The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-12-07
VICTIMS Of
THE DRUG
Native Men, Women and
Girls Smoke at
Will.

That the opium pipe is exerting it's
baleful spell more and more on the
native population of Honolulu, is a
sad but not to be disguised fact.
A few years ago the spectacle of an
Hawaiian dallying with the insidious
drug was a very rare one. Today the
sight can be seen for the trouble of
looking for it, in any of the rookeries
of the town and in some places where
the existence of the evil is but little
suspected.
The neighborhood of old Kaumakapili
church seems to be a favorite locality
with native users of the pipe and here
abouts, by night and day, the odor of
the black smoke is in sickening evil
dence and shells of men. aye, and
women too, pass IN and out of filthy
tenements, bent on such little business
as slave-like devotion to the, in most
cases, malienable habit, permits.
The Chinese of the district always
have smoked and always will smoke.
To them opium appears to answer the
purpose of meat and drink. The smoke
choked atmosphere is happiness to
them; to these celestials the mat-cov-
cred floor of their squalid dwelling is
an ideal home.
The Hawaiian is new to this condi-
ton of affairs, however. Only recently
has the pernicious delight of the juice
of the poppy appealed to him, but un-
happily the appeal has not been in
vain.
The lesson has undoubtedly been
learned from the Chinaman but today,
in the center of the town, three natives
are making a living by selling opium
to their countrymen and countrywomen
and allowing them to smoke their pur-
chase in the miserable shacks they
call home.
The spot is just at the rear of the
vacant lot once graced by the great
church of Kaumakapili. Beneath the
shade of an ohia tree and built prac-
tically into the face of a low cliff, are
three huts made out of odds and ends
of lumber and old kerosene oil tins
and thatched with sackcloth and in
fact anything that will keep out the
rain.
The interior of these novels is fur
nished with board floor, covered with
mating, and suspended from overhead
are a few utensils of daily life. Out
side the structures, crude cooking
stoves litter the lot.
In the first of these miniature dwell
ing-places and nearest Kukui street,
lives Jim Crow, an old native who, in
the dead days of whaling, was esteem
ed to be "a rare good un with his
fists"
His neighbor is a middle-aged kama
ka named Hulihia and the third house
is tenanted by Kealoha, a wahine.
This trio has been living in the
church lot for perhaps a year and
half past Their method of making a
living is a queer one.
Each of the three is a confirmed
opium-smo and they have hit upon
the idea of supplying other opium
using natives with the sticky stuff, at
the tariff of five cents per pipeful and
an extra nickel for the use of the floor
to smoke it on and the roof to shelter
them from the heat of the sun.
Both the men and the woman have
their regular clients who come and go
in the most matter-of-fact way. Jim
Crows customers include a Chinaman
and two gentlemen of color.
Yesterday afternoon between / and
O'clock, two native girls of about six
teen years of age, came down the wind
ing path across the lot from Bereta-
MIA street and after a few minutes
with Kealoha, entered her F,
ahode and We're soon afterward in the
grasp of the drug.
It was pitifuI to see them-going to
oerdition in the broad light of day,
with a policeman pacing his beat a
hundred yards away and schoolrooms
md mission halls almost within sight. |
This thing does not occur every now !.
I'D again but every day. Perhaps if !:
he matter is out of the province of !
he police it may, with due and dill !
gent seeking, be found to be the busi- |
aess of someone else.
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