The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1893-07-03
MONDAY, JULY 3, 1898.
MORE ABOUT NoRDHoFF.

In Mr. Nordhoff's letter of May 20,
partly given in our columns on Satur.
day, the weakness is even more con
spicuous than the insinCerity. He runs
to twaddle. He has several times charac
terized Honolulu as this queer gossipy
little town" Whatever social element Of
that sort exists here, he seems to have
tumbled right into it. 1t has infected
his whole letter. especially those por-
tons which we omitted to reprint. He
found somebody who had actually kept
lists of the people who had attended
the royal functions" for several years,
and favors the HeyaldS readers with
extracts therefrom. Has this once
great and eminent journalist really
fallen into dotage7 1t looks that way
One hardly knows whether most to
commiserate the Stiffness of this letter,
or to censure its pervading crooked
ness.
Mr. Nordhoff writes something like
a column in citing the testimony of
missionary" people here to the ex-
Queens immaculate character This
testimony is partly that they used to
associate with her and attend her
parties, and partly that they often spoke
favorably of her, and said nothing about
any defects of conduct He does n
produce any positive statement by these
good people that her character was
spotless, for no one Of them ever made
such a statement. What they did not
say is really to be taken as somewhat
significant, and the exiournallst is
twaddling very poor stuff when he
quotes as decisive the very guarded
words of commentator which they
were wont to use AS kind hearted and
wise persons, so long as the Queens
attitude was not deCisively hostile &c
their aims and social opinions, they
would do their best to speak kindly Of
the exalted lady. They would exhibit
all possible friendliness toward hel
socially, in the hope that she might
lend her powerful royal influence in
favor of temperance, education and
honest living, and against gambling
lotteries, vices and drunkenness. In
this hope it was their duty to ignore, as
far as possible, her suspected lapse'
from propriety, as long as there was nc
pronounced public scandal, Nothing
could justify any other course undeI
the existing circumstances.
When the Queen deliberately threw
off the cloak and put herself openly
at the head Of the lottery conspirators
and undertook to assume PRACTICAL,
absolute power, all hope was gone o.
influencing her for better things. Wa
was openly declared by herself on al
that these people whom Mr.. Nordhof
quotes had been contending fer. Al
the conditions were changed. What Il
more, the particular scandal referred to
by him had become emphasized by he
obstinate retention in Office of the per
son concerned. 1t had also received
extensive publicity through John E
Bush's exposures of it,
At the same time, it is due to thes
missionary" people to say that the
have been the last ones to give clrcula
ton to that kind of scandal belonging
to known and necessarily much tolel
ated weakness of Hawaiian character
All the literature on that subject pro
ceeding from them will be found t
have let that subject severely alone
until full publicity had been given to
by other agencies, The element q
idolatry they freely spoke Of TIL
other topic they habitually avoided.
One thing, however, Mr.. Nordho
and his Royalist friends oughtthorough
ly to understand; that renewal of Go,
eminent by paramours is thing tina
the controlling forces in Hawaii ar
not at all likely to take any chances c
having imposed upon them.
"SHE TOLD ME so HERSELF.