The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-04-14
PONAPE is A
NOVEL TOWN

One hears of Ponape once in awhile
in reading the newspapers. Dispatches
bearing "Ponape" as a date line give
stories of troubles between missionaries
and the German colonial officials at
that Caroline Island capital For Po-
group of the Carolines and Ruk is the
largest place in the western group. One
imagines that Ponape must be a place
containing several thousand inhabi-
there is but one small street leading
from the shore of a small reef-bound
harbor towards mountains that rise to
a height of over two thousand feet.
are but hundreds. A few white fami-
lies, mostly German, and a few hum
dred natives make up the population of
the town. But the life of the town,
as told by sailors of the missionary
now in port to secure a new rudder
in place of one lost at sea, is very in
teresting to a visitor but decidedly
humdrum to the man who must live
there, whether he be a missionary or
a trader.
There are two large stores in the
place. There are no other stores of
any description so that these two
charge what they please for all rner-
chandise. There are no barber shops, |
no saloons, no bootbIacks, no cigar
stores-none of the things which go
to make up an ordinary town. If one |
is a white man and wishes to drink |
he can buy his liquor or beer at the |
two large stores. If he is a native he |
cannot get the liquid refreshment at |
any price. If he is white man his |
amusement viii consist of talking. to |
his neighbor or in watching the antics |
of the native population. There are
perhaps forty buildings in the town |
that can be occupied as residences by
white people, but they are never al
ways occupied as one or the other of
their owners is usually visiting or at
tending to business in another country.
The natives live in bamboo shacIxs sur
by palm matched roofs. If
the native works for the government
he is quartered in the ruins of the old
Spanish forts, series of structures put
up by the Spaniards during the time
they attempted to plant a colonial en-
pire there. But the native as a rule is
unwilling to work and accomplishes
ust as much at a nliserably small wage
rs is sufficient to buy what he requires
'or food The natives do not live up
% any special style in the way of dress.
n fact they have but little in the way
# clothing. The men wear, as a rule.
,nly a grass or palm leaf skirt. The
when parading on the main
street of the town, wear mother hub
'ards, garments composed of all the
olors of the rainbow. But these are
My for town use They have shoes
nd stockings also, only for town
Ise, for when the wahine completes
Ter visit TO town and arrives at the
nd of the street on her way back to
he country she takes off mother hub
ard, stockings and shoes, rolls the lot
alto a small bundle and tucking this
nder her arm makes her way in the
ress of the olden times TO her domicile-
hould the natives visit Ponape by
anoe they leave the boat landing
ressed in the sole garment of holoku
ut when less than sixty yards from
ne wharf each one promptly disrobes
nd sails homeward in the garb of ma
Ire.
In the CaroIines about the most popu-
If item of food for the natives is
AIMED corn beef and canned salmon.
hey also eat large quantities of crack
:. The amount of these goods consum-
in the group during year is said
be enormous. The sea around the
lands abounds with fish but the ma
YES prefer the corned beef and sal
on except on feast days At the lat
T times the harbor of Ponape and the
jacent waters are crowded with native
hermen. During some seasons of the
ar the natives are great fruit eaters.