The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-09-30

"TeIl me about your league"
SIN every district-al over the Islands
there are meetings, one a month. Once year
in November delegates from every district meet
here in Honolulu"
GLOW many signatures have you to your
petiton7"
Seven thousand"
''And how long has it been in circulation?"
'Since last Thursday, September 10. "
''And are you confident that all natives feel
as you do?"
81 am sure The feeling is the same from
Kaena TO Hilo"
Which translated means from the Sierras to
the sea.
So here's a people pleading for grace at the
hands of great republic. Here's tiny drop
of mercury begging forbearance of the enor-
nous globuie that threatens to absorb it.
Poor Hawaii She seems like supplicat-
ing dusky maiden holding out beseeching hands
to great staggering brother nation.
81 believe I'll take your land, Hawaii"
busters the United States, like big bully.
81 pray you, Brother Jonathan, let me
keep it it is mine"
Ithas been said that there is no hos ptality
in these degenerate modern money-malling days
like that of the white people on these islands.
Social life, am told, is delightful here Bust
ness hours are short. The climate forbds the
exercise OF and gradually saps ones energy.
Men have leisure for social intercourse, and the
comparative scarcity of pIeasurable occupation
in this isolated place induces a readiness to
make the most of socety-that refuge Of the I'M
fortunate leisure class
Every body who is anybody in Hawaii
knows every body else. The small white popu-
lation. cut off fro m the rest of the world living
in the midst Of the most conglomerate assort-
ment Of races, controlling the wealth, all off,
cial and social positions, with a superiority of
service in the black man the brown or the
yellow Cor any com bination and all shades of
these colors) has evolved a civilization delight
fully luxuri Gus. exqusitely refined Many
things dear in Hawaii, but human Labor is
not one of them.
Some of the bungalows in and around Homo
lulu models of cultured taste, almost perfect
specimens of what may be accomplished in the
art of living-given tropical climate and
swarm OF inferior human workers
There estates here, q traveller tells me-
which rivaled in beauty, luxury and CON-
pleteness of appliances for bodily comfort only
by the homes of the Haytian planters
The visiting Congress from the United
States speak Gelightedly OF the gracious hospi-
tally of the people OF the islands. They are
charmed by the bountiful provisions made for
their entertainment, by the generous spirit which
anticipates every desire and completes every I'M
spoken wish
There isn't man among them who doesn't
consider himself responsible for the weather.
for the condition of the roads, for the success of
the affalr-whatever it may be'
life here which soothes the senses and dulls the
spirit. 1t is easy not to think. not to struggle
1t must be very pleasant to drift with the tide of
bonhomie Especially when rowing against it ia
so disastrous), to become member of this small
class of cultured, wealth men and gracious
idle women.
In the South before the war, in France be-
fore the Revolution, society attained its highest
development. OF which this island society is an
inferior copy miniature. But this perfection
of civilization is a iower-a sort of century
plant-that blooms but rarely and for very brief
periods. 1t is a brilliant, maryelouslv shaped
parasite which twines about and kills the plant
that nourishes it. 1t requires conditions which
take years 10 build up and which. in the verv
nature of things, cannot endure. For it means
the subjugation OF the many by the few; it
means the enjoyment of the concentrated es.
sence OF LIES pleasures by small minority
Material enjoyment, TOO, Is com modify. The
supply is limited. And that hundred NAV
live arisocracy, tens OF thousands must
be denied pleasure ana profit and liberty
Ones memory of these beautiful islands de.
ponds great deal upon what side of Hawaiian
life one has
''If you come to Honolulu for short visit
to a friend, say (and your friend OF course. be-
longs to the smart set) you will carry back with
you the happiest memory. the prettiest picture
of the place and the people. You will retain n
series of vividy colored impressions of noun
tains, sea, shaded streets and cool. spacious
charmingly decorated salons. You will not soon
forget how beautiful scene is a great garden
of tall tropical trees, covered with drooping
sprays of crimson flowers, where the electric
lights look like other flowers of diamonds The
men in white duck and the women in lace
trimmed diaphanous gowns walk about and talk
and laugh and listen to the sweet strains of the
native music and the soft evening air is caress
and the FLASHING of the Southern Sea accom-
panies it all like the bass chant of q fuIl-toned
chorus.
But If you go to the islands as I did-if YOU
see and hear what | did-behinG and above this
picture you will see another, as if the photogra.