San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-06-27
SIDE LIGHTS ON HAWAII.

If Hawaii becomes part of the
great republic which for more than
| century has adhered to the principle
| ( continental aggregation only, but now
stretches it's giant tentacles seward
| east and west, let us hope that Ameri-
can citizens will be made better ac-
auainted with the pot cocktail" For,
| o brethren of the blazing nose and the
rheumy eye and the trembling hand
and the dark-brown taste next morn
ing, it is the king pin of 'pick-me-
UPS" One of them will cause the
bilious hue of the world to turn to
green; two of them will make the
sound of running water to fall on the
ear in a weary country, three will in
duce blossoms to bloom on telegraph
pole, and four of them will put you in
condition to fight for your life. In its
tender depths lie life and hope, strength
and appetite, sweetness and light. 1t
| is cool to the eye and the tongue. 1t
| is grateful to the stomach whose coat
has been rumpled. 1t will stick" when
mucilage fails. Poor jewellers in
America, who have whooped her up
until the dim red morn has lain half
| fallen across the threshold of the sun,
lean only long and listen for the "clink
of the ice in the pitcher that the boy
brings down the hail." as so beauti-
fully and pathetically remarked by the
gifted and regretted Field, but the Ha-
waiian lays his lawless thumb on the
electric bell and yells in cracked voice
| for poi" To see him step out of the
elevator half an hour afterward you
| would suppose that he had spent hours
in the dreamless sleep Of childhood.
| poi" is made of ''taro," and "taro"
| is a tuber which grows in water and
in God-given profusion in all of the
islands which form that beautiful
chain that is the ornament of the mid
die Pacific. The Kanakas, benighted
creatures, not recognizing its nobler
fuses, make bread of it. The name of
the man who discovered that it is a
panacea for katzenjammer is lost in
the murk of years, but if were known
his grateful contrymen would build
him a monument higher than Haman
was hanged. Soft he rests, where
lever he sleeps. The chances are that
Its discovery was accidental. That has
been the case with so many of the
/
Tried "Manhattans" and Martin" and
"absinthe frappes" and silver fizzes"
and milk punches with eggs in them
until his soul tainted within him.
Then in a fit of desperation he ordered
something made of poi and the bar
keeper, true to the traditions of his
lclass, served it in the form of cocktail.
Then the person privileged to stand
/ ray,c
with a soft gelow of delight, heard his
ldeep-drawn breath of satisfaction and
listened approyingly as he said to the
man behind the counter, Make 'nuz-
lzer." From that golden time until the
lprosaic now the Hawaiian gentleman
of uncertain hours has feared no foe,
having always within reach a restora-
tive discounting anything before
dreamed of man.
The "poi cocktail" is made in this
! wise: The manufacturer takes long
thin glass and a spoon. The glass he
fills with cracked ice, and across the
| top he lays a sprig of mint. He dips
} the spoon into bowl of pulverized sug-
ar. then transfers it to the glass. Two
heaping teaspoonfuls of the poi are
added as well as a few drops of alb
sinthe. The glass is then drawn full
Of sparkling Apollinaris and the work
of mercy is accomplished. Paul New
mann, attorney general for Queen Lii
uokalani, advocated always a couple
Of strawberries, If they were obtaina-
Bile, but that takes time and is re-
hnernent for which no man with a
head like a balloon and a throat-like
llime-kiln has time = wait. Indeed,
you will see his shaking hand stretch
ed across the counter in an effort to
craps the glass before the artist has
given it those final loving touches
Which he woult. not forego il his GUS
toner SANK to -he floor before his eyes
The taro root, except in a state Of high