The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-03-19
PRISONERS OFHARD LUCK A SAILOR RUNS ANUCK
MEN WHO WANT TO LEAVE AND
CAN'T.
Came With Money Enough to Get
Away But are Held Till Money is
Gone by Quarantine.

Honolulu. is drifting toward a condi.
ton which is not new or novel IN many
cities of the mainland, but is very new
and novel here. 1t is said that there
are at least three hundred men in town
who have come here during the past
few months, and unable to find employ
ment and unable to get away on aC-
count of quarantine regulations are
last coming to a point where they will
become a charge upon the public. They
are men who came here with enough
money to pay their passage down and
back and to remain here a while to see
the Islands, or to stay if they found the
kind of employment they are accustom-
ed to. The presence of the plague and
the embargo on travel, especially the
embargo on steerage travel has COM
PEELED them to remain here, and the
cost of living has gradually dwindled
their resources so that many of them
cannot get away even if steerage should
be resumed.
The presence of these men is not no.
ticed particularly in the crowds on the
streets in the day time as there is no.
thing particular in their appearance to
distinguish them from others, except
some little details of difference between
the style of clothing worn on the main
land and that usually worn here, and
SOhlC lIlNldl CIaTdCleTlSIlCS Wl1Cn
would never be noticed except by one
accustomed to cities where many men
are at times out of employment At
meal times, however, one accustomed
to seeing the unemployed in the big
cities of the mainland, can pick them
out without difficulty at the restaU-
rants and in the evening on the streets,
If you run across one of them, he can
point out any number of the others as
they pass along the streets or stand
talking on the sidewalks and street
corners.
They are in no sense tramps. In fact
they are as a rule the furthest possi-
BILE from the tramp species. They are
men of almost every avocation in life,
who paid their passage here and ex-
pected to pay their passage back If
they did not like it here.
One of them, a man who carries
abundant credentials of industry in his
own line in the states, speaking of the
matter said: IF these men cannot soon
get away, they will be charge on the
community. The conditions is getting
in Honolulu, as have seen it in Dem
yer and other places in the west, where
the city was obliged to furnish this
class of men transportation out of the
city to points where they could get em-
ployment. Take my own case / have
not quite enough money to take first
class steamer passage. The expense
OF going into absolute quarantine so as
to get steerage is such that after have
paid that expense 1 would not have
enough left to pay steerage passage and
make the deposit required by the
steamship companies to cover the cost
OF possible quarantine at the other end
can do nothing, and the longer 1 wait
the worse fix am in. There are others
in worse fix than I am. ran across
one the other day, a jeweler by trade.
he was practically out of money and
had taken a stevedore's job, though he
was really not strong enough for it.
can pick these men out of anywhere
If could get back to the coast, I would
be all right, and others are in Just the
same position that I am in. We con.
stitute floating population which is OF
no use to the community, and we would
like to get away to where we could be
or some use to ourselves and the com.
munities in which we live. But we
can't"