The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-10-22


man:
If the money spent by the American
Board of Foreign Missions and the de-
voted service of the missionaries OF that
board in the Hawaiian Islands had
produced nothing but General 5. Z.
Armstrong, it would have been money
and service we'll expended. But we can
scarcely think of General Armstrong
without having also in mind Booker i.
Washington. In up From Slavery,
Dr. Washington says of the Dement'S
which he received at Hampton: First
of all was contact with a great man
General S. c. Armstrong, who / re-
peat was in my opinion the rarest,
strongest, and most beautiful charac-
ter that it has been my privilege to
meet He speaks in similar terms
several times in the book. Do foreign
missions pay? General Armstrong is
one answer. He was a product of for
eign missions.
In 1920, three hundred years after
English Pilgrims landed at Plymouth,
band of New England pilgrims, after
a voyage around Cape Horn, landed
at Kailua on Hawaii, a few miles from
the spot where Captain Cook had been
killed not many years before On the
Islands these men and women estab-
lished schools, set up printing presses,
and built churches when there We're
none in the vast territory west of Iil1-
nois. In 1888 Richard Armstrong and
his wife reached the Islands, and in
1887, while stationed at Wailuku, Ma
III boy was born to them who was
baptized Samuel Chapman. His sister,
Mrs. E. A. Weaver, in speaking to me,
said: Before and after my brother
was born, one thought occupied the
minds and one hope moved the hearts
of his father and mother-it was the
education and training of the Hawaiian
youth
Already there was at Hiio the Ly-
man School, where boys worked as well
as learned to read. In 1881 the school
at Lahainaluna was founded, which
was from the first of an industrial
character. In 1912 in Richard ARM
strong's study, the organization of
Oahu School, later Oahu College, was
effected; and in 1847 the King urged
this missionary to become the Minister
of Public instruction, which Office he
held until his death in 1860 On the
Hawaiian Islands, therefore, in the
foreign missionary field, young
Armstrong received the inspiration for
his work. Here too he had training,
for he assisted his father during the
year before the death of the latter.
Here too, kneeling by the bed where
his dead father lay. he took a solemn
vow to dedicate his life to the service
of God and man.
On his way North, at the close of the
war, General Armstrong was thinking,
What are We to do with the people
who have been set free?" His sister
has told me how he then looked back
to Hawaii, and he himself tells in
book printed for the family, that "the
work of the schools at Hilo and Laha-
inaltina were no small help to him in
formulating his plans. He says also
of Hawaii, Here / learned through
these teachers, who have through their
pupils welded an almost worldwide
influence, that the work of a teacher,
though small and obscure, may be the
greatest that man can do" Again
he says, Their experience has been
of not a. little help to me at Hampton
am sure that General Armstrong;
friends will be interested in knowing
that the house in which he passed his
young life, the house in which he took
his solemn VOW of service. is now used
by me for educational purposes.
rented the property in order that
might carry on the Iolani School, which
for thirty years had been conducted
under Bishop Willis, my predecessor,
upon his own private property. When
arrived at Honolulu, found the rem
nant of the school in the dilapidated
old pro-cathedral, ST. Peters Chinese
School occupying one end of the build
ing, the division between the two
schools being a light, one-board parti-
ton. I was at once appealed to by
Hawaiian and Chinese to reopen the |
boarding department. The school had
educated so many Hawaii and Chinese
boys. a large number of whom are oc-
cupying responsible positions in the Is
lands and in China, that 1 rented the |
old Armstrong property, which adjoins
the cathedral premises and also adjoins
the Chinese School, and the Priory
School of one hundred girls, eighty-six
of whom are Hawaiians. For some
years prior to 1901, the Preparatory
School of Oahu College was held here, |
ten trustees having years ago purchas-
ed the property and fitted it up for
SSHOol purposes. Inc Old stone
House. built of coral still remains in
excellent condition and there has been
added to it at the rear large building
of wood. I fitted up the two large
rooms as dormitories, others as school
rooms. As dinning-room and kitchen
use at present the sections house on
the adjoining cathedral property In
a few weeks we had twenty-six board
ers and thirty day scholars, while daily
inquiries came to US from others wish
ing to enter
The Armstrong property consists CT
nearly two acres of laad with a 'front.'
age on one OF the best streets o. the
city and is next to the residence of
the ex-Queen LiliuokaIani The grounds
afford fine place fot TIE boys to play.
and trees in front make it secluded ard
attractive. A portion of the original
property was purchased in 1867 by Mrs.
Sellon for st. Andrews Priory School,
and General Armstrong says in the
book already referred to, II am glad