The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-01-01
SANITATION.

Inc lnSaIlldfN COnulllOn Oh the New
Chinatown is occupying the attention
of the Board of Health. There is no
doubt that unless the very sharpest
lookout is kept upon the Asiatic por-
ton of the town, it is sure to become
insanitary. This is in the nature of
things. The Chinese, while PERSONAL
ly clean has absolutely no idea of the
necessity for sanitation. He bathes his
body scrupulously, in which he certain
ly is superior to many European ma
tons. One of the last French comic
papers hits off the dislike of the lower
classes for soap and water, when Ma
dame Michel is represented as saying
to Madame Chou Il don't care what
you may say, my Angel but there must
be something morally wrong about a
woman who takes bath once a week"
But however clean his body. and
however spotless him linen and clothes,
the Chinese has absolutely no concep-
ton of sanitation. How should he. He
has increased and multiplied and filled
every inch of his native soil under con-
ditions which would have swept any
other race off the face of the earth.
Rudyard Kipling in describing Canton
says "the stinlls rose up and over
whelmed us. In this respect Canton
was Benares twenty times magnified.
The Hindoo is a sanitating saint COM
pared with the Chinaman."
Naturally having left a home full of
stinks, his olfactory nerves are hurt
by pure air and the balmy breezes of
heaven. AS the Dutch made New
York, during the time of their occu-
patton, miniature Amsterdam, as the
French have striven to make a South
sea Paris of Papeete, as the Russian
carries his national characteristics into
Central Asia, and you find the Byzan-
tine domes and enamelled roofs of the
Greek churches from Perm to the
mouth of the Amur River, so the
Chinaman desires a reproduction of his
favorite Canton or Hainan or any other
city with its forty thousand stinks, it's
rotting vegetables, its decaying dead
cats, rats, chickens and dogs, its stag
nant, scum-covered waters, and it's
pools of footed Stops
But though this may be satisfactory
to the Chinaman, it is by no means
satisfactory to the people who have to
live along side of him. Not only is it
unpleasant to live along side for all
other races, but it is highly dangerous
TO their health and to their lives. Con-
sequently the Board of Health under
its present go ahead management does
not propose to have the health and
the lives Of others endangered by the
Chinese love Of filthy surroundings and
has in consequence started a very de-
cided crusade against the conditions
Of the new Chinatown.
In this work the Board and its Pre-
sident should receive the heartiest
support of the citizens of Honolulu.
We have paid very dearly in the past
for the negligence We have shown with
regard to the old Chinatown. and the
bill of damages has as yet not been
settled in full. We shall have another
bill to settle and there will be no ac-
cumulated fund to draw upon the next
time Our only safety lies in protecting
ourselves by insisting upon scrupulous
cleanliness in the oriental district.
Moreover the work is not necessarily
confined to Chinatown, There are rock
cries scattered all over town, among
the residence districts, which need
thorough and careful attention. Dur
ing the time of the plague the volun-
teer inspectors had all these places well
cleaned up, but just as soon as their
authority ceased they quickly slipped
back to their previous condition, in
fact in some cases it seems as if seven
! devils Of dirt, worse than the first, had
cheerfully entered in, having found
the place nicely swept and garnish-
| ed, and the last state is infinitely worse
than the former.
That in a general clean up and in
the insistance of clean up there may
be some hardship entailed on indivi-
duals is doubtless true, but the Board
of Health and it's present President do
not and cannot consider individuals, it
| considers the mass, the community at
large. What is wanted is the greatest
good of the greatest number. In cases
| Of hygiene there can be no holding
back, no hesitation, for delay means
danger and danger may mean disease
and death,