The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1884-10-22
THE SICK READER RECOVERING.

having done me the honor TO insert
my last scrawl; second, and espe-
cially, for replying to it. confess.
your reply breaks me all up and
leaves me legless; but | don't feel
4 bit hurt. Why didn't you pitch
into me hammer and tongs, and call
me an ignoramus, n know nothing,
fool, blockhead, dangerous
lunatic, an enemy TO good govern
ment, man bad at heart, and lots
of other hard names? | sec you have
Il great deal to learn yet. You arc
a stranger in this country. BY the
time you have been here year you
will have learnt that the Honolulu
style is to abuse and curse man
who dares utter an opinion ovcrsc to
your own especially if it he about
politics. To treat such Il man as
gentleman, and meet his views with
calm and logical arguments, is con-
trary to the fitness of things, is
casting pearls before pigs. Ii won't
do to import here any of your
Montreal and Nova Scotian notions
OF showing any measure of consider
alton for those who differ from you.
Honolulu newspaper method of
criticism is centuries in advance of
old, slow-going, respectable coun-
tries. Believe me, Mr. Editor. YOU
will have to read up n little Billings
gate literature, and learn to scatter
mud around in all directions, or YOU
had better shut up shop.
l once wrote piece for the Id
rertSer, one of those communicated
pieces. 1t was a great effort. Many
sleepless nights, half smothercd in
pools of ink and devoted to terrible
combats with dictionaries and gram
mars, | spent in its preparation.
When completed, | gazed on the
manuscript with bomdless admira-
ton, and thought it work of I'M
questionable perfection. It's sub
stance was IN expression of my views
on the then political situation, which
views were not altogetherin "accord"
Gas the government folks say) with
the other papers; and didn't those
papers go for me! They called me
NIL the bad names that can't be found
in any decent dictionary-I was a
liar, and cheat, and scoundrel,
and a pick-pocket, and an alder and
abetter of all the misdeeds of this
wicked little world of Honolulu.
They were ready to swallow me alive.
if they could only put their paws on
me. But | Glanced to he one of
those 'cowardly anonymous writers"
who haven't the pluck to sign their
names to their senscless ebulli-
tons" This was my only safety.
They wondered and guessed who the
crack-braincd idiot could be, but hit
the wrong man every time. was
dreadfully afraid the '9iser people
would give me away, and, to keep
on the right side of them, went
sneaking around there at night time
with pockets full of choice cigars.
OF course, ! didn't dare venture
within block of that establishment
by daylight. The cigars did their
work, and the benzine helped some,
and the secret was kept. But | can
tell you it is hard to imagine the
trouble of soul ! endured for about
two weeks, with the dread of some
great impending calamity pent up in
my breast. When the papers had
exhausted their fury on the " cow
ardly anonymist," and / had parti-
ally recovered my breath, | dis
covered that my nervous system had
received such u shock that couldn't,
to save my head, determine where
my proper place whether it
was breaking stones ON the roads,
struggling to release myself from q
strait-jacket at the Lunatic Asy-
lum, or dangling from the gallows
on the Reef. One thing only could
decide with certainty, that my
character was too black to permit of
my ever being admitted to member
ship in respectable society; and
from that time to the present | have
always looked upon myself as Il sus-
picious person, to be kept under
perpetual surveillance of the police.
Now, Mr. Editor, you see why ]
am so grateful to you. Instead of
taking it for granted right away that
am a blackIeg, and piling venom
on my head hy the bucketful-scum,
dregs, and all-you gratuitously as
sumo that | am a rational creature,
and proceed at once to talk to me in
a cool, logical, temperate kind of
way. This gives me Il new expert
ence. | don't feel terror-stricken,
or wounded, or pugilistic one par
ticlc, but quite peaceful and happy.
The spirit of your reply is unobjec-
tionable, and by its arguments am
" almost persuaded that you are
right. Just come around to Bache-
lOrs' Hall some evening, and we will