The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1894-05-05
CHURCH-GOiNG IN HAWAI-.
Adult Worshipers Smoking Pipes or Sleep
Ing and Girls Enjoying Their Cigars.

Adult worshipers Smoking Pipes or Sleep
Ing and Girls Enjoying Their Cigars.
Sunday at the great church, not n
chimney to relieve its barn outline,
writes n correspondent. A little girl
sits at h entrance smoking "A cigar.
This entrance is as fioorless as if at n
circus; the sexton, a Chinaman all
joints, is pulling at the church bell.
AS wOrshipers enter, the bell-puller
stops to talk with those who come in,
until all sound ceases and we enter.
The plastered walls inclose a large
area. Here is a family in a roomy pew
near the door-four children with the
mother and father. As the service
progresses the children must be
amused; a loaf of bread is produced,
and while the mother nurses the baby
she cuts three slices from the loaf and
adds these to the spiritual food which
is offered her restless young ones from
the pulpit.
Directly below the preacher two old
women are seated sideways, confront
ing each other, their arms firmly clasp
ing the knees. Each smokes n pipe; as
they smoke they nod and yawn. From
the congregation loud snores are oc-
casionally heard; two little boys, close
by the preacher, skirmish with UNI
brellas. One of the boys is driven to
the wall; the father of the defeated
comes from the body of the church
and roughly drives away the boy who
has discounted his child. Young men
and women stroll down the a~isles, or
step over the backs OF seats to get
drinks, sometimes returning with n
mug or calabash of water for a friend.
A horse thrusts his head through q
window and looks quietly upon
the audience. However, in spite of
these events the main portion of
the large assemblage seems undis-
turbed; the mother with four children
produces a rattle, a dernier resort, to
quiet the baby. A woman Is seized
with headache, she loosens her hair
| and signals a friend, who crosses to
her in Decline, bestriding the backs OF
the seats, and kneads the muscles of
her head in native fashion Qomi lomi).
Pausing in his part (he is, by the way,
the only tenor voice in the choir, a
young man takes from his pocket a lit
tie mirror and comb, carefully arranges
his necktie and combs his hair, stand.
ing in full view.
"LookI'' cries the preacher, on tip.
toe, and with vigorous gestures "iook
at the sea, look~at the old hill, there
are enough raw fish and taro, while
you are complaining of famine! Why
doesn't the Lord bring you ~calabashes
full? Oh, you are too lazy! GO to the
ant" etc. Turning to me, the
only stranger present, he trans
lates this part OF the sermon, the inter
ruption being received with equanimi
ty by the people. Suddenly descend
ing he borrows a cap which he hold.
toward each person in the audience
not excepting his own family, fol
money or a written promise to bring II
next Sabbath, and enters into a dis
cussion of pros and contras, when hi
parishioners object to giving. The de
linquents blush and stammer with ma
tive grace; a few young men who at
tempt to slip away from their obliga
ton are checked by a brisk turn of thu
minister's ~spectacles; he forces bacl
change upon such as give beyond hi
Approval; the little ones who hav,
brought n kaneta are praised an,
thanked. AS n father guiding his chill
dren this good man lives i'm their conf
dence and love.-Boston Transcript