The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-07-27
Why Ha.Daiians Wear Clothes

TX rASHINGTON, July 26.-There was time when
wv the Hawaiian islands had no mosquitoes Be-
fore the white man, with his whlskey and his mis-
sionarie his social obligations and his debts and the
division of the land into patches marked by individual
ownership the natives free to live they chose
and they chose mostly to go without any buds,
thing they could not have done if the mosquitoes had
been as thick as they have become in recent years.
Then there at ALL and the air was free from
all pests and the people notable for their perfect
physical health and condition.
Even for many years after the white man came the
mosquito stayed away and these came to be spoken
Of as the Happy Isles where there was perfect peace
and plenty and contentment.
But one day schooner left few of the deadly
birds Of the dronng song and the nocuated sting, and
Immediately the Happy isles ceased to be happy The
corrugated brow OF care there for the first
time since life began Contentment vanished. Every
body had to clothes. Horses ran away. Pro-
family was introduced and rapidly into common
Men got drunk. Crime began and multiplied.
Doors for the first time locked Styles in cloth
ing envy malice, hatred and all the hitherto unknown
evils common in New Jersey, spread from island to
Mand as only pest spread. Disease and untimely
death for the first time became known as the inevitable
heritage Of mankind. Nothing that ever occurred
where else be compared with it, and nothing that
would offer fair comparison unless it might
be the arrival Of the devil in heaven.
AS for the mosquitoes, they throve amazingly.
Never before had they had such pasture. Here
blood undefled for ages. Every time the drill was
sent home pure RICH nutritious red corpuscle gushed
FORTH with never taste of the bitter pale, sticky
paste which slowly thru the fevered veins OF
1abby, mosquito people. The Internal little
murderers multiplied by the million. They grew to
heroic size, and they were everywhere. Their song
carried every breeze and no man found
from their cry for blood save in the grave. AS
time went these conditions changed only for the
worse until laziness and lack Of sprghtly enterprise
became in the most civilized country in
the world. The blood Of the people was at length
longer fountain Of purity, and now, while the mos
quitoes numerous ever they do not grow any
larger than elsewhere
It took period of years to accomplish all this, Of
course but not as long as you might think. And
singular feature Of that the islanders did not
realize what the matter with them They knew
something was, to be sure but 1t not until the
people learned the truth When they within the
official vision of Hon. James Wilson, secretary of agr
culture that practical gentleman at glance that
Hawaii had marvelously rich soil and miraculously
lazy population. It grated his nerves, as such
things always d. and he sent his experts out there
to find out what was wrong and suggest cure. With
the skill for which Mr.. Wilson's field operators
noted they very discovered the guilty little
wretches that had upset the farest archipelago in all
short of capital punishment would fit the crime.
Which will explain to you how 1t is that the agents
Of the department Of agriculture at present
gagged in sending out to Hawaii large number of a
certain kind of little fish found in the waters Of Lous
ana, to pay for which the property owners Of the
islands are taxing themselves. The fish are to be
planted in all the waters Of Hawaii and they ex-
pected to eat every mosquito egg fast 1t is laid
in the water It is anticipated that If by this
the mosquitoes not extermnated they will at least
be reduced in numbers to longer becloud the
sky and to allow the islands to have a
Of that glorious sunshine which in the happy
days of old was perpetual. w. w. Jermane.