The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-04-16
RANDOM MEMORIES.
Some Sketches by the Author of -sOush
Sea IdyIS"

S~1
EXITS AND ENTRANCES. A Book
OF Essays and Sketches. BY Charles
Warren Stoddard- Octave. pp. 375.
Boston: Lothrop Publishing Com
pany.
This is a pleasing volume to ramble
in at ease. The short papers. written
in a variety of keys. but all with the
same note of personality, form med
ley in subject Two essays on Steven
son as the author knew him in Cali
fornia. and an impression OF his work
after he had sought the South Seas,
open the book. A meeting with George
Eliot at her home, The Priory. North
Bank, is described. as also a luncheon
with Charles Kingsley. lecture sea-
son with Mark Twain and glimpses
of Bret Harte, Joaquin Miller and
Richard Hengist Horne. The authors
notes of travel range from Hawaii to
Egypt, and, for the matter Of that. are
in no case to be held down within strict
geographical limits. The commonplace
in amusing and pleasant guise is fair
game for the fanciful novelist when the
leisure of his theme draws him aside.
for the moment. Few travellers have.
missed hearing the jocund music of
passing raiIends, but it is seldom
caught with truer ear than this:
Have you ever noted the refrain of
the flying wheels as they hurry from
70 e Oh, -falx
from the locomotive, and a groan from
one end of the train to the other, as if
every screw were rheumatic and moth
ing but miracle held it IN it's place.
Then the song begins, very slowly at
first, and in the old familiar strain:
'Ko-ka-chi-lunk, ko-ka-chf-lunk
koka-chiiunk, kokaehilunk, - repeated
again and again, varied only when the
short rails are crossed, where it adds
a few extra syllables in this style:
''Kokachilunk-chil chilunk," grow
ing faster and faster every moment I'M
til the utmost speed is attained; it then
scars into this impressive refrain:
"Lickity-cut, lickity-cut, lickity-cut,
iickity- repeated as often and as
rapidly as possible. All the world goes
by in two dizzy landscapes. yet the
song is UNMARRIED until you approach a
town with a struggling and unfinished
edge, where the houses are Waiting
about as if they had not yet decided
upon any permanent location. Here
you slacken speed and drop into a third
as Inonotonous as the 9TH
ers and far more drowsy, for it sug-
gests ali that is soothing and nerve
and sleep begetting. 1t is
'Killikinick. kilII-kinick. killi-kin-
nick; chi ahi bangl" A long groan
from the wheels. a deep sigh from the
locomotive, and you are stockstill at
some inland hamlet that knows no emo
lion greater than that occasioned by |
your arrival.
There is a dron sketch of his excel
ency the Minister of Foreign Rela- |
ions, in the old Hawaiian Kingdom,
With which, by the way, the author
vas much in sympathy, as we, are re-
minded by his calling, in another place.
the great national scandal. the vexed
samoan and Hawaiian questions" the
natural outgrowth of Presidential
bliquity of Judgment, coupled with
Greshamism. Dignity. diplo-
macy and digestion were the hobbies
+ this surgeon, adventurer, speculator.
traveller and mid-Pacific statesman.
lie landed at Honolulu. after numerous
experiences in Mexico. South America,
ndia and Australia. in the year 1874.
Within year he entered the service
f King Kamehameha III.
The portfolio of foreign affairs was
itrusted to him; and as Foreign Minis
ar he remained until his death TWEEN
zone years later. Here he thrived like
gourd. He struck root deep in that
rolific soil; he entered heart and soul
ito the great and crowning work of
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