Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1904-02-17
NORWOOD


Fitch concludes his humorous and
somewhat original reflections aloha
Hawaii" Enthusiastically.
Brilliant but Bedraggled" would ap.
propriately epitomize his biography.
Time was when Leland Standford's
golden glitter, SO resonant, OF profit
able monopoly, jaundiced the vision Of
this rhetorical genius, as anon did 9th.
er similar protential influences on di.
vers occasions. His mind processes
have given evidence Of the same vacil.
lation, as his corporal migrations in.
dicated unrest. Judged by these, his
has been a purposeless life,-disap.
pointing to self and friends. If Tom
would give us the best thoughts deriv.
ed of his experience. only, We could
quite forgive, perhaps forget, the err.
ors of maynard, selfish and ambitious
youth.
But age should mellow ones philoso.
ply no matter how refractory ones
nature. Can 1t be possible that his
views on labor are metallically tinct.
ured as of old? Is II method, or the
bitterness born Of madness with his
perverse fate, with which old age has
fixed this habit Of perverting lofty,
democratic ideals of thought. How
unkind q fate!
To one who has followed the gyra.
tions of the nomadic career OF this pa
triarch eloquent closely, his word pic.
lures are fraught with delightful die.
ton, suggestive Of better employment.
But one never knows when he will slop
over; pregnant with the daubing ei.
fects on some minor detail. While not
absolutely destructive of the tout en-.
semble" Of the general subject, yet
leaving an unpleasant IMPRESSION
suggestive of latent, senile, selfish
corruption Of instincts or spirit.-in
one though brilliantly gifted, has prob.
ably never experienced sufficient seri.
Gus contact with actual bread.winning
to elevate and maintain his sublimer
faculties, over a sordid perverted en-
vironment. He sees, SO he writes, no
cane.raising, minus oriental labor. No
future island industry-but sugar. But
he knows better,-that invention and
human progress are immutable In fact
as they are In law. Like a charred
stump in the primeval forest, this
hoary veteran rears his scared but not
serious scrawling deformities, to the
sympathetic, regretful gaze of many
erstwhlle admirers; who love him for
his better genius and personality;
who would have rejoiced at his eleva
ton to an exalted position on Fame's
pedestal in his past higher plane OF
action; who realize that he has much
of his pique to charge to his own Gu
pidity and selfish Indifference; and
would now wish to see him possessed
Of better twilight wit: graced with
more true sympathy for the substan
tial interests Of the mass Of his fellow
citizens,-more practical love for thu
fundamental preservation of those In
situations of national happiness, which
his eloquence has so often glorified
and burned with letters of undyint
patriotic fire, into the souls Of more
than one admirer.
And how Fame has coquetted with
him:--how many times Fitch glanced
longlngly at It's omnipresent yet illu
sive FORM leaving this Maud Muller Of
the pioneer west, to warm his cookies
with uncertain treadmill sympath!
evoked by colossal, If not vcnal. toady
ism-at the duh hearthstone OF Croe
sus, whose gold might corrupt, but new
err appreciate-neyer compensate the
sacrifice.
1t Is well that the circulation OF some
current local journalism is limited
principally to those more or less con
versant with facts; otherwise the evi
thereof would be duplex. Nothing
could be more puerile than to circulate
this reckless and obvious sophistr,
and calumny In channels where mere
words fail signally to conceal ulterio
motives. But It Is absolutely suicida
to add to the ever.increasing crop o
minor malcontents and critics, tn,