The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-11-29
HAWAII.
Continued from page 81


les are generally a peacesable lava bid
ing and industrious people, furnishing
the islands with service which is the
envy of every one from the states, they
would present the problem in a state
(if it becomes one) of a large proper
ton of the population belonging to
disfranchised class, the very antipodes
of a self-governing people.
These questions will certainly be
worked out speedy and righteously.
believe that both Chinese and Japanese
will soon enough find a way to general
" become citizens. Elements are being
cast into the crucible whose signs are
apparent in the changing mass. More
here than elsewhere the Asiabic is adopt
ing the dress and customs of the West
and led as he must be, for a generation
at least, by the native and white ele-
ment here, he will in good time become
a well-qualified factor in the republic,
IA competent, seif-respecting, patri-
otic if-governing citizen of the Unit
ed States.
Why has the native population SO di-
minished?
Native races die out, it is said before
they can conform to the rules of what
we call more civilized living; the con-
ventions kill until body and soul are
tortured to yield. The natives are liy
ing (and were especially in the old days.
far nearer to nature than we, and, as
descendant of the Puritans, 1 saw no
more virtue, upon the whole, along the
valley of the Ohio where my early lot
was cast or among the mountains of
New Hampshire where / was later sent
to gain higher learning and inspiration,
or even in cultured Massachusetts,
where 1 have labored in my maturer
years, than among this simple people,
Now that they are freer to live and act
in their own way and are aided by their
education and properly helped in the
arts of town and city life with its dam
gers and in the third and fourth gener-
alton are OUTLYING the noxious germs
planted by the whalers who so long
dominated these seas, decay has been
arrested and they will survive and in
crease.
The Chinese are liked here much bet
ter than the japanese. This-w was the
case also in California. They claim
that the Chinese are more honest and
faithful; that they keep their word al
ways and are ever quiet and peaeeable;
that the Japanese are beginning to ex-
hibit the worst features of our emf
grants to the states: that they are as
| sertive and more grasping and are be-
coming strikers,-all this more espe-
cially since their great successes over
| Russia and China.
This is easy to understand and it
will undoubtedly increase. although the
, worst of the island Empire is said to be
| here. The advance of the japanese
people or any other will not be by docil-
| ity and, unfortunately. not. by love.
| 1t has been my fortune to make the
pleasant acquaintance of the president
of the Board OF Health, and in speaking
| of the healthfulness of the islands he
| assured me that with the exception of
| leprosy-which never attacks the whites
save as they volunteer as in the case
of priests and nurses, to work in the
leper colony-there is no pestilence and
none is likely. Indeed there is more
danger in any of our own cities in the
States The death rate is low. The
| lepers are in colony by themselves
where contamination is rendered impos-
sible, and there they live, in general
comfortable, contented lives, often pro-
| longed to old age. The horrors of an
| Gent leprosy existed when less care
| was bestowed. and it has also been ex-
| aggerated by oriental imagery.
The sanitary condition of all the is
lands seems to be in the best of hands
The food of the islanders is mostly
fish and poi, the national dish; it is a
root, kind of yam. and is pounded
and cooked generally into a paste or a
pudding although it may be boiled or
baked like a potato. It is prolific and
| is good, very healthy and nutritious
The people seem to be unable to make
a meal without it. 1t is more to them
than our bread is to us. The fish is
good everywhere here. but I cannot say