The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-01-06

dead of winter, but were given ne
warmer clothing than that they haC
worn in the tropical islands. WheT
they arrived at the west coast they
were stopped at Port Costa several
miles from the city and allowed nc
communication with any Spanish
speaking peoples. The voyage to Ha-
waii was a repetition of the gloomy
trip to New Orleans.
HAWAII JUST AS BAD
Conditions did not improve in Ha-
wall. as they maintain. They were
taken to the ''fincas" (plantations) and
forced to work Immediately. Grim
gos' yankee overseers) stood above
them to prod them with sticks if they
tagged at their labprs in the trenches.
They were walked in the morning with
blows and driven until late at night.
They admit that work contained no
pleasure for them under such condi-
tons and that they simply put in their
time with as little effort as possible.
From five months after they reached
the islands the more intelligent have
been struggling back at intervals until
within the last six months, when they
have begun to swarm across. Now
there are over 500 in the city; in a
short time there will be ten times as
many.
They are living in various parts of
the Mexican quarter, wherever lodg-
ings are cheap, and families are scat
tered about through Vallejo street,
Washington and Pacific streets, Vale
jo Place and Hinckley alley. Possibly
those who live in Hinckley alley are
in the most miserable circumstances
Of all. The place is one of the worst
in the city. given over to the lowest
forms of prostitution and fostering in
the veriest squalor The Porto Ricans
who live there are not participants in
the vice, their family life flourishes
even in the midst of this degradation,
but they are forced into the neighbour
hood because it is the best they cam
afford. Even here a couple of rooms
rent for 81 a month.
MISERY AND POVERTY.
The repre- tentative of The Bulletin
visited from ten to twelve of the Por-
to Rican families yesterday. Every
where was misery, poverty and des-
titution. These people do not have
to eat and they are childish |
~ HAPPY IL lIley can get meat once
a day. In one home they We're eating |
dinner. There were five people and |
on the table were two soup plates, one
full of beans and one full of rice-that
was all. They have no place to sleep
half of the time. In one room a moth
ar and father and four children, the
youngest of whom had tuberculosis,
were forced to sleep in a single bed
with one thin quilt for a covering.
These are not extreme cases. A home
typical of the more prosperous exiles
consists of a room perhaps 10 by u
,eet, which contained a bed, a stove
bureau and a washstand. In this
DOM lived a man, his wife and a sick
,hild.
THEY ARE NOT SQUALID.
The Porto Ricans do not seem to be
qualid. Even the most miserable
oles were nedt and the people them
elves We're as clean as the conditions
-c1ld PEI. :. OF course the sanitary
O. ditions were invariably poor and {
he result is a great deal of sickness, ,
hich has to be suffered with none of ,
lie usual amelioratiOn. Among all the {
lmilies a tendency to surround them ,
elves with some suggestion of home 7
as noticea bic. In a room where the .
ife was busily washing while the 9
usband sat despondently by. porting
yer an English primer, there was a ! l.