The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1895-02-20
GEMS OF IGNORANCE.

grew, OF COuLn OaAoIo' 06
resolution of sympathy for the Re-
public of Hawaii, recently defeated
in the United States Senate. Mr..
Pettigrew, in a speech before the
Senate last July, shows that he
knows as little about affairs Ha-
waiian as it is possible for any
human being walking on this
spheroid to know. At that time he
was opposing the continuance OF
the treaty between this country
and the United States. His speech,
az a prominent gentleman of this
country has well termed it, is "a
curiosity, full of gems"-of ignor-
ance. After calling the natives of
the soil an impoverished and de-
graded people, he goes on to say:
Gall that a man in the Hawaiian
Islands is obliged to do to gain a
living is to plant banana tree and
steal a fishing line. A Republic
implies intelligence, education,
mutual forebearance, tireless en-
ergy, enterprise, tremendous indus
try, the towering of domestic vir-
tues. A monarchy is the best pos
sible form of government for a peo-
pie who are not fit for anything
better. The natives of the Hawai-
ian Islands today dress in calico
gowns, and, as when Captain
Cooks shadow first cursed that
summer land, they sleep in grass
huts and lazily live on feb and poi"
When this Government takes up
the matter of bureau Of informa-
ton, Mr.. Pettigrew certainly ought
not to be forgotten. He could,
without doubt, expound more new
things about the country In five
minutes than the oldest resident in
a week. Just listen to this:
In the Hawaiian Islands are found
the most contradictory conditions. In
q small bel along the coast and in the
few low-lying valleys the conditions
of life are easy, for the heated air
makes clothing unnecessary, and the
fertile soil enables all tropical fruits
and vegetables to grow almost with
out the planting; but In all the rest OF
the islands exists the temperature Of
our Northern winter. Having an area
about as large as Massachusetts, and
population about q quarter as large as
that Of the city Of Washington, these
islands are mostly composed of vol
canic scoria, about as unadapted to
vegetation as so much cast iron. 1t Is
the crater Of the vastest volcano in the
world, desolated with Ice and fire,
generally either too hot or too cold for
human endurance. Nothing which
the face OF the planet presents to man
is more bleak, barren, inhospitable,
meDacing and terrible than the tre-
mendous area which constitutes the
peak of this mountain of flame. So,
while the maintenance of life in the
valleys and along the hot coast seems
easy, Hawaii presents no more temp
tation to the enterprising emigrant
than Ecuador or the equatorial regions
OF South America, where the mango
natures with ease and man with diff
Guilty.
If the few invalids of the country
had only known this before, what
an amount of money would have
been saved by getting a taste of
that invigorating climate which is
sought in different sections of the
States. Could Mr.. Pettigrew come
here and lecture few weeks, doubt
less every man, woman and child
would soon begin to wear overcoats,
and the Government send out an
exploring expedition to find that
desolated peak of ice and fire. He
forgets to mention the natural ad-
vantages we have of a warming
oven, about which the half frozen
residents of the "other islands"
may gather and toast their toes
before retiring for the night.
This gem of ignorance has for
us crossing sentences the following: |
Il believe the people of this coun-
try will resist with all their power
this scheme of territorial aggran-
dizement which aims 10 .amalga.
mate with our hardy, thrifty, &C
tive, overcoming race this mass of |
indolent, filthy, leprous, neryeless
savages of the southern seas"
Senator Pettigrew's term expires
the fifth of March, and possibly u |
year Of travel or treatment for dye.
pepsia might have a beneficial |
effect.
When one reads the wise expo