Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1893-04-14
The Hawaiians.


than his master. His deeds Of kind
ness stop only with his ability. In
war Hawaiiaus have been fierce
enough, but personal quarrels are al
most unknown among them. If one
Hawaiian hates another he does not
strike him. He SAYS to him, calmly
Il hate you! l will pray you to
death ~ And the hated man does not
resist. He lies down and meekly dies.
This is literally true. When Hawa-
iian native makes up his mind that
he must die that settles it. You may
dose with your doses and doctor with
your doctors until you are weary.
The gentle savage mildly says to you
that it is useless, and. signing. dies.
They are a passionate people, but
their passion has no place for hatred.
There is enough love to absorb it all
love OF men for women and women
for men, love for music, love for sun
shine and Git might almost be said
above alb love for plants and flowers.
Men and women constantly grid and
wrpathe themselves with flowers \
Hawaiian is not fully dressed Unless
there be garland Of blossoms about
his neck In the market places of
Honolulu little black boys squat ST
lently with eggs aud fowls and fruits
to sell. Clothing they have none. but
each wears his flower wresths. With
out this he would be as strange as il
he had lost his smile And each man
purchaser in his "nalo, each woman
in her single garment-the pau,
hanging sleeveless and loose from
neck to heels is similarly adorned.
Their morals? Ask the missiona
ries and they will tell you that their
labors prosper pleasantly. On some
of the hard stone roads that wind
around the hills and through the val
leys, little churches are so frequent
that natives in directing travellers on
their way, say, speaking of his desti-
nation, 1T is three Cor four or five, rs
the case may be- churches further
ou." Thievery on the Hawaiian Is
lands is unknown. Locks and bolts
are as scarce a. snakes, and they do
not exist in Hawaii any more than
they do in Ireland. Yes, the people
are ereligious-Christianized, If YOU
please-yet sometimes dusky figures
will stealthily gather at some secluded
meeting place. and by glimmering
light of flickering candles and tiaring
torches. beautiful maidens and tawny
Youths will indulge in the illegal "hu-
la hula" or night dance. There is
much of the barbarans left, although
so much that is civilized has been i'm
planted.
The islands are as beautiful as the
people are good natured. Never
ceasing verdure, which invades every
nook afTording fingerhold for II cling
ing tendril, until it is hard sometimes
to guess which is habitation and
which is thicket; towering noun
tains, often capped by inextinguisha-
bic volcanic fires instead of snow ;
winding valleys, through whose bos-
ky depths crystal streams glitter in
the summer and change to raging
torrents in the rainy season-all these
are there with other wonders-all
beautiful. BY the wayside grass cot
tages for the natives and pretty wood
en- structures for the foreigners offer
open-heartcd hospitality to the tour
ist. Breezes always blow. They
blow health to the foreign invalid; {;
but. alas they sometimes blow hor-
ror and death to the native.
Leprosy is decreasing in Hawaii it
is said but still the famous leper col
onv on Molokai, one OF the most beau
tiful islands Of the group, does not
lack tenants. Narrowing farewell
scenes are not unusal at the isolated
Honolulu wharf from which the leper
boats sail. Aloha r. murmurs the
departing one, which means farewell.
Aloha aloha - cry the dear ones
left behind. and they rend the air and
fill their mouths with ashes in the eX-
tremity of their grief, for II is 'alosh '
forever The human freight on the
little steamer is carried oil its plung
ing. wave-rocked way TO a doom more
terrible than death-a living, breath
ing. conscious decay. In that leper
settlement all that is not human
thrives and blossoms and Is fruitful.
All that is human gathers some new
loathsomeness, some novelty Of hor-
ror with each succeeding day.
This blight and the nelplessness OF
the Hawaiians when they believe that
death is lowering near, have much to
do with the steady decrease in their
numbers, which in twentv-one years
has amounted to A per cent. But
there are other reasons for this de-
cline. The delicate, natuIe-loving
Hawaiians seem not to thrive under
civilization. Foreign diseases OF how.
ever simple sort are almost always
fatal with them. At the present rate
the lapse OF not many years will bring
a time when few full-blooded natives
ora live