The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-07-14

lulu on Fort street, just above Queen
street and its intricacies, a certain low
ceilinged, dimly lighted coffee house. A
sign informs the wayfarer that it is
specially fitted up for the refreshment
of the hungry who are also epicurean.
1t is the resort of kings.
The history of the dynasties of the
South Seas is yet to be written. Ger
tain greater princes that have exploit
ed the coral-fringed islands, eaten OF
the bounty of their gardens and waged
their wars of blood and commerce upon
the warm reaches Of the Pacific have
attained 10 paragraphs in the newspa-
pers and mention in the dispatches of
The Powers. But of the kings them
selves, those vagrant and Oftimes
drunken potentates ruling from thrones
built amid the palms and mangoes of
a thousand isles, there has never been
a veraeious and complete record.
Down-Easter, Scot, Irishman and full
bellied German, they have gone their
boisterous ways, welded their tinsel
scepters and drunk their trade gin and
sweet champagne with no scribe to in
dite their memoirs and preserve their
fame. i
But in Andrews coffee house but a
year ago you might meet them. King
Max of Laysan would have handed you
the Advertiser. designating with thick
finger the item that spelled his
glory; King Ole of Tahula's thumbed
Bund was at your disposal and minor
royalties would nod and below in sub
dued thunder over the going of the
inc n a
Here was the clearing house of the
princes of the South Seas. Here they
who spoke on far-off, surf-ringed do
mains with the voice of authority
might easily be enticed to amicable
and even confidential chat about she'll
and copra and cane and the politics of
the great deep.
The arrival of schooner in the Off
ing meant much in Andrews coffee
house. Let Kaheamanu, the waiter.
fling open the door that gave on the
hot street and cry Somebody coming!"
The kings rose and reached for white
jackets and limp hats with exclama-
tions of anticipation or disgust, as it
meant the arrival of some brother
lord or the imminent departure of one
already of the company. A little later
you might see them on Wilder's wharf
straddled on huge legs, smoking pro-
digious pipes. all gazing out toward the
entrance in the reef beyond which
schooner jockeyed for her straight
course in.
One such day 1 had been in Andrews
with the Nestor of all South Sea Jour
nalists, the friend and celebrator of
half the notables along the Equator.
He had been devouring Che had a true
Atlantic taste though he had not seen
home" in thirty years. a huge portion
of bacon and eggs with a ponderous
cup of coffee to SAVIOR it, between
mouthfuls telling me the inside of the
latest coup d'etat in the vexed terri
tory of Hawaii. The drone of CONVEX
sation, the steaming air that breath
ed in from the torrid town, had put
me almost to sleep and I fear I
had caught but little of his tale when
1 yielded entirely to the drowsy in
fluences of the place and dozeo.
When l awoke Kaheamanu's cry still
rang in my ears and my companiozz
was wiping his beard with his handker-
chief preparatory to going forth with
the rest. You'd better come along"
he remarked. "A little fresh air will
do you good
The remark was so commonplace that
] nearly dozed again. But 1 heard
well-known voice-the voice of the Lord
of Nua-saying, Its Jedediahs Bess
of Bath. Jedediah amt been up from
Enid Island in ten years, I'll bet"
who's Jedediah?'' I demanded of
the journalist.
''Jedediah the First is the King of
Enid he responded sententiously.
&And where's Enid?' pursued.
Due SOUTH" was the reply. Next
to Christmas Island it's about as far
out of the world as you can get. Jede-
diah ought to have come up long be-
fore now"
We followed the kings at a respect
fal distance down Fort street and along
the coral-strewn waterfront till we
reached the wharf, whence the harbor
lay in full view, sparkling in the after
noon sun out to the dancing surf on
the reef, hemmed in with delicate white
arms of dazzling sand, like bowl out
held by some fair woman.
Beyong the reef I saw the schooner
whose arrival had made all this stir.
She Ieant against the Trades gently,
gossamer curl of white water at her
PROV. a slender thread of green traver-
ing her path. AS she heeled over 10
the scented gale that bore to her the
heavy odors of the fiowery valleys OF
oahu l saw that she was very old Her
antique topsan was patched and STAIN
ed. and the very timbers of her bow
as she rose streaming from the surge
seemed worn and thin. The long stretch
of green. that traced her wake for the
the eve. one of the kings explained;
shes foul with weeds. The Bess OF
Rath amt been on a dock or on beach
to be scraped this twenty, years
And his judgment was confirmed
when the ancient vessel found her posi-
ton 10 enter between the foaming reef
heads and bore up into the wind. 1t
seemed that it was with the utmost
difficulty that her master made her
understand the direction he indicated
for there were two opinions as 10
whether she would not pile up on the
reef But the topsail filed again and the
Bess of Bath forged in and headed Tor
the bouy that marks the turn In the
channel Here. again, she seemed on
the verge of destruction; it was only
after a fun minutes time that she re