The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-01-03
Fellow Passenger Gives Notes
Oh H0bSOn.
WAS QUIET AND STUDI0US
Little Time for Social Diversion
sing-Local Ciim ate.

EDITOR P. c. A.-The following
passengers of Lieut.. Hobson We're in
doubt as TO what his reception would
be in Honolulu-Whether there would
not be a violent contrast between it
and that of San Francisco. We thought
of the fact that in San Francisco over
90 per cent of the people are whole
hearted Americans, full of the citation
of victory and Selling with avidity up
on some object to lavish it. Here in
Honolulu the percentage of Americans
is, l take it, quite the reverse of that
on the Mainland.
But l have been greatly gratified in
just reading in your admirable sheet
about the handsome way in which you
treated the leading hero of the Merri-
mac.
Mr.. Hobson had very hearty Tecep-
ton in San Francisco He was in the
hands of friends, who kept such grip
upon the hero that he came on board
the ship an hour late. This Golden
Gate reception must have been special
ly gratifying to Hobson after the saw
age editorials of the city press upon
the kissing episode further east, where
many good American women wished to
kiss the American hero. How much
more savage would the editorials have
been if the lieutenant had ungallantly
refused to take part in the affair. 1t
| was indeed an awkward dilemma in
which severe criticism would have re-
suited from inaction equally with ac-
| ton in the premises. The papers
scored the action severely, so that one
might suppose the brave lieutenant to
have been a low-browed, bull-necked,
| thick-set, rOllicking rake, bent on low
qualifications regardless of public
| opinion.
| A voyage of a week with Hobson has
shown to his fellow passengers the
grossness of the newspaper libel. His
! life on the ship was largely. a literary
one, rather than social. He was writ
| ing all the mornings and reading in
| the afternoons, finding no time for the
festive shuttle board, or the athletic APP
paratus and precious little for social
intercourse.
| Intellectual, refined, quiet and retir-
ing, if not diffident, the HobsOn of real
| life is very different being from the
Hobson of San Francisco critics. In
| the matter of the kissing it cannot be
| doubted that the initiative did not
emerge from the modest lieutenant,
| but when the emergency came, he who
| faced the Spanish guns to right and
| left of him, did not show the white
| feather when fair patriots came to the
| front
| Mr. Hobson, while rather retiring, is
a genial. approachable gentleman. In
| answer to a question concerning the
Merrimac, | received a very generous
answer, including a very full and well
! drawn map of the whole affair. 1t is
| a valuable souvenir and testimony
| to the generous character of the hero
| You gave us all very warm recep-
| ton on Saturday so far as to weather
| Some of us felt that we had made a
| mistake and were talking of the next
steamer back but the hot, sultry
humid, depressing Saturday was eX-
planned by the delightful perfect wealth
er of January l and 2. If these two
| days are fair specimens of Hawaiian
| winter weather, you may count on a
| constantly increasing influx of your
fellow citizens from the dead cold Sc
verities of the weather of the Atlantic
seaboard. G.. H.
Honolulu. H. l., January 2, 1898.