The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-01-26

| Erie canal was opened; and il was not
until nine years after their landing
| that the first railroad in the United
States was operated by steam.
| These men went out OF New Eng
| land in the days when the means of
communication were primitive and in
frequent; long before the era of immi-
grafton that has so modified the popu-
| latiOn of this commonwealth. The
| Baileys and Damons from Holden, the
| Baldwins from Nuremberg. the Smiths
from Barre and West Brook6eld, the
| Blisses from Warren. the Thurstons
from Fitchburg and the Chamberlains
| from BrOokfeld, all went out of dis
tinctiveIy American surroundings
with Il native population predominant,
with American spirit alert and inven-
| tive and intensely democratic. and
with the New England district school,
| and the comprehensive community
church, and the New England town
meeting, as the unique and shaping
| forces in the lives of the people
| The environment was one of frugal
| ity, Self-help and independence; just
| the sort to breed strong, reliant and
resOurceful character. And such was
the type of the early missionaries to
| Hawaii. And it was we'll that this was
so; for the problem they faced was to
meet a gross and decaying heathenism
with a gospel and ministry of hope and
of inspiration to a new life; to replace
a cruel and merciless caste system with
| a gradually developing democracy:
and to interject into an inert mass of
| thriftleSS and indolent people the saw
ing factor in all true civilization. viz
orderly and progressive industrialism
| These men did not realize when
they sailed from Boston, the large task
| God had set them, nor We're they con-
sciOus probably Of the large measure of
| fitness for their peculiar service that
they had inherited in their New Eng
| land birth and training. They went
| ostensibly, and so far as they were
aware, only, to preach the gospel
| But in their inherited dispositions and
acquired convictions there were certain
political and industrial verities that
were sure to assert themselves. and
that constituted almost as necessary a
gospel for that savage race as the glad
| tidings of salvation itself.
| And so, latent if you will. but potent
yet in the personality of our Worcester
county representation in Hawaii, the
gospel was preached in the spirit and
lpower of New England democratic con-
| victiOnS and in the full light of New
| England habits of thrift and industry
And it was this type of gospel preach
ing which created a civilized and self
governing nation in Hawaii, when an
lother type might have left those island
erS to our own day in the pitiable con-
dition of the Philippines and Tagals
| In 1868, forty-three years after the
| landing of the first missionaries at
| Honolulu, active missionary operations
| L. q
Hawaii assumed self-support, and ac:
| copied all further responsibility for
religious effort in that land, and Ha-
wall was proclaimed everywhere to be
a marvellous instance of completed mis-
SiOnary effort in a single generation.
Whatever notifications of that claim
we may be obliged to make in the light
l0f after development, we are bound to
recognize that as the result of the lives
and labOrs of the American mission
aries Hawaii became a Christian ma
ton, with firmly-rooted Christian con-
victions and with all the institutions
and other accompaniment If Christian
civilization
OF the Worcester county repreSen-
tatives, the Baileys, DamOns, Smiths
and Thurstons remained in the islands
until they died These eight individ-
|
in the Hawaiian Islands from the land
ing until the year of death, an average
of "a years each. For over half a CEN
fury, therefore, eight educated, re-
fined. devoted men and women right
out OF our choice country towns of
Worcester county projected their ex-
ample and counsel into the formative
era of Hawaiian religious, political
and industrial life. And this they
were able to do not only in the cOnta
gion of their own honored personality,
but in the multiplying influence of
eighty descendants, bearing their
names and perpetuating their princi-
pies.
1t has been ascertained that the num-
Der Of living descendants Of the orig
inal missionary families is over eight
hundred. More than One-tenth of
these are accredited to the families
from this county. SO that not only in
the original work of the mission does
Worcester county occupy an honored
position, but also in all the after toll
and effort and enterprise that has so
wonderfully opened up the industrial
resources of Hawaii and shaped its
political development in keeping with
the progress of the world.
Hawaii is now United States terri
tory. but territory with a population
better fitted for intelligent citizenship
than any territory ever annexed to the
United States. Its institutions, its
laws. the genius OF it's civilization, are
more in accord with American institu-
tions. laws and predominant spirit
than has been the case with any COM
munity that has come under our SOW
ereig1fty from the days Of Louisiana to
+bo o71rr-h a SO of laSka
DR.. BarrOws, in his recent volume
entitled a World Pilgrimage writes
as follows: I'VE found in Honolulu
more of America. more of its energy
and spirit. than in any other cOmmu-
nitv which I have seen in the world
pilgrimage. If were asked 10 name
the place I have seen in all the world
where Christian civilization, as shown
.--...-,.,L ir,-a-li c.anca and mlralitE