The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-01-18

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A BIT OF America. liu1ned with
n the deeper, richer coloring Of
IN Asia, A CLINT of the sun upon
that spot in the warm seas where the
oldest civilization in the world touches,
at its extreme outpost, the lustiest and
newest! Those are the first impressions
of the stranger in Honolulu. There is
a glamour over it all, and a dazzle, that
is puzzIing. In some strange fashion,
the wayfarer from the continent Of
America feels that he is at home, ana
yet that there is about him an atmos-
phere that is not the home atmosphere
The people that he meets are American,
some of them The social laws are
American, some of them. The bus
mess methods are American. some
of them. And yet, over all, the
people and the way of them. the social
laws, the business methods, is that
manner that is not the manner of the
American of the mainland.
It is a national manner modified, per-
haps, by the climate. this new manner
of the Americans of Honolulu-and yet
it is more than that So old is Asia, and
so set in her way, that she must needs
impress those who come into contact
with her at any point. And the Amer
lean is impressible-being young, mo-
bile, adaptable. That is one of the Sc
crets of success that is meeting him in
But while Asia has laid touch of color
upon this gem of the seven seas, it is
but touch. That is the strangers Sec
ond and truer impression. The domi-
mating atmosphere, under the dazzle of
the unusual surface, is of Americanism,
strong and true and progressive. If it isl
also an Americanism that adorns itself
a little for its better setting with the
gauds of the Far East, who is to say
that it is the worse for that? There is
a touch of the barbaric richness of
Polynesia in it, too, and the picture is |
not the less attractive. The social life
in its better aspects has caught nothing
from Asia. That is strong and
pure and true, American to thet
backbone. That, likewise, is the stran-
ger with the habit of observation-and I
the impression of no other stranger isl
eyer worth while. And if the social life,
in its best aspect, is true and pure and
a word, American-the
town has little to fear from God or man
in Its future. Vice we always have with
us, everywhere-but the vice of Homo
lulu has this point of redemption, that
it is picturesque. And that is the touch
of Asia.
And although business is done by
Asiatics in Honolulu, it Is not in the
direction of great enterprises, nor in the
conduct of those lines whereby the city
has achieved abroad a great primacy.
1t is the Americans. and the naturalized
Americans. who lead the business COM Il
here, as it is the whole world
around in these latter days. And that
also, is the strangers second and truer
impression. What touch of old Asia is
n the business world is to the profit of /;
t. The American in business, follow !
ng the words of Saul of Tarsus, can !
De all things to all men-at least until !
lie gets the other mems things. And I
hen he becomes a law unto himself !
md we have John Pierpont Morgan N '
his dispensation. {
Than Honolulu there is no more beau S
iful spot in all the length and breadth '
# America. Poets have sung of it and l
men have written of it, and none has i
old the tale. 1t is a tale that is old,
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