The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-10-13
GOOD OLD HONOLULU.

4 1--WE DelleNe IL WOulO De q mistake
kfrom a practical point of view to try
and make Honolulu over, as to it's
physical setting. into a stereotyped
American town. The semi-foreign
charm and novelty of this tropic capital
is a part of it's merchantable stock in
trade; IL is the thing tourists come to
see and feel; the theme which the writ
ing guild from poets to the makers of
guide books linger over longest. No
one travels to see the things that are
familiar to him at home. What New
Englander would go to Cairo, unless for
the climate, IL he knew he would find
severe gabled houses there, with minia-
ture "stoops" in front, woodsheds be-
hind and smokehouses just to one side,
all in setting of apple trees and lilac
beds? He goes to Cairo for it's mar
row lanes. its minarets, it's domes of
mosques, it's glimpses of the purple
East, its wholly foreign sights and
sounds. When he reads that the Egyp-
tan city is becoming modernized he
turns away with a sigh and wants no
more of il. Making the most of the
desire for something different" one of
the Trans-Pacific steamship companies
before civilization has effaced the old
landmarks and the old customs" 1t Is
n telling argument; one that has at
tracted ship-loads of eager tourists;
and ii is withal, profession of the fact
that when Japan is redeemed" from
It's ancient crudities and errors ii
will not be worth seeing. And by parity
OF reasoning we do not hesitate to say
that If Honolulu ever becomes an imi-
tation Omaha-which God forbid.-a
city of broad, paved streets, innumer-
able intersecting wires, close packed
houses and the like a great part of it's
distinctive and marketable charm will
vanish. To be sure if growth and bust
ness compel such changes and make
them pay we should say never a word:
what we protest against is the spirit
that would discard the old Honolulu
long before 1t is quite certain that there
VIII be demand which ought not to be
gainsaid for a new Honolulu.
There are thousands of people here to
whom 1t seemed a sacrilege to widen
the beautiful, narrow, crooked shady.
tropical street, which is now the Eva
stretch or Beretania avenue. There are
thousands. more who look with appre-
hension upon an era of street paving
and sidewalking; an army of us who
shiver every time an old tree falls.
How raw and out of place are the hot.
ianai-less Oakland villas that are
springing up in our suburbs-houses as
poorly adapted to the climate, IL not
more so, than the steep-roofed struc-
lures with narrow windows, small
rooms, Stops and cellars that were
built in Honolulu by the earlier New
England missionaries. Better a house
or grass where common-sense is than
transplanted Oakland villa which
takes no account of climate.
Not that Honolulu ought to stag
nate! Not that 1t should cultivate the
instinct which repels all change! There
must be progress. but let US develop
logically, taking into account our
geographical situation, our climate. our
semi-foreign environment. There ia no
more sense in supplanting distinctive
streets and houses with boulevards and
villas made in the American pattern
than there would be in tearing up our
palms and algerobas and supplantinp
them with naples and poplar trees.