The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-07-31
HOW HAWAII WAS
ROBBED OF PEACE
Plague of Mosquitoes Was In
troduced Through Careless
ness of the White Man.
NATIVES NOW COMPELLED
TO WEAR SOME CLOTHES
United States Government Is
Taking Means to Destroy
the Little Pests.
Special TO The Tribune.

WASHINGTON, July 30.-There
was time when the Hawaiian islands
| had no mosquitoes Before the white
man with his whiskey and his mission
aries, his social obligations and his
debts, and the division of the land into
| patches marked by individual owner
! ship, the natives were free TO live as
| they chose and they chose mostly TO
| go without any clothes, something they
| could not have done II the mosquitoes
had been as thick as they have become
| in recent wears Then there were none
| at all, and the air was free from all
pests and the people were notable for
their perfect physical health and con
dition,
Even for many years after the white
man came the mosquito stayed away,
and so these came to be spoken of as
| the happy isles, where there was per-
| feet peace and plenty and content
ment.
Brought by Schooner.
But one day schooner left a few
| of the deadly birds of the droning song
and the inoculated sting, and mediate
| " the happy isles ceased to be happy.
| The corrugated brow of care was seen
there for the first time since life began.
| Contentment vanished Everybody had
to wear clothes. Horses ran away.
u was lullouuCcu anu Iulbt
rapidly into common use. Men got
drunk, crime began and multiplied.
Doors for the first time were locked,
Styles in clothing, envy, malice hatred
and all the hitherto unknown evils, so
common in New Jersey, spread from
| island to island as only pest can
spread Disease and untimely death
| for the first time became known as the
inevitab heritage of mankind. Moth
,nn
can be compared with it, and nothing
that can occur would offer fair com
pensation. unless il might be the ar
rival Of the devil IN heaven,
Fine for the Mosquitoes.
AS for the mosquitoes. they throve
| had such pastures. Here was blood un-
had such pastures. Herewas blood un
defled for ages. Every time the drill
was sent home a pure, rich, nutritious,
red corpuscle gushed forth, with never
! taste of the bitter, pale, sticky paste
which slowly courses through the fever
| ish veins of flabby, mosquito stricken
people. The internal little murderers
multiplied by the million. They grew
to heroic size, and they were every
where. Their song was carried on
every breeze, and no man found sur
cease from their cry for blood save in
the grave. AS time went on these con-
ditlons changed only for the worse, uu-
till laziness and lack of sprightly en-
| terprise became as common as in the
most civilized country in the world.
The blood of the people was at length
no longer a fountain OF purity, and
now, while the mosquitoes are as numer.
Gus as ever they do not grow any larger
than elsewhere.
Seeking for Remedy.
tt took a period of years to accom-
complish all this, of course, but not as
! long time as you might think And
singular feature Of il was that the
| islanders did not realize what was the
matter with them. They knew some
thing was, to be sure, but it was not
until the islands were annexed TO the
United States that the people learned
| the truth. When they came within the
| official vision Of the Hon. James Wilson,
Secretary of Agriculture, that practical
gentleman saw at glance that Hawaii
| had marvelously rich soil and miracu-
| lously lazy population. II grated on his
nerves, as such things always do, and
so he sent his experts out there to find
out what was wrong and suggest a
cure, With the skill for which Mr..
| Wilson s field operators are noted. they
very soon discovered the guilty little
wretches that had upset the fairest
archipelago in all the far Pacific, and
they recommended that nothing short
of capital punishment would fit the
crime.
Which will explain TO you how it is
that the agents of the Department of
Agriculture are at present engaged in
sending out to Hawaii large number
of certain kind Of little fish found in
the waters of Louisiana, to pay for
which the property of the
islands arc taxing themselves. The fish
are to be planted IN all the waters of
Hawaii and they arc expected to eat
every mosquito egg and wiggle-tail to
be found there. It is anticipated that
if by this process the mosquitoes are
not extermlnated they will at least be
so reduced in numbers as to no longer
beeloud the sky, and to allow the
islands to once more have n measure
of that glorious sunshine which in the
happy DAYS of old was perpetnaL