The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1898-09-02
At HONOLULU.
4 Descriptive Letter Oh Hawaii
From our "SOIdicr Boy.
Cliff DickensOn.

A very interesting letter was
received a short time ago by
Mrs Martins from her son, Cliff
Dickerson, of Company F, lst
South Dakota Regiment, which
was dated July 30, on board ship
Rio Janeiro, 10 miles east of
Honolulu; in which he describes
the trip. The only complaint
made is that made by others,
that of poor food on board ship.
On the evening Of July 30 the
captain informed the men that
they would arrive at Honolulu in
the morning. At 3 O'Clock a.
m. Sunday, July 81, land was
sighted aud at Z o'clock they
landed at the dock, 20sO miles
from San Francisco. Following
are portions of the letter:
''At the Oceanic Steamship
Company dock we saw the other
troop ships; this is where we
meet them, the Peru, City of
Puebla and Pennsylvania.
This is a fine island, what We
can see of it from the snip, noun
tains covered with green trees
and grass. Honolulu is a city of
45, 600 inhabitants, electric lights
and all American style You can
see the American flag flying
over all the business houses and
dwellings. The kanakas are a
a fine looking race of people,
healthy, brown colored fellows.
The Americans and kanakas go
around dressed in white duck
suits and look as cool as can be.
They don I seem to be busy and
nobody seems to be in hurry.
That fine Hawaiian band Of
Honolulu, which travelled all
through the United States one
season, was down at the dock
and played for US. | tell you
they are grand, they are simply
out of sight. They didn't have
sheet of music in front of them
either.
Everybody is crazy over a
sight Of land and green grass.
They are pretty tired of their
quarters and gruo. The people
here have been throwing pine
apples, oranges and all kinds o.
fruit and cocoanuts on board
and the boys have been enjoying
themselves eating never saw
such fine pine-apples in my life,
rich, ripe and juicy, nothing like
the kind we get in the United
States. = | was all through
the royal palace here and enjoy
ed quite an interesting hour.
They have pictures of all the
kings and queens for seventy
five years back, in the council
chamber, which is a large room
in the second story. They are
all full length portraits. Some
of the cham bebs in the palace are
the throne room, council cham
Der. foreign Office, interior Office,
Office of attorney general and
several other minor Offices They
are all fitted up in fine shape.
Queen Lill's present home is a
small house two or three blocks
north Of the palace. The palace
is now used as a state house by
the present government, and the
quarters of the government
soldiers are in the basement.
We leave here Wednesday
morning at sunrise for MANILA,
a 90 days voyage, | dread it ]
can tell you. At twelve
Monday, Aug. /, we formed in
on the dock and the regimen
marched over to the palace
square, where we found a fine
feast spread out for US on long
tables under an awning Of palm
leaves. It consisted of sand
wiches, meats, pies, pine-apples
bananas, tomatoes, guavas
mangos, jellies, coffee, cigars
and soft drinks. The Honolulu
government band played severa
selections while we were eating
'The Poet and Peasant over
ture,' "Hawaiian March, an.