The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-04-27

dren is that it breaks the hard, ten
acious burr of even Chinese tradition
and conservatism, and develops the
child in each little body.
These odd looking little butterflies,
with their yellow skin and almond
shaped eyes, take up the kindergarten
exercises and raise their tiny hands
over their heads and swing their slen-
der arms for cradles, and when it so
happens that a girl is within the ring,
though she be daughter OF the girl
hating nations, she innOcently dareS to
choose a boy for her partner in the
game if she wants him to succeed her
in the circle. There is perfect equality
between the sexes in this school, and
one cannot but contrast the happy lot
of these little maidens and the sad fate
of so many millions of their sex and
age in that land from which they have
been so early and so blessedly brought.
The next two schools, one Japanese,
the other Hawaiian, are in different
rooms of Queen Emma Hall. This was
once the private residence of Queen
Emma, widow of Kamehameha ". 1t
was never palace, only comfortably
furnished private house, suitable for
the tropics, and standing in garden
of noble shade trees and fine royal
use now.
The Japanese of Honolulu have, for
the most part, dropped the dainty dress
worn in the sunrise kingdom and have
adopted a foreign style, at loss of all
pictursequeness. From being the dain
test, most fascinating little creatures
when in their national kimonos of
bright but never conflicting colors, they
become very ordinary and sometimes
even ugly little mortals.
They are decidedly clever as schol-
ars. There is a little more sitting on
the floor in this school than in the
others, because that is where the ordi
nary Japanese sits when at home.
The teacher is a full Japanese girl,
educated in the Government schools of
Honolulu and a scholar always first
in her classes, whoever might be sec
ond. Perhaps of all the kindergarten
schools there are none where there is
so much dainty refinement as here |
These children at home have been ac-
customed to the most elaborate polite !
ness, and they bring it with them to |
school.
The Hawaiian kindergarten is not |
specially different from a white school !
of the same kind. Hawaiian civiliza |
ton, in it's degree, is a reflection of |
American civilization. The girls in the |
school are in holokus and barefoot; |
the boys are in shirt and trousers. The |
teachers are an American and half
white girl The children are natural |
musicians and readily learn the little
songs of the school, They naturally,
like all their people, geSticulate good |
deal and like the motion songs. There
is possibly in this school a little more
than in the others,
though usually the Hawaiian is the
most self-possessed and dignified of
persons. But now the children do not
finish their exercises without some
bashful smiling and shy glances toward
the white visitors. and some nudging
Of their neighbors to bring them up to
the highest mark. Each seems to feel
a responsibility for the good behavior
of the other. This school is another
among many, many efforts made by
TO save the gentle, gener-
Gus. kindly and lovable but careless
and improvident Hawaiian people. OF
all children, none are more quiet nor
more easily taken care of than the
Hawaiian child, none less quarrelsome,
none more obedient.
Space fails me to tell of the school
in the heart of China town, where a
sheds its benificent inf1u-
-Hte ONtI INNtS liNCS uSSuh III Tic lOIoi
darkness of heathendom. Nor can l
ell you of my friend, out of whose suf-
ering experience and consecrated life
mas grown this lovely work for the lit
lie ones of Honolulu, nor how she
axes upon herself the burden of pro-
riding the funds necessary for carry
ng on the four free kindergartens, but
love to tell you her name is Harriet
Castle Coleman.
ELLEN McCULLY-HIGGINS