The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1902-05-23
A STRANGERS IMPRESSIONS
OF THE ISLAND OF OAHU

" NNHh ~ ="
walhiuh 10 right around the cornef.
Looking ~ ths north. great sugar
plantation nlilnr the fertile plain be"
tween the mountains and the sea Some
lover ~ hit Kind has built n perfect
little hotel here. with the low. spread
Ing roofs and broad vorandas u the
country 4 little lawn with two grace
fui cocoanut palms 10 give II elegance.
curved bridge over a little river
where two quaint native canoes float
IN the shade u alEaroba trees-a sand
bank and then crescent Of white
beach and a point % black rocks. with
miles Of surf curving and foaming and
wcltoring over the coral reef In vain at
tompts TO sweep us out OF It's path from
pole 20 pole. II you can possibly keep
awake In the soft salt air, you will, OF
course. do the intelligent thing. and
go 10 see the sugar mill near by, for
sugar making Is the great industry Of
2 the Islands Has not an Indigenous
Mr.. Dooley remarked, in view Of recent
political disturbances, that even the
/ natives raise cain? You drive through
fields that present progressive object
lesson In the cultivation Of the staple
from the burned over black earth where
steam plows are hard at work, up
through all the waving. silver bios
somed growth, to groups of bamboo
like stalks ready for the knife. The
great pile OF mill buildings, with it's
tall chimney stands in the focus Of
converging railroad lines that wind
over the whole plantation to gather
In the cane and about it are gathered
its machine and blacksmith shops, it's
school and hospital and church and
store for each estate il a self-support-
ing little community. with the white
washed cottages OF the Japanese la
borers dotted in little groups up and
down the twenty miles OF fields, and
great cattle ranges for the production
| of beef stretching up into the noun
tains.
SUGAR MILL.
As for the mill itself. how shall the
feminine mind dare attempt any de-
scription Of that huge mass OF machin-
cry that seems almost infinite in its
power and wisdom? From the moment
great belts with iron teeth seize the
freshly cut stalks from the little cars
and fling 1t into a moving trough that
/ lifts 1t steadily into the mill, until the
| not damp brown sugar comes pouring
/ into bags through twenty iron mouths
| no human hand touches the material
and no one can hardly believe that any
| merely human brain has had anything
! to do with the wonderful process. 1t
| Is certainly the most intelligent ma
chine l have ever met.
You wonder why it confines itself
[ exclusively to making sugar, for it
seems 50 opniscient you are sure it is
quite capable-if it rearranged a few
screws and levers-of turning out a ma
Wy, rousseau, or perfected scheme
/ OF colonial government. Here is a great
grinder feeding itself relentlessly with
the helpless green stalks, rolling and
crushing the pulp until the last minute
drop OF Juice has been extracted and
sent rushing off on its long journey
among The steam pipes, while with an
economy truly gratifying to the Yam
kee conscience, the dry Chaff is deity
emptied into the furnace room to pro-
vide fuel for the roaring fires under the
great boilers.
You follow that hot stream of sweet
water through processes that produce a
stultfying effect on your brain. You
- feel yourself commencing to granulate
|, long before you see those whirling
grains beginning to be apparent. Here
it Is cut with lime to remove the acids
there boiled in great watts, over and
over--then passed on through huge
evapOrators where the water is separa-
ted from the molasses and sent off to
irrigate the fields again in way that
makes you feel as If you were at last
seeing a man lift himself over fence
by his boot straps. There is more boil
ing and there are vacuum pans where
FORMULATION begins and eventually ii
appears that you turn molasses into
sugar by shaking it as Alice turned the
Looking Glass queen into a Kitten.
Some one murmurs in your ear Stats
tics about fertilizers and tons and gal
. Ions and per cents. and centrifugal
processes, and gradually you observe
that the syrup is thickening and dark
ening and FORMULATING, until by what
seems superhuman processes, that clear
brook OF hot water is turned into great
bags full of soft brown sugar. 1t is very
wonderful, but not, perhaps, very appe-
tiZing. There are moments when you
doubt II you Will ever put sugar on
your oatmeal again, but you change
your mind when they give you a bit to
taste before the bag is sewed up. 1t is
very hot and sticky and sweet in a SUI
gar mill, and there are few impressive,
uninteresting Japanese standing about,
apparently for the pleasure of watch
ing the wheels go round, for the ma
chinery knows its own business far too
well to need assistance of any sort.
In fact, the whole process seems so
contemptuous Of mere human effort
that you feel 1t is impertinent to try to
understand 1t, even. and so decide that
the next time you visit the Hallidays
and Rollo's mother puts a lump of SUI
gar into his cambria tea. you will con-
ceal from the omniscient Mr.. Halliday
the fact that you have been to Waia-
lua, for after all, IL is much more COM
Portable to let men explain things.
OTHER PLEASURES.
But there are other pleasures besides
mechanical ones at Waialua. You can
wander for hours along the beach
watching a surf that curls into trans
lucent blue combs instead OF our At
lantic green ones-you can pick up
shells and fragments Of shells. pink
white and purple, that seem to have
drifted here from New England mantel
pieces. You can watch chestnut brown
native men diving for drift wood in the
CONTINUED on PAGE S.
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