The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-04-20
HAWAIIAN AMERICANISM,

s. One of the marks-we were about TO
say earmarks-by which we may know
4 the newcomer from the Mainland, IS
his sense of loneliness in the enjoy
ment of pure Americanism. Scarcely
does he come ashore when he begins TO
assert the idea that here is an alien
people under the American flag VINO
s know nothing about what that nag
means and must have, whether they
want it or not, a course of lessons IN
u the primer of patriotism. Our new
+ conner does not impose his criticisms OF
s his tutorship on the natives but the
whites. The latter are the ones most
q in need of instruction; he sees that,
( like California and Louisiana, and New
81 Hampshire and Kansas, Hawaii mas
some peculiar local institutions, but he
promptly denies our right to have
them and sets about it to make them
sconform to the institutional customs he
was used to in his own small parish
He is the true and only simon-pure
American and the rest of US belong to
an alien or an expatriated race, far
astray from the parent fold.
81 There is nothing more amusing, de-
spite the familiarity of the thing, than
Ito sit about and hear one of these mali
%hinis expatiate upon the defects and
lathe needs of the white American whom
he found on his arrival. He may call
Hawaii "the Sandwich Islands," he
may not know anything about our his
tory or even know his way around the
Corner; he may cherish the superstition
that the aboriginal Hawaiians were
eaters of human flesh; he may be the
freshest of possible chums, but he
knows precisely and by instinct, what
Honolulu needs. Summing the whole
ching up he is sure that it needs
s Americanism,', and those who need
~ most of all are the natives
Of the United States who came
s1ere before he did. Sometimes
Sae is a politician who thinks we
Sneed an introduction to New York or
ESalifornia or Arizona politics; some
Zines he is an imported official who be-
ssieves himself authorized to change
everything he finds because respect to
ssur local conditions has cut things on
q different pattern than is followed in
ZONE place where conditions are dis
imilar. Or he may be a dyspeptfc soul
VINO goes through the world comparing
FL activity with the delights of quiet
2g4fe at Mooselamaguntic or Slab Settle
snent and bewailing the dearth of that
sar1ghteous American spirit" which ac-
4epts the bucolic standard and goes
through society condemning every other
gauge of life.
& 1t is all very funny and at the same
lime very unfair. Generally speaking
here Is more patriotism in a COLONY
han there is In the parent state on
sshe principle that the blood runs more
syarmly at the extremities than 1t does
bout the heart. Old-time Honolulu
ssHyhich these malihinis know nothing of.
Egas violently American place. Every
american holiday, from Washington's
zsirthday to Memorial day and the
florious Fourth was observed with
music, parades and speeches. On the
5Snainland who bothers about Washing
zzon's birthday aside from the janitor
sFho raises an occasional flag and the
ssociety that sits down to a commemor-
tive feast? In proportion to the num-
Ger of native-born Americans on the
ffround. more national flags flew in
Honolulu during the years of the mon
*frchy and directly afterward than
ssould have been seen in any city Of
me United States, save on national holt
lays. In 1893 the writer counted 12S
'kuch flags, viewing them from the crest
~ Punchbowl on an ordinary day.
@mericanism had been taught for years
ga the schools and churches: it had sent
zSlore men from Honolulu to join the
Union army and navy during the Civil
Var, in proportion to the number of
american inhabitants here. than had
IAN Francisco: the patriotism of this
zdty was so well known that Confed
rate cruisers did not hesitate any
slore to burn Hawaiian ship than
hey did one of Union register. The
.pntrol of local politics was generally
feld by Americans for an American