Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1899-04-28

was the market. Our noses guided us
there, fish being on sale in abundance,
queer, heather looking things. Hard
boiled eggs and cooked sweet potatoes
tied up in banana leaves were the
choicest delicacies.
But what impressed me most of all
was the dress Of the native Hawaiian
women. 1t is a Mother Hubbard. Ha.
waii is not Liliuokalani's kingdom OF
or anybody's. It is the
kingdom of the Mother Hubbard. If
that Illinois sheriff who forbade the ap-
pearance Of this comfortably flowing
garb upon the streets of his town We're
to come here, he would be so shocked
he could not even look at the spectacle
through his fingers.
At church, at home, at weddings and
ut funerals the Hawaiian matron wears
a Mother Hubbard. Formerly, in her
heather days, she appeared mostly in the
clothing nature gave her. This much Of
a concession she now makes to civiliza-
ton. Young Hawaiian girls wear rib
bons around their waists; their mothers
will have no such artificial restraint.
The prevailing garment may be black
or red or blue in color, or else white,
pure spotless white. After they get to
be old creatures, who don't care how
they look, then it is always a black
Mother Hubbard. It is odd, by the way,
that when a woman becomes old and
needs to take more and better care of
her looks than she ever did before she
should slump down and take NO care at
all of them.
, The Hawaiian matron gets very fat.
The race are so good natured that near
ly all of them become stout. A 200
pound native lady waddling along in a
. scarlet Mother Hubbard is an impress
sive sight, not to be forgotten. Good
, white ladies of Honolulu incline to
doubt the thorough conversion of the
, native ONE to Christianity because
they refuse to wear corsets. They draw
, the line on that, and to my imperfectly
trained taste show their good sense
, thereby. But Christianity and corsets
| do go together, which nobody can deny.
Shining white is the color Of the gala
, and Sunday attire Of these gentle Ha-
waiians. No more pleasing thing can
be looked on than a gathering of the
{ natives, with their brown skins, shin
ing black heads, expressive eyes and
| glistening white garments. The white
, people here wear clothing of the same
happy and inspiring hue. I wish they
? did elsewhere. A good looking man is
!, never SO handsome as when he is clad
l in white duck or linen coat and trou-
, sers. 1t is a sad pity the exigencies of
city civilization and the size of laundry
= bills demand such somber colored outer
, garments. The world would not be so
wicked if people wore white clothing.
There is less crime in Honolulu than in
, any other place Of it's size in the world.
. When I asked for a key to my room in
a the boarding house, I was told none was
= needed, as no doors were eve locked
! and nothing in the house had ever been
: stolen. When you write to friends in
n Honolulu, unless before this reaches you
: congress has brought Hawaii under the
= postal laws of the United States, be sure
2 you put a 5 cent stamp upon your letter.
Otherwise your friend here who gets
the letter will have to pay 10 cents on
| it. The 2 cent United States stamp you
n put upon it at home counts for nothing
4 at all, it seems, and they charge you
a double postage when the letter gets here.
. ELIZA ARcHARD CONNER.
Honolulu. q. I.