The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1889-05-11
TIE
RENASCENT CULTURE.

WV y C"AS N'SPiOlSN INV, ~ hhog ~
admitted, without cause.-the laps
ing of this community from the high
plane of intelligence and culture ac-
corded it pretty freely by literary
visitors from abroad. 1t has often
been heard stated that no "sensi-
BILE" movement for the elevation of
the average standard of intelligence
has any chance for attaining longev-
ity in Honolulu. Even at time
when this might have been the most
strictly just judgment, however,
there was assuredly respectable
remnant" of brains which largely
redeemed the community from the
condemnation due to ounces and
Sdunderheads." In that period we
find the Honolulu Library and Read
ing Room Association erecting a
building that, taking respective
numbers of inhabitants into consi-
deration, compares favorably with
the public library of the city of
Boston, the "hub'' of culture, if
not of the universe as has been fa-
cetiously claimed for it by its citi-
zens. Within the same period Ex-
celsior Lodge of Odd Fellows is
found maintaining very respect
able library, containing, it is said, the
best assortment of bound volumes
of early Honolulu newspapers ex-
tant. Through the dull intellectual
regime alleged we also find a Social
Science Association-even if closer
corporation than the tenets of the
Republic of Letters may be suppos-
ed to harmonic with-undoubtedly
source of culture and a disseminator
of useful knowledge. The Y. M. G.
A. had in those years established
and kept efficient a reading room,
where the best and freshest
periodical literature of America
and England was always to
be found, and where were
to be seen, day and night, availing
themselves of the privileges thus
presented, old and young men of
those classes whom it is an object of
that institution to reach. Occasion
ally, even, numbers of studious
brows might be seen knit over the
valuable fund of literature contain
ed in the Government Library in
Aliiolani Hale. Numbers of organ
izations might be named, connected
with the various churches, whose
aim is for the elevation of the intel.
lectual and moral status of theil
membership, which held their way
braVely through the same years. All
this does not look like famine OF
even a scarcity of intelligence in the
land. Still, as said before, il
must be admitted that there has long
been ground for more or less con.
Germ over the Indifference of large
proportion of our people toward
everything except the acquisition Of
the dollar and the having of what is
called "a good time generally il
truth meaning rather bad time
Intermingled with this too frivolous
if not to be styled vicious, class ar,
those whose highest intellectual cul
tivation is fostered by current fiction
the more perniciously excitin!
and grossly unnatural, or too ma
tural as to nutriment for the bruta
elements of humanity, the more ao
ceptable to their spoiled ment;
tastes.
OF late, it really seems as if th
intellectually inclined remnant wa
increasing, whether as the crop fror
the seed scattered by the agencie
previously enumerated, or as re
suit of people firing of idleness @
mind, becoming jaded with thing
that are unsatisfying to their bes
natures, or being influenced b
spontaneous impulses and the trans
fusion of exotic blood into the vein
made sluggish by tropical condition
acting upon dispositions bred
harsher climes. AT all events,
revival of the things that are prone
tive of culture may with gratifc;
tion, at the present moment, |
noted. Some of the organization
hitherto mentioned have been di
playing renewed yigor in catering
the mental hunger of the crowC
Their efforts in this way, it is plea
ing to observe, have not been III
rewarded with goodly measure {
popular response. "Practical talks
by talented citizens in the rooms {
the Y NJ G. have crowded th