The Mena weekly star., 1897-09-01
LAND OF DREAMS.
No One Bothers Much About Work in
 BenntifuI Hawaii.

 When the powers that be fall to diii- cussing any particular corner of the globe. the laity bricks up its ears and straightway begins to see if it knows anything about the bone of contention. Now that Hawaii is to the fore the aver age citizen is finding out that somehow or other the Sandwich islands, as they used 10 be called, are a very misty fac tor in the makeup of his geographical information.
 In Frisco the wealthy social class talk very nonchalantly about "a run to the islands," and to the dwellers on the Pacific coast the 2, 100 miles across to Honolulu seem very small matter to hesitate about But on this side of the Rocky mountains we cannot touch elbows so easily with far-away islands. We have forgotten that long ago we learned at school that the Hawaiian islands have climate that is not sur passed anywhere in mild summer heat for exactly 12 months in the year.
 The whole round dozen of islands are wonders of natural beauty, with their sloping mountain sides covered with luxuriant growths and their thousands of dashing streams glinting off to- ward the sea. Indeed, if enthusiastic visitors are to be believed, the eight | inhabitabie islands are variable fairy lands, and to the overworked dwellers in the United States, the easy, placid life of Hawaii seems to be that dreamed of heaven, where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest" No one does very much of anything over there; the missionaries have made Christians of all the natives; some of these jealous newcomers put the Ha- waiian language into written form about 1920, and as the Chinese, Japa- nese and all European nations are rep resented in ever-increasing numbers, the good-tempered, lght-hearted na- tives are dwiudling away in most con- ented fashion,
 Capt Cook found about 100000 of them when he stumbled upon the is lands and named them in IT'S. In 50 years the census reported 2.00O, and in 1878 they had only meager 44,08s to claim as their own.
 The women are disappearing much more rapidly than, the men, it ap- pears, and those who are left rarely bear children, only one native wife out of three becoming mother now. It is the old story of the civilized races n contact with heathendom, but this ex- tinction is, happily. going on in peace.
 Think of land where the kalo plant in plot 40 feet square will support u native whole year; square mile of it would keep whole city full (about 17,000 heads).
 1t is not in the human nature to toll and spin when such mama comes un- stintedly and there is no winter time to dread.
 The women weave garlands, they say, they love flowers and deck themselves and all their friends with them; they ride astride like their more numerous brothers, and even swim in the surf and go tobogganing on the breakers. on the flat boards, as daringly as if they did not know that as race they are doomed. Their history in nutshell is this:
 When Capt. Cook found them each island had its own chief. In 1919 Ka- mehameha l. of Hawaii, set to work to conquer the other chieftains, and sue ceeded in making himself lord of what he called "The Kingdom of Hawaii" His family followed in his footsteps and held his precepts until the downfall of Liliuokalani, just the other day.
 They were cannibals in their balmy days, of course, and it is told that when Kamehameha I. died and his nobles de- bated what to do with his remains, one old peer gravely suggested that they should eat him!
 But that was long ago; to-day they dine from the choicest viands of the earth, if they are wealthy. They talk over telephones to all their neighbors and to the seamen on board the many ships in the harbor. They sit at ease in their leafy lanais or verandas; they go regularly to Waikiki (the Long Branch of Honolulu), and they revel in raiment that would shame Solomon in all his glory. The native women have practiced massage for genera tions, and the "lomi, lomi woman who deftly Inanipulates over weary travellers who nre racked with pain after an excur- sion to one of the volcanoes is so com forting presence that tis sad to think that she, too, is fading away-Phila- delphia Record.
 Income Tax and Dark Room.
 Japan has an income tax, and this is the way they enforce it: If n taxnaver