The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-01-17

/ yes
tel day on the City of Peking and who
were hustled in Island steamers to
other Islands, where they are to work
on the plantations.
The truth is but told when it is said
that no more wretched-looking lot of
human beings ever came to these Ha-
waiian Islands.
Half-starved and consumptive-look-
ing, dirty beyond all description, for
lorn and absolutely without anything
material to cheer or comfort them in
their poverty, they have come to this
country in the hope that they will earn
enough by honest toll to provide them
with sufficient to keep body and soul
together.
AS they were transferred from the
City of Peking yesterday to the Island
steamers which were to take them to
their new homes, those who saw them
were overcome with pity for their
wretched condition. Poor little wasted
infants, looking more like living skele-
tons than growing human beings, with
little claw-like hands clutching at the
fiat breasts of sickly mothers whose
sad, pity -beseeching eyes had long
Iceased to know the poor comfort Of
useless, tears, caused many hearts to
ache and many heads to turn away.
It was not a sight to look upon long.
The country which these unhappy
ones nave left has sent forth fearful
examples of the conditions existing
! there. Here, in Hawaii, they are to
find homes and food and wherewithal
to clothe themselves, and perhaps hap
piness 1t is a change from positive
suffering to contentment for them; for
the country it is an experiment.
I One who went among them yesterday
morning told an Advertiser reporter
that it would be some time before they
could be expected to do any work.
They have first to be nourished; they
have to regain some Of the strength
(which has been lost by emi-starvation.
| 1t seems that they have been picked
! from the very poorest and most hope
less class in Porto Rico; 1t would be
hard to imagine people in more desti-
tute circumstances.
| About half the Porto Ricans are wo-
men and children. They very naturally
have suffered more than the men. The
men are better able to stand it. The
! dirt which was so evident on the per-
sons of the immigrants was not by any
means only the stains of travel: 1t
seemed rather to be the accumulation
of DAYS and weeks and even months
of living in the most squalid circum-
stances But how could they we'll be
otherwise? Herded like cattle, each
bearing a tag with his name and the
name of the plantation to which they
were consigned, punched together In
such a way that it was practically i'm
possible for them to do much more than
sit up to eat and lie down to sleep.
The surgeon aboard the Peking used
a great amount of drugs on the way
down from the Coast in his attempt tc
fight malaria and dysentery among the
Porto Ricans.
/ AS soon as the Peking was at the Pa.
cific Mail wharf the steamer Helene Of
Wilder's company went alongside o
the steamship and three hundred o
the immigrants were immediatel!
transferred to the smaller vessel. They
were well managed and Captain Clarke
saw to it that they were we'll provided
with food. The Helene then proceeded
to Hawaii and Maui, where they ar
!, to be distributed among the differen
plantations. No trouble was experienc
ed with those put aboard the Helene.
Later in the day the steamer Ke-Au
Hou of the Inter-Island Company wa
! ready to take most of the remaining
immigrants to Hamakua. A little owe
: one hundred were put aboard the Ke
Au-Hou and early in the afternoon tn
!, steamer was ready to start upon he
Tourney Captain Olsen commando
the boat.
, The Ke-Au-Hou is not large boa
and when the laborers, the sickest look
ling lot of laborers who ever hired ou'
. were aboard there was hardly room 70
. the crew to move around in.
1t is fortunate for the two steamshi
lcompanies that the Federal inspector
of hulls and boilers have not yet arrfv
led to put the United States laws Int
effect in regard to the carrying of NOR
passengers than can be properly G
lsafeIy accommodated.
: If any accident happened either tn
, Helene or the Ke-Au-Hou on their re
: spective trips to the other Islands
great many lives, would be lost, fo
lt3,ara ora not tba paceSSary y,1Ir1f5er c