The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-04-10

I Europe! THAT narrow causeway,
trodden down by the feet of so many
pilgrims, with its very stones sancti-
fed by the blood of so many mar
Cow, Calf and Skelig'' were visible
| from the port quarters of the Etruria,
and beyond these picket rocks the dis
tant mountains of Ireland, with robes
of purple and feet of foam, uprose
against the horizon.
What American can, without emo
ton, approach for the first time the
cradles of his race? The soldiers and
statesmen, the authors and orators,
the scientists and inventors of Britain
arc ours as well. For US the Black
Prince struck the golden lilies down,
and Rupert rode to conquer or to fall,
and the grim Covenanters followed old
NolI to victory. We almost hear again
the voices of Burke and Pitt and Fox
and Sheridan, making the arches of
Westminster ring. For us the auburn
eyed Master walks again the streets
VI ST. vi Us view lOIl
watches the apple fall, while the door
opens to the mystery of the spheres,
and Stephenson, with his hand on the
throttle valve of the first locomotive,
again sounds the shrill note of trf-
umph which prophesied the marvels
of this industrial! age.
Shall not we, the American sons of
these. mighty sires. when in sight of the
soil whereon they lived and strove,
find something in these memories to
stir our pulses? Something that strikes
the Tyre of thought with an anthem
sweep,-the refrain of a homecoming
song? Surely there is no disloyalty to
our own land in the heartbeat which
throbs more rapidly at the first sight
of these shores, from whence we draw
our language, our literature. our laws,
our love of freedom, our lust of en-
pire, and our scorn of danger.
A A A
But while we respect the past, let us
not be bullied by it, nor cease to re-
member that In material, If not in mem
tai developments, we have excelled
those who lived in by-gone centuries.
Dick Turpin rode Black Bess fifty miles
out from London in three hours, but
Overalls Thompson did the same dis
lance from Tucson south in less time
on his pet bicycle, Humming Wheel,
and Peg Leg Watson, of Tombstone,
made sixty miles on his automobile in
eighty-four minutes. Earl Gray kept
the House of Lords awake for two
long hours by his eloauence. but Joe
Campbell talked a Kyrene jury into
spasms between luncheon and dusk.
AAA
It was midnight when our signal |
rockets summoned the tug to come out |
and fasten to our ship outside the har- |
Dor, and there receive the malls and |
such passengers as elected to go ashore
1t Queenstown. I had not been alto
yether happy on board the Etruria, for
;easickness had inconvenienced me,
Ind cross-eyed girl from Chicago had
;wiped my steamer chair, but bless
ngs brighten as they take their flight"
md never appreciated the power, and
'ize, and beauty of our steamship until
looked up from the crowded deck of
he little black busy tender. and beheld
he Etruria with lighted ports and
streaming flags, and graceful lines
1anish in the dark, until nothing, could
De seen but a glimrnering pyramid on
he waters, and nothing heard but the
sound of her thunderous screw, beating
he Irish channel into a foam.
We rounded a little green island, ly-
ng still and dark in the beautiful bay
It midnight. caught the scent of the
lew fresh earth, made mellow by the
light falling rain, and remembered that
his was the soil of Erin. The lights
f Queenstown stationed at most reg
liar intervals along the rows of as
ending streets, dropped their like
lesses into the quiet waters, stretching ,
themselves downwards until they re-
embed pendant jewels just out of
each.
The Custom House officers met us on
he deck of the tender. They fumbled
through valise, and pecked into a
title trunk, and passed a large one
Without examination. A fat inspector
With a red nose asked me If had any
pirits, tobacco. cigars, or revolvers?
assured him that I never drank,
hewed, smoked or shot, and he SEEM
q to believe me.
We landed at the quay at Queens
own about one o'clock in the morning, {
nd found the hotel porters waiting
nth a cart for our baggage. Exactly :
Thy the porters should have remained
p, and the clerks and cabmen, and
inch counter fiends and all the rest ,
hitch 1 did not fathom. Our party :
;und the Queens hotel with lights ex- :
nguished and doors locked, and for
any minutes I lived a strenuous life, :
nd with loud voice and aggressive
handle made the air of in
,spitable Erin vocal with roar and
lp. The landlord. of course, knew
lat the steamer passengers were ex-
.cted and he must have locked M the /
ouse and gone to bed with malice II
orethought.
How different is the treatment ex-
nded to visitors at the capital of sun :,
ssed Arizona. There they remember
cir Bible teaching and take stran-
RS in When the one-lunged man '
om Maine or the coughing capitalist q
ON Chicago, or the cyclone-escape
pm Kansas, steps out Of the Pullman I