The Hawaiian gazette., 1897-01-19


that would be free advertising, yol
see There, however, the wearied den
izen OF the busy town may throw asid
the petty conventions that lubricat,
society's machinery. There he ma!
don big shoes and cast-off clothing
yea, even denims. There elastic meal
hours and idleness are the rule.
Then he may swing for hours in {
hammock, bordering on the myster.
les Of life as he gazes up 10 the blue
sky beyond the clouds and waving al
garobas. He may watch the triumph
OF the dawn from a rocking boat, or
follow the panorama of sunset from q
jutJing pier. He may stroll or sail or
hunt He may catch crabs or eels or
sharks. He may loaf and invite his
soul or he may indulge in the social
dissipation Of seeing the train come in,
and take chances Of those nomad
horses being run over He may tempt
nervous prostration by trying, unin-
structed, 10 use one of these queer
country telephones that require so
much fOrmality. Then, TO crown all.
h may sleep ten hours a night, with
no raucous city noises TO disturb his
dreams.
All this he may count on doing, but
there is al least one thing he may not
dO-buy fish when he wants it. He.
may have II sent TO him on Friday or
as a hOokupu for New Years day, or
he may help himself from the broad
lOch il he can muster net, boat and
lines But buy. Hear my
latest fish story, which, unlike many
others. is strictly veracious.
I made one OF vacation party So
journing in this idyllic spot, and
planned a series of fish dinners, not
forgetting the savory chowder, whose
difficulties 1 long ago mad overcome.
All but one, il seems, the first getting
my fish But our dragoman was an
ingenious japanese. and he could set
fish al least. We babe him do so. A
journey east and west, no fish. A
muddy tramp TO the north, where the
red red soil in its determination to-
preserve its highways, freely supplies
every traveller with wide tires,
whether he travel with a horse or
alone a half mile of fish-pond wall
% ind a reputed Chinese fish-monger,
whose jargon. usually unintelligible, is
reinforced by shake of the head
No fish.
No chowder.
One last attempt We made-the veg
eIable vender is bribed, as it were. His
pit mai phi mahope sounds hopeful
But he. too, is a delusion and a snare.
But fish. We must have fish, for We
have invited guests TO a fish chowder!
In our desperation we send to Homo
lulu 10 the fish-maTket. Think of the
ienominy, when al any second we can
lcok out and see the silvery body of
some playful amaama turning a somer-
ssUlr in the air, The fish will be here,
and that is the main thing, even if we
may not see it caught.
The day Of company arrives in all
IT'S maguificence. the afternoon passes /
without a worry, and the guests are
properly enthusiastic. Dinner will be I
late. but the parting OF the mountains
and the sun is so sad, so beautiful that |
the mind is absorbed in beholding Il. I
All but mine ! and my trusty drago-I
man HE TO the train for the basket
and its fish.
Can / describe the awful horror, the |
hopeless desolauon, the impotent rage
that fall on me when the train speeds
away; no basket anywhere TO be seen?
What pacing up and down as the drag
oman searches, What telephoning east
and west, only to go home and IN
earth the fish We have in tin caskets.
With caviar and oysters, bloaters.
shrimps and sardines we exc out a mer-
~ meal. a fish dinner even, but not the
smoking bowl my proud hospitality in
tended
The sequel?
The next morning a stern visage
haunts the station, announcing my in
tenuon Of demonstrating forcibly with
some careless official. Alas for the
bathos Of lifei There sat the basket.
looking none the worse for its early 1
ride from Honolulu. its load of fish /
fresh as by a miraelel Little wonder 1
the unoffending official had not under
stood the message he received last
night But some one had blunderad.
Who? May he 90 supperless to sleep /
some night when he has planned
poi support As we walked home We
pondered on the irony of fate; it heap
ed a further insult on US as we reached 4
cur door. There stood the triumphant
II Trr-s
string Of fish, For the sake of the
future. We dared not refuse 10 buy, in
spite Of our foreboding of fish three
times that day. Somehow, we had lost
the keen edge of our fish appetite
Our japanese uamps to the nearest
store and invests in fish lines and
crab net And we have crabs and ulua
all we can eat. And the oldest inhabi-
tsnr tells us where we really can buy
mullei And the Chinaman comes