The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-15

except In high state of fermentation. How 1t comes by it's rehabilitating and tWice--blessed power to stimulate doWn-trodden man no one can tell. Nevertheless, it is there. There are one or two places in San Francisco where poi cocktails may be obtained, and men who have been to the islands and feel it's need call for it, but to the mass of people on the Pacific coast its benef- cent qualities are little known. It is one of the many cases wherein travel is an education.
 When one has been in Honolulu sev- eral days and has heard the virtues of poi talked on every hand, his curiosity is reused. Then you will wander into one of the many little restaurants in the city, and artfully ask for poi as if you were a veteran at that article of diet. Then there is brought to you a wooden bowl, known among the Kama kas as a calabash, containing a queer looking, grayish, sticky compound. You are sure to regard 1t askance and ask for spoon, but are told it is eaten with the fingers.
 Why, no one could take that stuff up in their fingers you gasp. Oh, yes; just see,' and into a com- panion dish your instructor dips two fingers, and with a twirl only acquired by long practice withdraws them load ed with a huge 'gob' of the compound, which is at once transferred to his mouth and swallowed, his countenance assuming, meantime, an expression of beatitude. You do not know what ex- cip lon ho, +oIx +g oI your visage, but you know your princi- pal sensation is one of Simon Pure hor- TOT.
 ''Then comes your turn to try poi. Tentatively you did forefinger into the pearl gray mass and gather on the finger end a wad of poi as one would thin paste. A sour, dank smell greets your nostrils as the stuff hears your mouth. You are in for a trial of the poi, however, and so you close your eyes and by supreme effort open your mouth and quickly suck the substance from your finger Your mind is all alert, and you are very watchful of your every sensation. You wonder how any one could banker for such vile, clammy, cold, stale stuff. But the stuff has gone down. and you have eaten your first poi. It leaves behind taste of stale yeast. It can be traced by a track of warmness the full length of the oesophagus and peculiar glow about your stomach.
 "If you are very stout hearted you may eat few more dabs of poi from the calabash, but not one in ten does that You feel sorry that you have disappointed the jovial Kanaka who has stood by so expectantly waiting for you to express your praises of the won derful poi.
 Oh, never mind he says, as he reads your thoughts from the express sion on your face, you no like poi now. You like him all same tomorrow ornext day know, I know
 "Of course you know better than that You've had your fill for lifetime. If, | however, you give in to the quasi ham kering for another trial of poi few 1 days later, you are a poi epicure from l that time forth. Thousands of good 1 Americans have trodden the same 1 downward path to heathenish diet be- | fore you. If you go about Honolulu l you will see your acquaintances in the restaurants and hotels dip into their
 calabashes and hear them expatiating on the delights of poi, and you begin to | aspire to taste again. You think about it by day and night and at last you venture. Before you are aware of it you are calling for the Kanaka poi at | every meal, and you wonder how many millions of dollars could be made by 1 the man who should successfully intro 1 duce poi into the United States. It is 1 extraordinary how one finds so many excuses for poi. You take poi for an | appetizer you use it as a top dressing after dessert, you ballast with it before | eating, you use it for broken storage to make other viands ride easy. If your 1 food don't taste good, you eat little 1 poi to tone up your palate. If you are out of sorts or under the weather, you | take a little poi for your stomachs s sake. It is useful as an eye opener in the morning, 1t serves admirably as a
 nightcap on retiring, 1t takes the place of afternoon tea, and tiffin is incom-
 plete without poi. In word, you have | contracted the poi habit.
 Then becomes the expert period of your development as a poi eater. You
 begin to know that there is poi and poi. | You talk learnedly on poi as one of the great institutions of the world and
 wonder how the world at large has done so long without it. You become particular as to the shape and appear | ance of your restaurant calabash and | finally purchase one after your own | taste. You regard with disfavor the blunders of inexpert poi eaters. It is not considered elegant to use more than | two fingers in eating it or to put the I stuff on the edges of the calabash or l drop anyof it in transit. You acquire a scientific twirl of the fingers in gath ering up your mouthful and an airy grace in conveying it to your mouth.'- | New York Sun.
 | EXPLAINED AND ILLUSTRATED.