The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-01-09

If. 1T the time when this story begins,
some one had come TO Alice Earle and
offered to fulfill her dearest wish, she
would have asked without a moments
hesitation, for a trip to Hawaii. For
there was nothing in the world she liked
better than travelling. and lately she had
heard so much about Hawaii that this
was now the place Of all places she most
longed to see Imagine her delight, then,
when she was told that her parents had
decided to take her with them on visit
TO the Hawaiian Islands. She had
been told that the Hawaiian Islands lie
almost in the middle of the great Pacific
Ocean, and. after a careful search she
found them on the map. a cluster of tiny
specks not so large as the letters of their
name. The specks were so very small
that 1t was hard for her to realize that
Hawaii. the island for which the group
was named. is as large as the State of
Connecticut, and that upon another ISL
and Of the group, Oahu, there is city
called Honolulu, which has over twenty
thousand inhabitants. Her father told
her that the group consists of eight large
Islands, besides several barren rocks.
These eight islands are covered with for
ests and plantations-great cultivated
| tracts of land. upon which sugar cane is
| raised. Upon these high mountain
| ridges, with peaks that are, or have been
volcanoes. - part of each island,
at some time. has been buried under this
lava, which hardens as 1t cools. and upon
which very few plants can grow. On
Hawaii, the largest island, two of the
mountains, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa,
are nearly fourteen thousand feet high,
and their tops are covered with snow
that never melts. II rained very
often as the vessel approached the Ha-
| waiian Islands, but the warm. bright
showers were soon over. Sometimes Alice
could see two or three black clouds just
above the sky. out of which the rain was
streaming in long, slanting hues. With
these frequent showers there were to be
seen beautiful rainbows They were of
brilliant hues. red, yellow, green, blue,
and violet, each color separate and dis
tince and the perfect arch seemed to
spring from the sea. The Islands are so
noted for their beautiful rainbows that
the natives called them The Islands of
Rainbows" Alice thought that
she had never seen anything more beau
tiful than the harbor. The water was
bluer even than the ocean. and there
was not a ripple upon its smooth sur
face. which was crossed with bands of
pink, brown and yellow. There was a
long line of ships along the dock. The
captain said tina once this line of ships
had extended along the shore for more
than a mile and that they lay close
together that man could step from one
deck to another. They were sailing YES
sells that had come out from New En-
gland to catch whales. which were TO be
south of the Hawaiian Islands. The
beach for several miles beyond the city
curved like crescent along the sea. bor-
dered all the way by groves of cocoa
palms. These trees were slender and
tall, with smooth trunks and leaves
growing in the top like plumes, and they
were all bent and twisted by the winds.
Here and there among the groves Alice
could see fine houses. quite close to the
beach In the city, also, there were
great many trees, and the breeze from
the land was as fragrant as tho II had
blown across a garden full of flowers.
The hotel had shady balconies
above and below, and the grounds were
filled with ferns and palms, and many
strange beautiful plants and trees which
Alice had never seen before. The grass
all over was very thick and green. One
plant, with a large, thick leaf of bright
est green, was the banana. a tree with
fine, feathery leaves was the algaroba,
and still another with great spreading
branches was the umbrella tree, which
Alice thought well named. over one al
garoba tree ran a vine that almost cover
ed the boughs with masses of crimson
flowers, and upon the lawn were beds
of lilies and heliotrope. From the veran-
d. at the back of the hotel could be
seen low mountain with jagged, cir
cular top, that looked as If the peak had
been torn off This was Punchbowl 1t
had once been volcano, but the fire
had died out ages ago, and ii was cover
ed within and without, with thick grass +,
and shrubs. /
There were other tall peaks which
Alice learned to distinguish as Round
Top and Tantalus. There We're also sew
eral covered with grass to the very top.
and mist and clouds fioated around them
like a thin, white veil. There were a
great many kinds of people in the hotel.
as well as in the streets-Chinese. Japa-
nese. Hawaiians, Americans, and a few
who were travelling through
the Islands The dining room
was large and airy. and through the open
windows Alice saw the waving boughs of
the palms and heard the chattering of
birds. II was like fairyland, and she
felt that she could be happy in Honolulu
all her life, and that she should never
and snow. where the flowers do not bloom
the whole year round After
breakfast the Earles went for drive
to Waikiki. This is suburb. lying along
the beach. which they had seen from the
ieck of the ship. The road is solid and
smooth, running for several miles quite
close to the sea. wall of stone has
been built to prevent the waves from
washing across the road. On one side
ire high mountains. with the cool green
valleys at their base. On the other side
les the sea. deep and blue and very still
,lone the beach. Farther out there are
.ough waves that come swiftly rolling
n, till. striking against coral reef, they
oss their white spray high up into the
.,r. These reefs. or sunken lodges OF
oral, are composed OF the skeletons OF
of little animals called corai !
,olyps. The coral polyps live only under
he water. and die when they come to 9
he surface. The reefs they build up are !