Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1898-09-16
CHARMS OF HAWAII.
LIGHT UPON OUR NEW POSSES.
SION IN THE PACIFIC.

"IIawaii Nei"-The Natives Fine
Race Physically, Simple. Happy
and Observation-Disclosures Elc.
ment and Polyslot Mixture of
Races-AmcricanS Marry Half.
Breed Women Ambition of the
White Hawaiians.
Hawaii nei" is the atfectionate name
invariably applied to our new island
possessions by all true sons of that
distant spot OF earth. That is to say,
Hawaii here, or Hawaii at home
Even in far removed climcs the Ha-
waiian, born thus, toasts the island of
his nativity. These are the fortunate
isles in their beauty, their salubrity,
their fringing cocoanut groves, their
cleaning coral reefs, their mist-cur-
tained wales, says Guy Stuart Comfy
in the New York Commercial Adrer-
tiser. One may find here the realiza-
ton of the old dreamy romance of
Typee. Only that to the dusky child
rem of Hawaii the white races have
protfered the fruit OF the tree of knOwl-
edge of good and evil. With this
knowledge has come liability where
was immunity in their innocence, and
the sins of the fathers are visited heav-
lily upon the children-so heavily as to
threaten quick extinction of the race.
But no liability and no responsibility
can affect their carelessness, and they
lie idle about their little grass-thatched
huts or ride through the country
decked with flowery leis and screaming
with laughter, all unconcerned with
reality.
One OF the first questions invariably
asked about the islands and the island
ers concerns leprosy. 1t is probable
that the general idea of this scourge is
exaggerated. This majority of natives
one sees are smooth of skin and grace
fully proportioned, strong and straight
and 1.-THE limbed. A Boston anthro-
pologist who had Travelled the world
around taking physical measurements
of the races of men, claimed q few
years ago to have found the individual
nearest to the ideal type in a native
Hawaiian. But it is not unusual, new
ertheless, to perceive traces of leprosy
and other diseases, believed by some
authorities to be kindred, in the Ordi-
nary intercourse with the natives.
There are physicians of repute in
Honolulu who will aver that the blood
of the whole race is tainted. In re-
mote country districts it is not unus-
ual to find leper. in the advanced
stages of the disease, harbored by his
friends and jealously hidden away
from the eyes OF the health authorities.
Both the victims and their friends
seem strangely callous to the horrors
of the disease, and utterly careless as
to any danger of its transmission.
There are medical authorities who
deny that the leprosy prevalent in
Hawaii is transmitted by contact.
That it is not readily transmitted by
ordinary contact is abundantly evident
from daily experience. But that it
may be transmitted from the intimate
intercourse of family relations is the
universal belief OF the laity, founded
on seemingly convincing examples.
There are cases where the disease
seems to remain latent in an individ-
ual. There have been rare cases OF
leprosy among white men; sufficient
to prove, however, that they are not
immune. The most conspicuous case
was the priest of Molokaii, Father
Damien, who gave his life in literal
truth to these afflicted fellow beings.
Cinnamon arc frequently victims of
leprosy, and the natives themselves
call it mai pake," or Chinese disease.
The typical Hawaiian home is the
little grass hut, made with their own
hands by the native families. There
is one room; an indefinite number of
persons, with no fixed proportion of
the sexes and of relationship, live
together in undisturbed harmony.
There are numberless ours about each
of these grass huts and pet pig or
two will probably have common quar-
ters with the household. The grass
walls are sure to be infested with liz
ards, scorpions, centipedes and more
familiar insect life. The family sit
about calabash of poi placed on a
rush mat when meal time arrives, and
each dips his or her fingers into the
paste and carries it thus to the month.
Hours and days will be passed sitting
idly and merrily chatting on these
mats in the shade of trees. 1t is ne.
cessary to set out the crop of taro and
it is necessary to pound the ripened
root into poi. The tidewater natives
do much fishing. The men make
good cowboys from their love of rid
ing. Otherwise they are entirely un-
trustworthy as laborers. 1t happens
sometimes that two men and one wo-
man dwell together in one household.
In the old native regime there was a
plurality of husbands rather than of
wives. The household to be complete
must have shrivelled old crone to sit
in one corner and perpetually and mo-