Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-07-07
A LAND OF QUEER THINGS.
The Islands Seem Designed For the Worlds
Pleasure Resort.

waii-Nei in one sentence, | would say, |
1t is land where everything seems to |
be something else. There is riotous
abundance of useful vegetation, yet soon
or late blight comes on almost every
thing. There is a greater variety of
fruits than in any other land know,
yet so far as | could learn every fruit
dcgenerates in few years, and the stock
must be renewed. The climate is al
most perfection, yet measles, smallpox
and affections of the heart are peculiarly
fatal The mountains look as if fixed in
place for all eternity, and the more solid
and rugged mountain looks the moro
certain it is to quake and more likely to
split open. Tho natives are all well cdu-
Gated and nearly all thoughtless. They
are all nominal Christians, yet chastity
is but vague sentiment, and many
common Kanalia will tell q lie when tho
truth would better serve his purpose
Life and property are as safe as any
where on earth, though tho laws are not
severe or executed with any special rigor.
This may be due partly to the lack Of
acquisitiveness among the common ka-
feeling. They ,aro tho most unselfsh
race on earth. I'm detached group in
the interior the property of any one is
the property Of another, if that other
needs it badly. A foreigner who has be-
friended one is the friend of all in the
village. The men give him fish, fruits,
flowers and poi the women give what
they have and with certain freedom
which is delicate and charming. I'm
fortunately their kindness may be a
danger for they may be affected with
lcprosy long before they learn tho fact,
and physicians have decided that of all
supposed ways that is the one absolutely
certain way of acquiring it.
There is II wonderful variety of fruit
in Honolulu, such us oranges, lemons
lines, melons, bananas, strawberries and
many more. Peaches are produced on
the islands, but the blight affects them
more quickly and certainly than any
/ other fruit, frequently taking the form
| of Il black scale or film. The cocoanut
/ seems to bcindigenous, and therefore less
! liable to blight than any other product.
J 1t was long supposed that the sugar cane
was proof against all blights, but Of late
years Il new worm, as it were, has at
tucked it at the root, and the chances
! now ap that the sugar planters will
have TO renew their stocks every few
years 1t reminds one of Horace Gree
/ lcy's plan for getting rid of the Canada
thistle Cultivate it as a garden plant,
and smc dcrned bug or other will be
sure to come along and cat it.
Wheat grows III but a few places on
! the islands, little valleys in the elevated
| rlateaus. AS to moisture, the climate
cannot be described in general terms.
| Old residents say III a jocular way that
in ono district the rainfall is Il feet Il
year. in another II inches. and in n third
1-lith of an inch. lsaw places which GER
tainly looked as if rain had never fallen
on them In the best sugar lands irriga-
ton il necessary, but in many places
very little is required. Domestic animals
thrive. Gs u rule, especially horses, of
which the native stock is very hardy and
capable. 1t appears to have been case
of survival of the littest." All the ten
der ones were run to death ut the start
and only hetoughest mares left postcrity.
After all, the great product of the is
lands is the taro root from which poi is
made. 1t grows wherever the soil is kept
thoroughly water soaked. and III matted
lunches very much like the calamus or
sweet flag of the middle western states.
The root is something like long beet,
and when boiled and mashed tho pulp IS
"a ,t.1,i. l,nt at a
sort of sour paste, 1t operates homU-
opthically, so to spcai-thatis. it builds
III dilGpidated constitution surprising
ly but if used exclusive Of any other
food it Injuries the health. There is no
particular danger of any American or
} Elglishnan using the native style Of it
to excess, for it is emphatically nasty.
} Drently prepared, however, it is quite
pIatablc. Local statisticians say that
: one acre of it will furnish yearly bread
foI 5000 mcn-a pleasing statement
| which, regret to say, do not believe.
fish is said to be the proper corrective
totalo with poi, and fish also are album
dint. Early visitors say the kanakas
formerly ate them raw and mt the soon
es; possible moment after killing them.
Illced it was thought luxury to begin
tognaw on the tail before the head was
dad. AT any rate the hungry native
toll; the fish us it came from the water,
hastily ran knife from gill to tail, tore
OFT the cntrails and at once fell to eat
} Ing, and there is II story that when the
tirt Kanakas weIp taken to be presented
to tho king of England they behaved
} quite handsomely till they saw some fish
ina little aquarium III tho royal apart
mint. Their appetite overcame them,
Mn and women alike fell on the tinny
pry, tore and devoured it with the savage
yun-yum of appeased hunger, and de-
cllrcd in choice Kanaka that it was their
fist square meal" since they left Homo
lliu.
They tell many hard stories like this
about the former Hawaiians, but as
say nothing of the kind will continue
tohopo they are not true, If it was true
asthe first visitors said, that the parents
> killed all their children above two or three
tilt methods of "check" were used which
0 son proved fatal to half the women
! tilt thousands of men were killed in the
Q saurnalia following kings death, and
! Thousands more were sacrificed or eaten
h@ did the population get so large
: Why so much greater than now, wheI
t nme of these things are done? | cannot
0 hap suspecting that there has been ex
D ageration,
There is peace and good fellowship
i eOuph now There are social endowment