The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-08-12
THE PosrMAN's KNOCK.

An old song says
''Every morn, as sure as the clock.
Somebody hears the postman's knock"
We have no knocker to rouse people
along the streets with what used to
seem in early youth the cheerful rat
tat, rat-tat coming at regular inter-
walls through the day, but we shall have
the arrival of the postman just the |
same, at stated intervals during the
day. 1t will be a great innovation and
will do much to bring the city in line
with modern improvement. It will save
people much unnecessary going down
town to get the mail, and it will re-
lieve the congestion at the postofice |
window. The chief thing that it will |
do will be to fix the nomenclature of the
city streets and houses, and do away
with the present loose system by which
no stranger can find any ones place
of residence without a guide.
Innovations are always more or less
resented by the extremely conserva-
tive, and no doubt there will be kickers
over the free delivery. In the very,
very far off days when the six monthly
mail came round the Horn, the letters
used to be dumped into an empty can
die box on arrival, and anyone inter-
ested came and looked over the heap
and took what belonged to him. The
old resident of those days resented very
much the change to a postal system
crude as it was. Then came the box
system which grew and grew with the
city's growth, and has been brought to
a high degree of perfection under I'm
Gle Sans administration.
Everyone now will have to have a
street number, and a persons residence
will be able to be located with accura-
cy instead of loosely, as in the past
There is a tradition that one of the
directions to find people on Judd street
used to be go up the Valley till you
strike the second shower and then turn
to the left. The Rev. Mr.. Mackin-
tosh's residence was on the hill, be-
tween the first and second shower, and
so on. This may be an exaggeration
of the facetious, but it is not very far
out after all. As for any one living
on the plains, directions for finding any
location begin with You know Willie
Castles house, well it's two streets up
above, then you turn sharp to the rioht
and it is the red house with green
blinds, not the yellow house with grey
blinds" The directions are so lucid
that a hackman who knows the city
has to be hired in order to make the
visit, and the writer has known a
hackman to blunder round for a half
an hour in the vain effort to locate a
new conner. These are all signs of
provincialism and will pass away
shortly, much to the advantage of the
average citizens temper and pocket.
The new departure will also necessi-
tate a new directory of the Islands.
Indeed this has been wanted since the
federal postal system was established.
for none of the present directories
gives or could give persons postoffice
address upon the other Islands. Thus
Waimea, Hawaii is now known as
Kamuela in postofice parlance, but
unless well informed about postoffice
changes, how would the average citi-
zen make the discovery, his directory
would be no guide.
If one looks back what changes there
have been even in a third of century.
1t is only that length of time since
all the traffic between the Islands
was carried on by schooners, and it
took a week and ten days to reach |
Hilo, if the winds were unfavorabe
while three days from Kauai to Homo |
lulu was a common event. There were
no hacks, and in fact no public car
riages except two which belonged to |
Mr.. Ward. There were few private |
carriages, everybody either rode horse
back or walked. Since then we have
steam communication with every port |
on the Islands, and there is practically |
no delay in passing from place to place.
We have had the two old hacks re-
placed by hundreds of modernly equip
ped public vehicles. We have passed |
through the stage of omnibuses to
PAINS cars which are soon to be re-
placed by the Rapid Transit. We have
brick buildings instead of wood. We
have telephones which though by no
means perfect, make communication
much more easy, when the only means
was sending a messenger on horse
back, and we have many more minor
improvements not necessary to men
ton. This is no small record for thirty
years, and now we are to have house
to house delivery Of letters which is the
browning improvement in the postal
line, and matter which should have
been instituted years ago. Thank rood
ness we shall get it permanently now.
A GREAT WORK.