The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1891-11-06
An Interesting Paper By DR.. Lyons.
ABOUT
STORIES
WALI.
QUEER
The Imaginative Ruth Ward
Tells Some Tall Lies About
Ants in Thomas Square.
Some Things About Hawaii That Ha-
waiians Don't Know.

Another example of this class OF
fabrications, for effect, I take from an
article by Ruth Ward, in the June
number of the Popular Science News,
for June, 1891, purporting to give an
account of personal observations on
aant life in Honolulu"
"One day, as I was passing through
Thomas Square," the writer says, Il
noticed the leaves of an algeroba (sic)
falling in shower. AS the day was
perfectly calm I began to investigate
and found several companies OF ants
diligently saving at the foot stalk OF
the leaves, while others seized the
leaves as they fell and cut them into
circular pieces. AS they trudged TO
their homes bearing the fruits OF thelf
toll thew looked like animated leaves
moving along; and no Doubt it is from
this aDpearance that they obtained
the name of parasOl ants. With these
leaves thew sfeltn the dOmes of their
nests, some of which are three feet IN
height, thus rendering them 1mpef-
yioEs to even the tropical rains"
This is all interesting, and no doubt
gains O local color from the mention
of Thomas Square and algerOba trees
which if would not have had If taken
verbatim from the encyclopaedia:
Another passage in the article is still
more audaciousIy mendaclous:
az was fortunate enough to discover
q snecins of ant here that [ had been
seeking for months without success"
-diligent student of entomology that
she is Ga species that is incapable
of supplying it's own food or of feeding
itself If provided. They are known
to scientific men as slaVe-maklpg
amazon ants. They depend on their
slaves, which are of another species,
TO feed and clean them, nurse their
Young and build their nests. In my
experiments furnished them honey,
bnt thew would merely smear their
lens with it and die of starvation. L
have an ant that [ have allowed q
slave. for an hour day, to feed and
clean her, and now, after two months,
She is still well. The warlike expedi-
tions of these ants are indeed inter-
esting. I witnessed party starting,
between 3 and 4 one afternoon, in
column six or seven inches wide, the
signal to start being conveyed by
striking the foreheads of their COM
nanions with their antenn9e. They
marched along till they reached
nest of the sugar ant (Formlca fusca),
which they attacked with the utmost
fury, carving off the larvae and pup@
of the workers alone, which are easily
distinguished by their small size;
these they carried away with all the
energy of q Homeric hero"
OF course readers of the Popular
Science News, except those IN Homo
lulu, will get an exalted idea OF Ruth
Wards acuteness as q sclentlflc OBJ
server. -,
A French traveller, M. Mounill, who
made tour of the Hawaiian Islands
in 1884, has written book, lilies Ha-
wall; un printemps sur lie Pacltique,"
from which we may learn, perhaps,
how our continental European friends
see us. The national bias of the
writer will show itself in a variety OF
WAYS. particularly when he has occa-
sion to speak of the relations OF Ha-
wall to America. Descriptions of the
sights and scenes encountered in his
travels are, in the main, not only
vivid but tolerably truthful, but there
is a constant tendency to add artistic
touches of establishment that have
such an air of probability that readers
at distance will accept them as
faithful transcript OF facts.
Here is an illustration, in which 1t
"a only the last item of the descrip-
tion. otherwise beautifully expressed,
Win the
1t is the twilight hour in Honolulu.
GA gentle breeze from the mountain
-shivering which precedes the a6so-
lutte quiet peculiar to tropical nlghts,
Tbut is this true p - sways the
branches of the cocoanut palms.
On the water OF the harbor
deep and motionless, two or
three ships, with furled sails, IKE
huge birds at rest, seem TO sleep,
and through the channel between the
breakers are seen coming IN the frall
canoes of the coral fishers, returning
with their red and white treasures"
So Punchbowl is assembled "by a
foot path which winds among an
Gent lava flows, through TALL Weeus
and thorny shrubs"
Canoes tscarved from the trunk OF a
cocoanut tree'' are repeatedly spoken
of. 9 80,
The king is said to spend little
time in the palace, never to sleep
there indeed-"probably because OF
his fear of earthquakes, which, al
though not so violent as on Hawaii,
where several shocks are felt every
day, are frequent enough; scarcely q
week passes without reminder that
the people of Oahu also are at the
mercy of the caprice of Pele, the
dreaded goddess of the volcano"
Where shall we find literal orig
inal of this picture: ga hundred
wards from the palace there stands,
Surrounded by great trees, enveloped
ina dense mantle of epiphytes and
lichens q large frame cottage sur
rounded with lanai. Honey
suckles aud vines embOwer 1t, ana on
the moss covered roof, the least
breeze from the sea brings down an
avalanche of ohelos, ohias, lauhalas,
(the fruit one is to understand,
rather than the leaves) white and red
camelIias and roses, until the long
bamboos rattle again under the
shock.n
~ he Informed assert that there is q
third royal residence, concealed in
the most secluded spot in the
grounds. an humble but built of bam-
6oos and thatch, the spot of all Others
dear to His Majesty. There in his
moments of leisure he can lay asIue
his burdensome European costume