The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-11-07
Met Yesterday at
Central Union
Church.
AN IMPORTANT
SESSION HELD
Reports and Papers of Much In
terest Read to Large
AssembIase.

Union Church. Mrs. Hyde opened the
meeting and prayers were offered by
Mrs. Hall, Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Theo-
dore Richards. Mrs. Gulick read an
interesting letter from Mrs. Salome de
la Porte, under date of February &c,
1900, Pleasant Island. Micronesia; ex-
tracts of which are herein quoted:
There is not one good landing place
on this island. / had to spend my first
night on Nauru alone with baby as Mr..
de la Porte had to return to the ship in
order to make arrangements with the
captain to have our goods landed on
the opposite side of the island
81 can't find leisure to think about
the fact that 1 am the only white wo-
man in the land. AS long as 1 see the
awful condition of the women of Nauru
l cannot call this a lonely island nor
can l get lonely. Our dwelling house
was ready a few days before Christmas
and we moved into our new home on
December q.
1T was not at all pleasant for me to
see all these people gazing about with
little or no covering; however, 1 am
more accustomed to it now. Some of
the Older women wore little mats over
their breasts, others had no shame at
all. We have told the chiefs to tell the
women to wear mats and most of them
do it now. They look very comical.
Some of the people had their clothes
yet, which they had bought when the
Gilbert teachers were here and they
wear them when coming to meeting.
They have some vague idea from for
mer years that unless they have real
clothes on they cannot come to church.
When 1 ask some of the heather
women to come to the meeting 1 always
hear ekeou karawin' emo clothes, }
and 1 have to tell the story about COM
ing to church clothed in mats over and
over again.
THE first Sunday we had only about
fifty people at our service, but the at
tendance has steadily risen until we
can now count about 400.
I'VE cannot talk to the people very
much. Their knowledge of Gilbert is
very scant. We have at least the good
will of three chiefs. One chief woman
who had never been to meeting came
for the first time last Sabbath.
II can assure you that our people dc
not look any too clean; but we can no.
tice little difference already since we
came. The first Sabbath their hair
was, standing up and out in all direc-
tons. Many begin to braid their hair
now.
Il am trying very hard to introduce
| a plain pattern for wrappers and trust
| / shall succeed. / have made nearly
! forty dresses since we arrived.
THE trading is to take place on thu
LIST day of April, but the people will
not have many cocoanuts to trade
We are studying the language with
native every morning.
"A few days ago Mr.. Kaiser, Mr.. d,
la Porte, baby and myself, with hal
dozen natives, made a tour round tn,
island. How wild the people look
The children screamed and ran ava!
when they saw us, and most of thu
women hid in their huts under mats
Most of them do not even wea
fringes. Would you believe that tn
haff- white children of a white trade
whose house we passed had no cover
ing whatsoever on, and the trade
himself was more or less in the sam
/ condition.
Had we more rain, Pleasant Islam,
would, without doubt, be a lovely is
land.
"One of the chiefs, who is one of tn
best men we have got now, told m
today that he had killed two men an
one woman and wounded many befor
he began to attend services durin
! 'Tabwias' time.
The name of their principal God
'Teneni,' for whom they have built so
called affairs on which they sacrific
cocoanuts and fish. They have thei
} witch doctors and pay them a goo
price to cure their sick"
The treasurer, Mrs. Dillingham;. fol
lowed by reading her report, whic
} showed balance to their credit
Mrs. Whitney then arose and en-
tranced her hearers by a most realisti
description of English and Scottis
scenery, which she had personally oh
served on her recent trip abroad, an
} then followed with a paper, "Englis
Cathedrals." She said Britain diff
fers more from that of the great coun
try from which most of us have come
in the wonderful and surprisingly in
teresting structures. scattered every
where, indicating the military and &c
} clesiastical history of this delectabl
, little island.
The castle and the church often. a
at Stirling and Durham, and at Lin
|
eminence, dominating the town below
representing the two great force
which the government yields appar
emily Cat least in earlier times). Meth
err complete without the other: tn
crosier and the sword, peace and wal
love and force.
Many of the castles, by far tn
greater number, are In ruins, ofte
more beautiful in their decay tina
they could have been in their glor,
overgrown as they are with ivy. an
gradually returning to mother eartl
some OF the most beautiful churche
are also in ruins, notably Melrose an
Dryburg abbeys, near the home of 81
Walter Scott
THESE were demolished by Crom
wells soldiers, as were many othe
appeys and churches. wanton de
struction of that which modern art ga
never hope to rival.
On the other hand, England is rio
In cathedraIS and abhoxyo