The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1904-01-26
WHARVtS FOR
FISH MARUS

Henry's lobster trust, did We? Well,
II We had was goin' to say that this
here live fish corporation beats John
Henry's scheme all hollow. Fact is
that man Pain is a wonder He's or
ganized them Jap sampan men into
pretty close-fisted outfit. The Japs
were to get together, so to speak, and
drive the Chinese out of business.
They may do this here thing but / can
I tell you that they are all going to be
up against it pretty lively"
Old Pete Johnson, yes, sir. bo'suns
, mate, sir" stood near the old channel
, wharf yesterday afternoon and sur
veyed a portion of the harbor in which
there has been considerable activity of
late. The promoters of PAINS Fish
cries, Ltd" or the Live Fish Corpor-
ation," have been doing things down
that way. Old Pete sizes up the stu
alton in this wise.
You see, this man Pain he's sort
of next to things. He saunters along
these wharves looking for any old
thing to turn UP just like you or me
would. You am l go long smoking
these here pipes and thinking kind of
leisurely like. but he rides along in
his kerridge and thinks at a two-min-
ute clip. He organizes this fishing
business and gets a hold of young
steamer to go out and buy fish right
| off the hooks along the reef. But
| bimeby he kind o. thinks that perhaps
his profits as n middleman won't be |
extra heavy and like the man in
poker game he decides he'd better git |
another strins; for his bow. You know |
when Teller is playing of poker and |
| things come round SO he has an ace, |
| king, queen an jack of clubs in his |
hand befo' the draw he feels sort of |
shaky. Some other fellow opens the |
| pot with a pair of jacks and he just |
raises every other fellow out o. the |
game except the Teller what opened |
the pot on the jacks. Then they draw |
cards. The fellow what had the jacks |
to go in on don't better em. Then the
Teller what had the bob-tail-straight-
flush is looking for ten spot of clubs
mighty bad. Now you know If he don't |
get that ten spot of clubs he's mighty |
glad to get another ace SOS he can
beat the other fellows jacks anyhow.
This here is a sort of ,circumlocuted
way of getting at it, but 1t illustrates
my pint. The King of the Fish Trust
thinks perhaps that the commission
business won't pay. If it fails he
wants another thing. So he sees about
a hundred japanese sampans anchored
up against the sea wall near this here
wharf. He ses to himself: BY
chiminay! Amt this a free and indie
pendent American country? Now
here's a whole lot of hathen Japanese.
Suppose they anchor there. Who does
they pay for it.
after cogitating this about n minute
he goes to the navy station. He dis
kivers that them Japs don't pay a
bloomin' cent for American privileges.
Then he pipes off to the admiral or the
watchman or somebody at the navy
station about his great live fish idea.
His remarks are appreciated as the
vaporings of an Illuminated man and
the navy fellow SEES: Go ahead, my
good fren, just put your live shark
tails in that space and it will cost you
nothngs.'
Next day along comes a gang of
men and stakes. They marks off that
shallow water and here an there drive
a few dozen stakes They connect
these with boards making wharves
about three feet high and two feet
wide. They is about seven or eight
or nine of them wharves with lots of
room between to drive the sampans
in. Then he takes pipes and lays on
small water mains to furnish fresh
water to all them wharves. Then with
a bucket of red paint he decorates the |
whole shootin' match, and then with
white paint he makes spaces about
eight feet, apart along the wharves.
He puts numbers on these. one, two,
three, four like and then he tells all
the Japanese in the company of high
binders what has previously been as
sembled that each man must have a
wharf and each boat must pay two |
dollars every month for wharfing priv
ileges. He's got some eighty-five of
those wharf spaces and I guess almost
all of EN- are filled up by this time.
when / went to skule back in Ban
gor used to be pretty pert at figgers,
so | set the whole scheme on this :.
block of wood. 1t fggers out this way:
Cost of wharfage and water system on
the start, about 1910. Cost of water
for year, about fifty dollars. That's
his working capital. / make no charge !.
for collections-he'll likely do them
I reckon the Japs will
repair the wharves when needs be.
That's an investment all told of three
hundred and sixty dollars. Now for +
revenue. They's eighty-fve spaces at II
two dollars a month. That's a hum j
dred and seventy dollars. Theys i
twelve months in year. That makes {
his total revenue at two thousand and /
forty dollars. That's a profit of six n
teen hundred and ninety dollars. What l.
l can't quite figger out is just how r
many hundred per cent profit on the /