The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1900-03-30
AWFUL SCENES.
The Great Fire at Honolulu
Described.
Lynn Parmley, of Sioux Falls, Who
Spent the Winter There, is
in the City.

Lynn Parmley, of Sioux Falls, s. D.,
arrived last evening to visit in the city
for week as the guest of Mrs Fred
Fl. Snyder. He is one of Mrs. Snyder's
former pupils, and joined the Andrews
Opera Co. soon after its last appear
ance in this city. During the winter
he has been with the Boston Lyric Co.
at Honolulu. Miss Nellie Andrews
was with the same company.
Mr.. Parmley was we'll pleased with
Uncle Sans new possession but states
that the winter was an unusually dull
one, owing to the fact that the form of
government has not yet been definitely
settled. He was at Honolulu at the
time of the outbreak of the plague, and
some of the sights and scenes can be
best described in his own words, as he
related them to Free Press reporter
this afternoon:
The plague broke out in the part of
the city called Chinatown, and the en-
tire quarter was quarantined and sur
rounded by armed guards. Whenever
case broke out, the patient would be
removed and the house burned. There
was fire every day for month. One
day part of block was burned in
this way, and church caught fire and
the flames spread from sparks that flew
from the steeple. The entire Chinese
quarter burned.
'The Chinese and Japanese and the
few native Hawaiians who were quaran-
tined tried to break away, driven out
by the fire. The white citizens turned
out armed with guns, revolvers, base
ball bats, pitch forks, and anything
that they could get, and kept the ex-
posed people in bounds. but out of 1900
who were quarantined 500 got away.
The men were forced down one street
like so many cattle, and the women
were piled on drays three and four deep
and roped down and driven away. In
a church yard surrounded by high
stone wall, 5000 of these people were
packed so tightly that they could not
lie down, and some had to be taken out.
They were fed on rice and poi, brought
by the cart load.
"Of the remainder, portion were
taken to big building, and the rest
sent out into the country. In the part
of the quarters that burned last, some
painful sights could be seen. Men and
women carried away all the possessions
that they could, and women would fall
to the ground fainting under their
loads.
"The steamer that we took to leave
the island was detained in so called
quarantine for fifteen days. The
quarantine was not at all strict and
amounted to nothing. When we reach,
ed San Francisco, we were all landed
on Angel island, but no preparation
had been made and we suffered greatly
from the cold the first day, there being
no shelter. Some of the women were
taken sick and had to go back into the
ship. After that we were comfortably
cared for while the quarantine lasted.
We were obliged to unpack our trunks
and hang each separate article on
pole, which was then taken into vat
and submitted to formalin gas for one
hour, as disinfectant. One English
l..
valet had to empty them all himself, as
he was one of the snob kind and nobody
would help him. Forty of our party
belonged to the opera company, and
you may imagine the sight which all of
our belongings made. The trunks
were also disinfected."