The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1907-11-15

able stranger entering her gates toGa
she somehow suggests the half-fedge
state of a man wearing evening clothe
with tan shoes at an eleven o'clocl
breakfast. If you know nice, prime
tidy, old New England town-Kenne
bunk, Me-, for instance can make ;
picture of Honolulu for you by merel!
splashing in a little tropical scener,
for a background.
Instead of the white picket fence o.
the New England town, put in a tai
hibiscus hedge covered with heavy
brilliant crimson blossoms the size OF
q oocoanut. II place Of the oaks OF
elms growing in the front yard SUBJ
stitute slender twisted cocoanut palms
leaning perilously before the steady
northeast trades. For the modest
shrubs growing in tubs, scatter about
groups of luxuriant banyans. Where
the fragrant unobstrusive beds of PAN
sizes. sweet Williams, and violets grow
along the edge of the piazza and about
the steps, conceive great, brilliantly
hued, Towering plants of the tropics,
whose names I am not enough Of a
botanist to know.
Now, imagine, If you can, severely
plain New England house, but orna-
mented with the ARCHITECTURAL ginger
bread horrors of the late SOS, set in
this lush magnificence of sub-tropical
vegetation. The house Of the banker
and the county judge would have an
avenue of royal palms instead Of the
more common cocoanut. That is one
impression of Honolulu. AS one might
say, a Salvation Army girl with her
cheeks painted and her eyebrows PEN
ei,led.
This is the one bill of complaint that
the visiting stranger with a passion
for the fitness of things can bring
against the citizens of Honolulu; that
when they came to build their homes
they did not take advantage of their
s anic environment and the rich, gay,
t-or ical background. The omission is
easily accounted for. The first white
settlers who came here were mission
aries from New England, and they
have made a deep impress on the is
lands. When they came to build their |
homes they built the only sort of
houses they knew anything about. The |
only concession made was in adding
deep. cool, shady lanais (porches) and
in subdividing the interior of the house
into as few rooms as possible.
The late comers followed the ex-
ample of their predecessors, and did |
not strike out along new lines. Unlike /
the gay and artistic home-builders Of |
Victoria, B. c., they did not build for |
themselves rambling bungalows and |
bower them with creeping roses and |
Towering vines. This isn't to say that !
Honolulu isn't a delight to the eye, for
it is. But the people have not lived !
up to the stage setting provided by a
bountiful nature. One peers about
eagerly and in vain for the grass huts
and semi-nude natives of the picture
postcards. 1t is in the people, their
mode of life, and the customs of their
that one finds the typical
island life, rather than in the houses,
whose architecture has been drawn
from the old missionary spirit"
ASIATIC PREPONDERANCE
Looked down upon from a balloon
Honolulu might be any New England
town of $4,000 people, were it
not for the background of volcanic
hills and mountains and the fronds Of
the cocoanut palms silhouetted against
the blue color of the sky. The church
spires of every American town rise
from the greenery. In the business
section of the town there are modern
shops and office buildings of the same
type to be seen in every American
city. The streets are macadamized
and traversed by an excellent system
n .rnl t. ie a,a1,- ~, lA ,1sa I
turesque street life and the preponder
ance of Asiatics that one first sees
difference from things as they are at
nome. Delicate little adventures en-
oroider the routine of the day.
One day an automobile taking US
,ut to Waikiki and around Diamond
Head suffered d mishap to its interior ,
opposite the aquarium. I
vent in to see the preposterous fishes. ,
eaving the chauffeur to dree his weird ;
lone. The aquarium building is sim /;
,ly two bisecting corridors with
ough-hewn stone basin full of gold
ish set into the ground in the center :
# the building. ;
Seated on the low stone coping of
his basin was a captivating little :
party, d SllhCoO iilOlhCi WOaA
ng brightly embroidered silk trousers .
nd a dull green brocaded coat made
fter the simple fashion of the jacket :
f a pair of pajamas. She had jade
ieces set in gold about her neck. With :
er were two of the tiniest, clearest, :
most gayly bedecked little Chinese !.
abies ever seen off the sides of tea :
ar. Each of them held huge ships :
iscuit in his chubby fist, feeding /,
rumbs to the goldfish. The woman !.
new a few words of English and 1 9
1vited myself to the party. The little :
mes shared their provender with me,
nd cackled softly when the voracious ,
sh would rise almost out of the wa
ar to snap at the falling crumbs. No :
ne ever thinks of a Chinaman as
iughing in enjoyment of such simple :
Genes, yet three who came in were
educed to audible chuckling over the .
lay of the children and my effort to :
stablish lingual communication with :
ne mother. IL,
Honolulu has about $4,000 inhab- 3
.ants, of whom about only 1000 are
Ihite. The others are Japanese, Chi
ese, Hawaiians, Portuguese. Koreans,
'orto Ricans, and various permuta a
ions and combinations thereof. There n
re a few negroes in the city, but
id not see one of them. Local and )
telephone wires are