right in the centre of the room wa'
an open trapdoor and q staircase
leading down from it some wher,
underground. Down this my com
panions descended without word
followed; the way being easil,
picked out by the light from an oi
lamp suspended in the cavity il
which we found ourselves. From
this narrow passage hung witt
silk led into room having on eacl
.;do +u,o bonnhoo oo,oboo aud n,