Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-31
THE HAWAIIAN CABLE
How It Will Affect InSular
Affairs.
HONOLULU rs EAGER
PASSING OF OLD METHODS OF OBJ
TANNING NEWS.
Hustling for Mainland Items During
War Times and Plague
Days.
sueci,l CORRESPONDENCE. Of Tn. Evening Star.

Special Correspondence OF The Evening star.
HONOLULU. T H., December l5. 1901
The establishment Of cable communica-
ton between here and the mainland ID
to be celebrated by the people OF Honolulu
as holiday, and there will be great re-
joicings. The opening OF the cable line Is
regarded here as ranking in impoi canoe
with annexation itself, for 1t brings Ha-
wall at last IN touch with the world. Gov
error Dole will declare a holiday On the
day when the cable steamer Silverton
| brings the cable end here. which she Will
have laid on the ocean bed from San Fran
cisco.
The first messages over the line are to
pass between President Roosevelt and Gov
ernor Dole, and may be exchanged before
this letter reaches Washington. Then the
Merchants Associations of San Francisco
and Honolulu will exchange messages OF
congratulation. Both associations will hold
meetings, the one in Honolulu being
public gathering at the opera house. al
which messages will be received and from
which they will be sent. In addition to
these plans for celebration many OF the
fraternal and benevolent societies mere are
preparing to send greetings to their brother
lodges on the mainland and in Europe.
The wires:wH be kept very busy for day
or so after the connection Is established.
Great Effect on Journalism.
Among the business changes which the
cable must necessarily make none Is
greater than those it will cause in the
newspaper business in the islands. The
cable means heavy expense to the news
papers of Honolulu. for they will have to
pay tolls on daily Geographic reports. There
are three daiiies in Honolulu which Will
probably take the Associated Press ana
he ua nj ia
Pacific Commercial Advertiser. morning,
and the Evening Bulletin. With the intro
duction Of a. cable service the propr1etors OF
these papers will see heavy added expenses
while the employees on the editorial end
will see the doing away with some FEATURES
Of the work that have been peculiar to
| Honolulu for some years. Up to this time
Hawaii has depended for news OF the out
side world on steamers from San Francisco,
Seattle Victoria or the orient. Ten years
ago sailing vessels from San Francisco ire
uuently brought late news to Hawaii, for
steamers were not SO plentiful as now.
Then it was the duty of the hustling Homo
lulu water front newspaper man to board
every arriving sailing vessel or steamer.
and dig for copies OF the latest san
Francisco papers The rivalry was most
keen and many were the races of rival
boats carrying reporters to the newcomers
The sea captains were usually ready 1or
them, and did =the courtesy 9f supplying
files promptly. hut sometimes only an ODD
paper or two was to be had, and other
occasions perhaps .only some scraps:
| When steamers began to come 60 daWai
oftener the sailing vessel ceased to bring
news The last time that windjammer
brought Geographic news to Hawaii was
IN the fall of 30. when the ship George Cur
tbs. making an unusually quick passage
during intervals between steamships.
brought one day later newspapers than the
preceding steamer had brought.
The Transport Years.
Of
transports. Often several army transports
a week arrived at Honolulu from San
Francisco or Seattle. Their arrival was
often unexpected, and the Honolulu news
paper mans lot became harder one than
ever. Far cut at sea the newsga therers
would go, blowing through the waves In
little gasoline launches, to Chamber up the
sides Of huge transport or mail steamer.
or to see quartermaster pull up the lad
der and order them off, as the case might
| be-. When Honolulu had plague the board
| ing became impossible most Of the time.
Once on the deck and there was little diff
| Guilty among large passenger list OF of
| ficers and men in getting all the mainland
| newspapers that were wanted; but some
| times the arrival would be a horse trans
port with very few men on board, and In
| such cases Honolulu newspaper men have
spent hours In search OF papers contain
ing the latest news
A lot Of the transports were British YES
| sells, manned by Englishmen as officers.
| An incident Is recalled where such vessel
was boarded at sea off Honolulu and the
| master was hunted up on the bridge, where
| he was helping the pilot to take the vessel
into the harbor The captain was asked
| for late papers He was a courteous, jovial
| Pritisher and res Oily answered that he had
plenty and would save them and give them
| to the newspaper man as soon as the
| steamer was safely locked. He kept his
| word, but he didn't understand the needs
| OF the Honolulu newspapers very Avel, for
| his late papers were copies of the English
mans sacred London Times Their news
| was six weeks old, but the captain gave
| them away in the firm conviction that he
was doing great favor.
| Plague Days.
| Before the transport business ended or
| was reduced to its present propo, ions two
! new elements made matters worse for the
| reporter The mainland newspaper nan
| who thinks he has a lDod deal Of hust .ng
| to do should have shared the lot of re
| Honolulu during plague times ard
| after, when the application of American
laws made it impossible to board an in
coming steamer until the quarantine doc
| tor had finished with her and the custom
house men had given the word. To get the
late news. if there was any, was a matter
of simple necessity for 1t was not a mat
ter of being beaten on an ordinary STORY
or So but on the news of the entire world.
|
quarantine kept the vessels outside the
harbor In many cases and in all cases kept
them from docking. AS a result, there was
much hurrying about on the water All
the newspaper man could do was run along
side the big steamers and shout to the Of
! ficers on deck. In very few cases were tie
| officers discourteous or unwilling to assist
| Yokohama sometimes came to the rescHe
with a few Reuters cablegrams. for II
| there happened to be long interval be-
| tween coast steamers a vessel coming from
Yokohama in ten days might have later
| news Of the outside world. 1t was always
in meager form, but now and then, as dur
ing the Boer war. its few lines told Of
1 happenings Of vital importance. During
this period the Hawaiian Star several times
sent boats out to meet steamers and issued
| extras On getting the news, and the extra
| newspaper Is q common thing in Honolulu
| now
A few weeas ago the British cable from
| Victoria to Farming Island, en- route to
| Australia, was completed. and Honolulu
| for the frs. time began to receive trans
pacific messages Steamships on their way
to San francisco from Australia and New
Zealand stopped at Tanning Island, and
| this brought Honolulu within three days of
tbs worlds news. 1t was the beginning of
1 the cable business.
Increase, In Midshipmen.
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