The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-01-30
AoURIoUs KANAKA CHARACTER
Bill Ragsdale, the Hawaiian Parlia-
mentary Interpreter.

During the early years of Kalakaua's
reign and for some years preceding, a
half white called Bill" Ragsdale, was
the official interpreter in the elective
branch of the Hawaiian parliament.
Ragsdale had great natural aptitude
for acquiring languages, and it was told
that when he visited a French man-of-
war the officers would not believe he had
not been educated in Paris, and that the
German navy officers wanted TO bet that
he had been educated from infancy in
Berlin. He was quick-witted, eloquent, a
fop in dress, and as citizen a good-for-
naught His official duties required him
to interpret the speeches of the natives
into English and the speeches of the for
elgnerS into Hawaiian. The latter was
| necessary, as many of the native members
from districts remote from Honolulu
and Hllo had little knowledge of any Ian
guage but their own. The former duty,
turning the natives speeches into En-
/ gllsh, was seldom necessary, as the for
elgn members were, naturally, men who
had been on the islands long enough to
master the simple and easily acquired ma
tive language. But it was duty Rags
dale loved, and its performance was a
source of constant delight to the foreign
members and spectators. His method
was to interpret every two or three SEN
fences, and he would sometimes suavely
interrupt a native struggling in an i'm
passaOle labyrinth of gntturals and leave
him there, in speechless amaZement,
while he launched into an eloquent ad-
dress on the beauties of the moonlight,
rainbow or some other equally unrelated
subject. Or a gray-haired member from
| Waikipoo might arise in his place and
exploit a few gutturals which were to
the effect that one of his oxen had been
| drowned in the Ulupelakua ford, and he
wanted to know when the government
| proposed to bridge that creek. Ragsdale
would rise, bow to the member, and pro-
! coed dramatically in some such manner
as this.
''The distinguished and eloquent mem
Der from Waikipoo desires to direct the
attention of the honorable members to
what he aptly characterizes as their la
inevitable lapse from their high sense of
duty which most distinguishes the pa
| triot from the politician. Not since the
/ regretted days of Kamehameha l. of glo-
rious memory, whose war club was as
the thunderbolt, and whose canoes SHIN
| mered DER the waters like the mysterious
lights which beacon the spray as it
! dashes across the coral reef not since
| the enemies of the great Kamehameha
| fed in alright up the valley of Nuuanu,
| and-fearing death less than the wrath
! Ol bublE puESuGI. hung butllSGlNCS ONOI
the Pail, where their bones in fantastic
! disarray strew the cruel rocks even now !;
not since the Juice of the ava first made
| the sailors of Capt. Cook delirions with
! Joy; not since then has there been on all
| these islands Kanaka so mad as was
! the honorable gentleman from Waikipoa
when his off OK sank in the treacherous
sands where purl the waters of the
! Ulupelakua."
Then the member, delighted to hear
that so little Hawaiian would make so
much English, would utter a few more
| sentences.
Ragsdale, in pretending to interpret
this would attribute to the member the
latest good story the interpreter had
probably heard on board some foreign
man-of-war. When he had finished his
story he would inform the member that
he was out of order. as the river and
harbor improvement bill was not before
the house; that the only bill before the
house was Bill Ragsdale. He had many
| foppish eccentricities in dress, so no par
ticular notice was taken when Ragsdale
began wearing one glove constantly, even
while Interpreting.
He furnished an explanation of that
when he gave himself up to the auUhori-
ties as leper and asked to be transported
| to Molokai. The fatal disease was mani
fest only on that hand he had Kept
gloved Through that hand knife might
have been run without Ragsdale feeling
it.
He went to Molokai, where he lived
several years, dying before Father
Damien. That good priest gave testimony
that Ragsdale's example in voluntarily
going to Molokai did much to allay the
discomfort of others there, and that he
was a cheerful, intelligent, and industri-
Gus aid to the priest in governing and car
ing for their unfortunate companions.