The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-06-17

On Sunday night the many little shops
arc crowded with customers. All sorts
of queer-looking edibless are exposed to
prospective purchasers. In the dry goods
stores everything from holokus to quaint
and curious patterned Chinese silks are
to be found. In but few if any of the
shops is there any attempt to arrange the
goods in manner that is pleasing to
the eye of the customer, and which
serves. ar the same time, to advertise
the business of the proprietor
Here and there, from some dark stair
way. float the weird sounds of Chinese
music. What its effect may be on the
listeners is hard to determine. There are
few places where more stolid, expression
less faces are to be seen than at one of
these Chinese sacred concerts.
There is another portion of Honolulu
which celebrates the Sabbath in its own
peculiar way. This is Kakaako. It is
here in this district, composed to a large
extent of the more shiftless and immor-
al natives, that the larger portion of the
DRINKS whose names are to be found on
;he Monday morning Police Court calen-
dar, are arrested. The prevailing char
acteristic of this locality on Sunday is
Joyless dissipation. Here it is that
swipes. the drink that has made Homo
lulu famous, is brewed, and drank. The
two aims of many of the people of this
district seem TO be. when they have Sc
cured their weeks wages, to get drunk
and to remain so. To one who has visit
ed the poorer quarters of other cities, it
seems strange, when first initiated to the
mysteries of Kakaako. that among so
many intoxicated people as there are in
this neighborhood, there are not more
deeds OF violence committed Aside from
occasional brawls in which the women as
well as the men take part. there are no
breaches against the peace. The police
department finds it expedient, however,
to keep the district well patroled from
early Saturday night, when the opales-
cent beverage of the HawaiianS begins
to be in evidence. until an early hour
Monday morning when, tired, worn out
and penniless, they sink into slumber.
The secondary amusement of these peo-
pie is gambling Craps" and diverse
games of cards are INDUCED in The
game from the Sunny South, which was
introduced here some two years ago by
a transport full of negro soldiers, is the
most popular of all games of chance now
played by the Hawaiians. The initiated
may find, on any Saturday and Sunday
afternoon. in Kakaako a vacant lot full
of gamblers gathered with heads bowed
as If in earnest prayer, about the ever
rolling cubes of bone. So intent are they
that the visitor receives no attention. But
in order to see the crap-shooter shoot
it is necessary to be known to the
guards. who are placed about the impro-
vised Monte Carlo. TO give the signal
should a policeman or other individual
who is known TO be opposed to aiding
abetting a gambling game appear. To-
wards evening these little gambling rings
break up, only to adjourn to some house
near by there to resume the counting of
tickle Fortune.
Not all of the people in this district are
guilty of spending their day of rest in
this manner. Many hardworking. frugal
people, both whites and natives, are to
be found here. There are churches here,
which have good congregations. but it is
not the people who attend these whose
habits of life give the locality the unfor-
tunat tie reputation it bears.
Taken as whole it is doubtful if there
is any city of its size in the United
States that can show more diverse ways
of keeping Sunday. There are cities in
which Sunday is passed in a greater num-
Der o. ways, but it is safe to say there
are none where the lines of demarkation
are drawn more boldly than in Honolulu.