Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-05-07

THE FUTURE COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE OF TIE
/ eRoUP-THE ORIGIN OF THE rsLASDERs-A
/ LECTURE FOR THE SBwsBoYs' AID soCIKrI.
| St. Johns Hall on 18th street held small
but very attentive audience last evening on the
occasion of DR.. Y. D. Collins lecture on Hawaii
for the benefit Of the Newsboys' Home. DR..
Childs introduced the speaker as having had
extraordinary advantages in travel and being
more than usually well qualified to speak Of
the Sandwich Islands He then went on to tell
Of the movement in aid Of which the lecture
was to be given, which has been alive for about
4 five or six years. He showed that whereas the
project had been to give aid to deserving and
needy newsboys and bootblacks it was soon
4 found that few of them needed help, and dur
ing the entire period there have been but six
newsboys helped with money. The main work
| of the society has been directed toward reliev-
/ ing the condition Of the waits, straggiers and
runaways that are to be found on the streets Of
any great city, and as the organization has de-
veloped it has gradually enlarged its scope.
Little is known Of it by the public, yet it is
working quietly and effectively and all the
time progressing. He spoke of the methods Of
work in the society. how the agent hunts out
deserving cases Of helpless little ones and takes
| them to the rooms Of the society on 18th street
| and every night makes q round Of the streets
and picks up the waits that he finds huddled in
out-of-the-way places. In the three years past
lodgings have been furnished to ], 500 children,
4.4S meals have been given and 4SS garments
distributed, while places have been found for
4S4. and all this at an average monthly cost of
less than $780, The society, however, is in
need Of funds to enable it to go ahead with its
work and this lecture was one of the means
adopted to this end.
COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE OF HAWAII.
DR.. Collins is q tall, venerable-looking man,
with long white beard and q kind face. He
spoke for about an hour and quarter Of the
beauties and wonders Of the Hawaiian Islands,
where he has spent a good many years of his
life. He said that the story Of Hawaii. with all
OF its romantic features, furnishes the material
for grand epic poem, yet unwritten. There
is a feeling, he remarked In passing, that the
islands should be part Of this country or at
least that their destinies should be placed in
our hands. The group forms the halfway
house between the two great continents, and
in time, when the spread Of civilization shall
have given to China and Japan a perfect reci-
procity with the rest Of the world, when Aus
tralia shall have become q great country. the
Pacific ocean the main channel Of trade and
the Nicaragua canal shall have opened up vast
interests to the world. these islands will become
of the first commercial importance and Homo
lulu will be more valuable than Singapore.
Speaking Of the religion OF the islands, DR..
Collins said that there was q period, soon after
Its discovery, when the islands were perfect
pandemonium, produced by the presence on
them of large numbers of sailors from the
whaling vessels that made this spot their
rendezvous. But the spread Of Christianity
has been swift and sure, and now the islands
are again in state OF comparative peace and
religion.
HOW HAWAII GROWS IN SIZE.
The Island Of Hawaii, the largest in the
group, is constantly increasing in size, owing
Al a Il
out to the sea and flow over, and make the
shores Of the island overhang the main stem Of
the formation. The average temperature is
about seventy-fve degrees Farenheit- There
are about $50 active volcanoes on the group,
those in Hawaii making the grandest display Of
volcanic activity in the world. The islands are,
of course, of volcanic origin and of vast an
tiquity. The island Of Kauai, on the extreme
northwestern edge Of the group, is probably
the Oldest, this being determined by the pres
ing richness, which will make the owners Of
the island very wealthy as soon as the problem
Of irrigation Is solved.
There are coral formations all around the
islands and the sand from these mixes with
the black pulverized lava to form the most
beautiful contrasts of colorings. The islands
are in places covered with beautiful forests,
which have, however, been swept away by some
of the great lava flows that pour out from the
craters and roll down to the sea, carrying away
of cataracts on the islands and only one real
river, which flows eastward from the slopes of
Maunaloa on Hawaii to the Sea-
THE ORIGINAL SANDWICH ISLANDERS.
There are many speculations as to whence
came the original inhabitants of the islands,
but all theories are improved and rest only on
guesswork, as there is no real evidence Of the
source of the population, which has been set
tied in the islands so long that the traces Of
their coming are wiped away by time. II is
probable, however. that they driftsd thither
from some unknown shores and brought with
them dogs hogs and rats, the latter of which have
SO increased in numbers as to become q positive
pest The mongoose has been introduced to
exterminate the rats and have themselves
become a nuisance.
At the time of the discovery Of the islands by
Capt. Cook the inhabitants numbered hundreds
Of thousands and were divided up into tribes
without any binding allegiance. There were
several independents tribes on Hawaii alone,
but after the death of the discoverer the main
chief OF Hawaii began q campaign, which re-
suited in the subsection of the entire combina-
ton of tribes and their unifcation under one
government.
LIKE ANCIENT oREHKa
The lecturer went on to tell Of some Of the
customs Of the early Hawaiians showing them
to be very like the ancient Greeks and Romans
in some of their traits and habits. Their sys-
tenn OF pagan religion. too, was similar to that
devised and followed by the old peoples Of the
shores OF the Mediterranean. He told the story
Of the discovery by Cook and the death Of that
bold sailor on the shores Of Hawaii, due to the
fraud which he had practiced on the ignorant
natives OF the island.
He then spoke Of the beauties Of Honolulu,
which, he said, is . paradise compared to
Washington. with its flowers and trees and de-
ightful atmosphere. He spoke Of the lepers on
the island of Molakai and said that in his
opinion great many of them suffer from more
ordinary diseases than leprosy, which did not
exist in the group when he went there in 1859.
There at that time, however, q great
amount Of blood poisoning and vast number
of cases Of cutaneous disease, but no leprosy,
which has developed since.
In conclusion, the speaker told Of some of
the greatest eruptions that have taken place in
the islands, painting picture of grandeur al
most beyond the power Of imagination to con-
lure up before the mind.