The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-08-08


on for a generation. His brown chill
dren played around him; the breeze of
the ocean careSSed him; the palm tenn
pered the shade of the constant sun; his
wives were his hand-maidens; nature
was his provider; he was chief of his
village; he did not long feverishly for
the coming of payday; the bill cOllec-
tor was but a memory; yesterday was
as today and today as tomorrow Why
should he not have laughed and slyly
shaken his head, as told in story when
an Grant ship strayed to those shores
and his countrymen offered him a pas
sage home. Here are rest and fair
Dreams he said. Around you rolls
the blue expanse that looks so fair and
is so cruel It's fish shall feed you. The
wine of the banana will make you glad.
The girls will love you. Stay you with
me-"
The drives about the Hawaiian capt.
tai are picturesque. They run past
groves of cocoanut palm and brackish
ponds, where the mullet is fattened for
the local trade; past rice gardens half
submerged by the cOpiOus irrigation
which the plant requires; banana plan
tations, the trees low in stature and
bearing a single bunch each; and then
past tarO patches, where the poi root
is grown, and wind in and out among
green groves, with glimpses of the ocean
or some dead volcanic cone and crater.
In King Kalakaua's reign a pSOfessiOn-
al road-maker from Scotland was
Drought mere, ana thousands OF QOllafS
were expended under his direction on
roads and the pretty little parks that
abound in Honolulu.
The manufacturing industries of
Honolulu are next to none at all,
though the country has twenty-five su-
gar cane mills This is an agricultural
region exclusively Most of what is
worn and used, and much of what is
eaten comes from over the sea, some
from the east and the remainder from
the west. Canned goods, groceries, car
rIages, hats, shoes, furniture, crockery,
household effects, nearly everything
except coffee, tarO, Strawberries, pOul-
try, grass mats and sugar, are import
ed Even some hay is brought from
California on every steamer.
The chief resource of the city, beyond
what it derives from retail merchand-
izing, politics and tilling of the tribu-
tary toll, is the opulent tourist He is a
continual distributor of largess. To
make him disgorge the hotel-keeper lies
in ambush and the hackman plies the
brigand's trade. For the tourist the
price of everything he wants that white
men can supply scars high. The Chi
nese sell him curiOs and clothing cheap
~, but his christian brother f1eeces him
until he has no wool.
For recreation the native goes fishing
He strips himself of clothing down to
the simple clOut, and pushes off in a
long narrow canoe with Out-riggers into
the still waters behind the coral wall
guiding his frail craft with paddles. He
feels his way to some narrow break in
the the narrow Gordon of reefs, and
waits until the last and highest comber
has wasted itself in the shadows. In
the nick of time he shoots his canoe
through the channel and it rides over
the waves like a. water fowl, pausing on
easy SWells beyond. The depth is about
five fathOms and the ocean floor shows
acres of cleaning sand with archipela-
COS or coral rock sprawling darkly on
csi1T o1cair Tl1rf fIaa Ash
further out, and the native paddles
along until his frail craft rests over a
depth of 100 fathOms. The canoe is a
mere racing shell, as cranky as a scoop
ed-Out log, but the angler knows its
tricks and stands upright in it, leans
over its side or walks from stem to
stern. His fishing gear is quickly ad-
justed. He has stout grass line, such
as nets and the warp of the royal feath-
er cloak are made of. Slender as it
looks, it will stand a powerful strain.
The cord is tied to piece of gas pipe
three feet in length which hangs in the
deep water like a horizontal bar and
serves as a sinker and as a rod to hold
the three short lines to which the hooks
are tied. This device is dropped half
way to the bottom and the angler pre-
pares for his work with a long pull at
his gin bottle and a hearty, Here's
goodbye to all Of YOU" in his native
tongue.
There is a tug at the line. The Kan
aka hauls in quickly and brings two
three Founders to the surface, where
they CLEAN like flakes of gold. He bats
anew and in a few moments another
yellow fish, or perhaps a red snapper
and banded sea perch, reward his in
dustry. Hour by hour he casts his line,
and he is bound to fish until his gin
gives out. Then he loses interest in the
sport and turns his craft homeward.
He paddles his canoe into the surf,
where, caught by the breakers, it is
sped arrOw-like to the shore.
The old way of fishing is varied some
times by the use of dynamite. A whale
boat manned by seven hardy Kanakas,
one OF whom steers it with an oar, is
rOWed out near the reef and a stick of
dynamite with a lighted fuse is tossed
overheard. When the explosion comes
two or three of the Oarsmen, with SCOOP
nets in hand, dive into the sea and
gather most Of the fish before they rise
to the surface.
The world knows comparatively moth
ing about the great fortunes that have
been amaSSed in Hawaii in the last
thirty years. The children of Yankee
who sailed from Boston
and Gloucester around the Horn to car
~ the gospel to the Sandwich Islands
in the thirties and fOrties, are the rich
est and most aristocratic people in
For mere songs the sons of
the missionaries obtained great tracts
Of marvelOusly fertile land for sugar
planting in the valleys of the islands,
anu WIN their natural enterprise ana
inventive spirit they developed the
greatest sugar cane plantations in the
world. When the United States gave
a treaty to the Hawaiian kingdom put
ting Honolulu raw sugar on the free
tariff list, the profits of the sugar plan
ters went up at a bound For twenty
five years the dividends of several of !
the Yankee companies operating sugar !
and mills in the islands |
ranged from IS to 80 per cent a year |
The Hawaiian Commercial Sugar com
Dany paid "a per cent dividends an |
never known productiveness so rich as |