The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-07-24

Honolulu Letter, Globe-D Democrat.
The Hawaiian, or Sandwich Islands,
are 21 degrees north of the equator, 2loO
miles southwest from San Francisco
and 3400 miles northeast from Austria
liza. When Robert Louis Stevenson was
living in Honolulu, in the Hawaiian
Islands he wrote to a London friend
how to come where the author was
abiding. He wrote:
You go across the United States to
San Francisco: there you go aboard
steamer then take the first turn to the
left"
There are eight islands in the Ha-
waiian group, of which oahu, Hawaii,
Maui and Melokai are the principal
ones. Hawaii is by far the largest is
land, and has over 1900 square miles.
Molokai is occupied by a colony of
Iepers, and Faui is one-half lava beds
and extinct volcanoes. oahu is the
chief island of all. 1t has two-thirds
the population of the group, and Hon
olulu, the metropolis and capital of the
nation. Is situate there. There are, by
the census of 1896, 900 people in the
Hawaiian Islands. OF these $4,000 are
the natives (Kanakas, or Hawaiians),
81, 900 are Chinese, $4,000 are Japanese,
3400 are Portuguese. $3.50 are Ameri-
cans, 2200 are English and Scotch. 1900
are Spanish, and the remainder are
French, Dutch. Australians, Chilians,
Peruvians and representatives of all
nations.
HONOLULU HARBOR.
The entrance to the harbor of Homo
lulu is one of the most charming that
may come into ones travels, wherever
he may go on this earth, The water
is a peculiar deep blue, the breezes
blow soft as a caress to ones cheeks,
and the air is delicious with the pun
gency of tropical verdure. The great
crescent bay is fringed by rolling hills
that rise one above another, and are
een-thatched by thousands of pic
turesque cocoanut trees. waving palms
and banana trees. Broken, lazy clouds
as white as cotton hang above the
wooded town, and are set off by the
mighty black wall of torn and serrated
lava mountains that rear themselves
as background to all. Surely the dense
deep blue Of far-famed Copra Bay car
not be quite so beautiful as this.
The arrangement of the streets II
Honolulu reminds many Americans O.
New York. All the streets are narrow
and well kept, but, with few excep
tions, they meander here and there a
will. A dozen thoroughfares are cres
cent nt-shaped, and twist and turn wher
one least expects it. All the streets ar,
smooth and hard, under a dressing O
thousands of wagon loads of shells
pounded down and crushed by immens'
Sfa
cisco. Marrow gauge tracks for hors,
cars traverse the main thoroughfares
but the nickel travel is mainly Kama
kas and Chinese. Honolulus white cit
liens drive their own vehicles, and fo
the use of those who have neithe
horse nor carriage there is a legion o
one-horse hacks. AS for the more pros
porous natives, some of them own car
riages and others move about on horse
back, the women riding astride an
managing spirited animals with grac
and ease.
HANDSOME DOORYARDS.
There can hardly be more attractiv
dooryards the world over than these 4
Honolulu. They are all ample. and i
some cases cover six acres. The poor
est laborer in Hawaii must have a. pro
fusion of palms. roses and a doze
varieties of trailing. Towering vine
above his cheap whitewashed house O
hut of palm branches. Geraniums gro,
20 feet high, like enormous bushes, an
heliotrope grows in stalks as high a
ones head, and is cut away with
hatchet when 1t gets too luxurian
Mignonette grows in clumps a var
high along the streets. Surrounded a
the city homes are by the trees Of tn