Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-03-10
SUNNY ISLES OF HAWAII.
HOW LIFE GOES IN THE PACIFIC
PARADISE.
Honolulu and Its Varied Population
-Amusements OF the City-home
Life OF the Natives.

Honolulu and Its Varied Population
-Amusements OF the City-home
Lie OF the Natives.
TN the silent waste OF the broad Pa.
ciac Ocean, 1000 miles or more
from San Francisco, lie the sunny
isles of Hawaii, which some day
may be part OF the United States of
America.
When you steam into the harbor of
Honolulu you begin to catch the flavor
Of the island. At one side tower the
gigantic mountain peaks Of Molokai,
where the leper lives.
A line of foam.fringcd reefs aud
a stretch of cleaning sand, where a
single group of sentinel palms rear their
heads In tropic beauty, make up the first
glimpse Of the island. Still beyond
these palms can be seen the steeples aud
hagstatfs and gray embossed green roofs
OF Honolulu, while, frowning down upon
it in the far background, is the dead
magni6cence Of crushed volcano.
The docks at Honolulu. which is the
capital city Of the Island Kingdom, pre-
sent a curious spectacle. To greet the
big iron Pacific Mail steamer, says the
New York Journal, there flock brown,
coppery colored natives, in their simple,
fower:decked CARDS, Acknowledged
Cinnamon, little subjects Of the Mkado,
Portuguese, Germans, Britons, Ameri-
cans, all coolly clad in white duck.
Honolulu has population of rs, 900
souls. 1t has fifteen miles of street rail-
way, 1900 telephones, 800 public hacks,
macadamized streets, lighted by electric
ity, and in its business part is we'll
built of brick aud stone. Its resident
portion is almost entirely of wood.
In Honolulu, as everywhere else in
the islands, one is struck by the charac-
ter of the population. Americans, En-.
glish and Germans number only $500
in all the islands. Portugal has fur
nished 5000 people, while China fur.
nishes 20, 900, the laboring classes 10 the
island being nearly all Cinnamon.
OF the pure native that once upon a
time alto up Captain Cook, there are less
than 50, 900, and they are dying At the
rate OF two per cent. year. But the
native had married with the alien race,
before dying, and the result is the half,
caste race, which numbers about 5000
and is very influential socially aud polit-
lcslly.
As you drive through the streets in the
hush of the early morning, you soon
earn what is meant by the luxuriant re-
pose of the tropic. The bloom OF un.
wontcd flowers, the FURNISHED sheen OF
the leaves, the lancc.like foliage OF the
palms, all tell you that you are far away
from battling New York.
The Hawaiian home is in itself type.
It is but one story in height, with a
broad lanai or wide verandah in front,
into which open wide doors from parlor,
dining room, billiard, and, in fact, from
all the rooms on the first floor, the lanai
being a sort of common meeting ground
for everybody.
Swinging in a hammock, one can
watch the white. frin9ed reefs where the
long Pacific breaks. Below you lies the
town IN indolent repose, and you drink
in the mellow air and become lotus
eater.
The lower rooms of the house are all
planned for GOODNESS, for we are in the
tropics, mind you. The windows are
shaded by blinds and curtains, the floors
are matted, with easy, light and grace.
full furniture. The sleeping rooms above
are planned for comfort, too, for ice is
a manufactured luxury in Honolulu,
and "keep cool" is the motto of its citi-
zen.
Still, there are many pore pretensious
homes than the one described in Hon
olulu, built after the American and Eng.
lish styles. Claus Spreckels, the "Sugar
King Of Hawaii, owns splendid brick
palace, while tue Government House, or
the palace OF the recently dethroned
Queen, and the Queens Hospital are
modern brick houses OF elegance. lu
fact, Honolulu is q town where civiliza.
ton is at high tide.
In no city in the world is there so
much business done by telephone as in
Honolulu. Nearly every house in the
city can be communicated with. One
fairly lives in q network OF wires. The
shop, the market, the doctor, tho dent
lst, the undertaken, all respond to this
long distance talk, and no small amount
of gossip wings its way over the sensitive
wires. 1t is so easy to laze away the day
on your lanai, with telephone at your
elbow, through which you can chat with
your friends.
sin the lanai we take no note OF time, v
is a favorite Hawaiian saying.
When early evening comes it is the fad
for every one in Honolulu to hurry to
Thomas square, the biggest open space
in the city, to hear the concerts given by
band of musicians. Their efforts are
aided by the singing of bands of natives,
whose music contains pathetically
weird strain, full of pathos. All the
Honolulu world strolls about in the mel
low moonlight, during these concerts,
while stately palms make fantastic sill
houettes against the sky.
Saturday afternoons, both in what we
call winter as well as in summer, the
Hawaiian devotes to pleasure. In Homo
lulu baseball is the fad All the island
world goes to the grounds and watches
gentlemen teams play. Many of thu
young ladies in the city 60 to the grounds
on horseback; some riding astride in male
fashion, but always with escorts. Ther
The Hawaiian Jockey Club has rac'
track near Honolulu, and to it, during
the racing season, the fair world and thu
brown world of Hawaii go.
At all these amusements the native
band is a conspicuous feature. The band
has forty members, all natives excep
H. 1oolo, h. 10 Carr,on nha ha nj