The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1896-01-17
LAB0RERS.
SUGGESTION FOR RETIREMENT OF
THEIR CONDITION.
Cleanliness Said to be Their National
Plantation Life Foreign
to Their Nature.

EDITOR STAR:-Presiden Dole, at one
of the recent meetings of the "Labour
and Supply Co., probably sounded a
true note when he suggested, speaking
of the Japanese labourers that, IL plan
tations made their quarters more
pleasant and comfortable, "labourers
would remain"-A wise sentiment
But some will say, Sentiments! Don't
talk of sentiment-what has business to
do with sentiment Much-very much
The pursuit Of wealth divorced from
sentiment is dangerously near degen-
Grating into something that begets
frame of mind fraught with but little
real satisfaction.-At the meeting
above alluded to, President Dole was
followed by a speaker who remarked
ON the trouble of making the Japanese
keep their quarters clean" May not
their environment have much TO do
with the conditions complained of /,
and would men of any race crowded
together without their women folks, he
likely to do any better? Much in the
lives of Japanese on our plantations is
probably very foreign to their nature.
From one of u series of letters on the
Ear Eastern Questions" Iquote the
following:
The kindly welcome everywhere ex-
tended to the foreigner by the highest
and the lowest may possibly spring
rather from the Unborn courtesy of the
Japanese than from any special friend
illness toward Europeans. The charm of
polished and kindly manners, no less
than the exquisite Dutch-like cleanli-
ness, seems to form part and parcel of
the Japanese nature. Neatness
in dress and cleanliness in person, house,
street, boat or carriage are instructive
with these people-it is an instinct of
perfection and order Their
most worldly occupations are lighted up
by halo Of joy and good TASTE"
We in these Islands, who boast of
Western civilization and business acum-
en-, are face to face with one Of the most
admirable and remarkable people of the
world; a people whose illustrious
antiquity is now blossoming
and bringing forth fruits which
will present many valuable lesson.
We must learn what their Jinjutsu
means and understand that simplicity
OF living, in our case, will have much to
do with it. Whatever we think about
racial differences, one thing is sure and
certain of accomplishment. The fittest
men will beat in the race and survive.
May quote from the same source as
above other interesting matter. Speak
ing of the Biva Canal the writer says
"tunnelled for couple of miles through
the heart of mountain chain, it is a
feat of native engineering, conceived
and executed solely by japanese, that
may well deserve comparison with the
Periyar Canal IN India which
ranks as one of the proudest achieve
ments Of Anglo-Indian engineering
science. l came away (from
the Kioto exhibition convinced that,
while for purely mechanical excellence
the products of Japanese labor can com
rete with the models which it has Dor
rowed from Europe and America, the
delicacy of touch and refinement If
feeling peculiar to a nation
more highly endowed than
any other at the present day with
sense of artistic beauty, inverts all its
work with perfection of grace and
charm absolutely unrivalled." These
Sir, are not words of the author of
"Out of the East" of whom a critic
says. "Mr. Lafcadio Hearn is in love,
and Japan is his MISTRESS" but from
sober matter of fact letter from the
special correspondent of the London
Times, Oct. 85. From Mr.. Hearn's
book is taken the following bit of word
painting from chapter entitled "rhe
dream of Summer day." "Mile
after mile roamed along that
shore looking into the infinite light.
All was stepped in blue, marvellous
blue, like that which comes and goes in
the heart of a great shell. Glowing
blue sea met the blue sky in bright
ness of electric fusion; and vast blue
apparitions, the mountains Of Higo-
angled up through the blue like masses
of amey thest The universal
colour was broken only by the dazzling
white of few high summer clouds,
motionlessly curled above one phan-
tom peak in the offing-They
threw down upon the water snowy,
ing far away, the only sharp lines in all
clouds! White purified spirits of clouds,
resting on their way to the beatitude Of
NirvaDa? Or perhaps mists escaped
from Urashima's box a thousand years
agoT For delightful version of how
the mists came to escape a Thousand
years ago" let those of your readers, in
Ierested in such matters, go to the book
itself. Thanks to some ones good taste,
it is in our public library.
Since writing the above have had
the pleasure and advantage of listening
to the words of On observing lady re-
Gently returned from sojourn in Jap.
an. She closed some interesting obser-
vations on what she had seen and heard
amongst that brave and amiable people,
with these words: "Oh", she remai X
ed, .they are 30 much better than we
are" These are the folk that some per-
sons when they stamp them as "Orient-
ais appear to think they have placed
them on plane far below our own.
and settled their unfitness for a
participation of life in these Islands.
Let it be remembered that out of the
East have come the profoundest think
ers and most beautiful lives-Christ,
Buddha, Confucius, Nichiren and Moses
were all Asiatics, and out of Asia sprang
the roets of the very language in which
we boast of our superiority. Says Mr..
Herbert Spencer: "The only possible
measure of relative validity among our
beliefs is the degree of their persistence in
opposition to the efforts made to change
them" Think for moment of the
flour hundred and seventy millions OF
our race VINO i've ana Ole IN the terrett
of Guatama. More than u third
Of mankind owe their moral and reli-
glous ideas to this illustrious prince
whose personality cannot but appear
the highest, gentlest, hottest. and most
beneficent, with one exception, in the
history of thought" II, unhapp;ly, al
Buddhists are not worth followers OF
Guatama, neither are all Christians con
sistent observers Of Christ's teachings.
May l, sir, in conclusion intimate thai
attention to President Dole's suggestion
and much that it leads up to, will
doubtless help TO make the conditions OF
life on our plantations more desirable
Laborers are very seldom illtreated, bu
are they as rule meeted that persona
consideration, at once so convincing
and conciliating?
Courtesy is the real ring Of nobl,
character, as mere invest
ment, il pays a large dividend" Espe
cially, perhaps. may this he said in re
ference to the Japanese who are them
selves declared to be the most courteou
of people, from Emperor to peasant.
l am, sir, yours obediently,
CACoETHEs SCRIBENDI.