The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-06-30
HAWAn'S RUNNERS
MIGHT BE LIKELY CANDIDATES IN
 MARATHON RACE.
Feats of the Men who Used to Carry the Mails for the kings--A Thirty Mile Race Up a Mountain Between a kanaka and
 Flight Horaee

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 They've got runners, Kanaka mer down in the Hawaiian Islands, that I'd be willing to gamble everything I own in the Marathon race at the Olympian games look like aluminium milk tickets said a chief petty officer ot the navy, who knows most of the Pacific Islands pretty we'll. T hit the Hawaiian Islands for the first time when l was a prentice, and saw cae of those Kanaka hot Hooters beat a lot of mighty horses in thirty mile run.
 This was in 1888. when Dave Kala- kaua, as the old timers around Homo lulu call him yet, was king of the is- lands. At that time there were nc telephones joining the islands. and State messages and mandates were carried from island to island by the interisland steamers and rushed into the interior by these Kanaka runners,
 These Kanaka runners could, and some of them can still, lope all day and all night long, like American In- dians on the trail In the lighting days of the red men, and the Kings mes- sengers didn't know what getting tired or winded meant.
 King Kalakaua thought a lot of these State runners of his. He always stuck to 1t that they could go faster and further than horese over the rough Hawaiian country.
 Tn this he was disputed by q mum. Der of the white attaches of his court Kalakaua waged $i.O00 with these white courtiers that he could pick out a runner from among his Kanakai who'd get from Hiio to Burning Lake of Kilauea, a distance of nearly tLlg , miles, quicker than any horse and rider could do the trip. They snapped ths king up on this proposition at ever money.
 Tt looked to mostly every white mar down there as if they had the better of 1t in that bet with the king. Int king and big party from Honolul, sailed in one of the interisland boatI to Hilo, on the main island of Hawaii to see the race.
 The king picked out a huge. sInewy Kanaka. Q man about thirty, who hae been employed as & State runner a Lahaina, on the island of Maui, for { number of years, to essay the task oi beating the horses for him. Eight Kanakas made the start on horseback on native ponies, bred from American cayuses--strong. sure footed, nippy lit tie devils, thoroughly used to be bat
 
 ''The king and his party had gone up to the Volcano House. at the top o Kilauea, in coaches on the day befor. to see the finish Of the race and tC be on hand to greet the winner. was among the party of man-o-war' men from one of our old wooden pack in the harbor of Hilo to make the rid, up to Ktlauea soon after the king ascent to see the finish
 The road from Hilo up to crate Of Ktluaea has been greatly improve, since that time, but 1t sure was tn bad trail then. 1t was only wid enough for one wagon and 1t was climb of about thirty-f1ve degrees al the way.
 'rhe trees that lined the road use | to get blown across the trail in bii wind storms, and the coach driver counted 1t part of their job to jun from their seats every time they cam to these obstructions and shoulder thei out of the way. This work had a been carefully attended to in advano of the race by order of Kalakaua an 1t looked like a pipe for the ponie | all of which had made the run up { the Kilauea crater many a time.
 "The king didn't ask for any hand cap allowance for his runner. Tn man runner toed the scratch with tn horses and they got off together at tn crack fthe gun.
 The horse distanced the runner fror the Jump. and he let them distanc him. He just took up his steady lop and let the cayuses get away out o his sight up the steep trail, For tel miles the cayuses were so far abov him on the trail that he couldn't SC l hfdR hatn Af hut Ir knew how to wait.
 "The horses began to come back t the runner long before the Halfwa House was reached and the Kanak was just breezing along at the end 0 the third hour with the same lon stride he had started with. He wasn' even taking short breaths when h pulled up at the Halfway House.
 He stopped down there to a sprinl of mouthfuls of water. The cayuse were up ahead bit, blowing thei heads off. for they had been going at clip that they'd never been pushed t before.
 "The Kanaka forged ahead of ther all a mile beyond the Halfway Hous and 1t was only a romp for him the re mainder of the distance. He took position for the remainder of the jour l pantins and exhausted cayuses and h stuck to his long, easy lope like a maj wound up for a week or so.
 He never let them get any neare to him for the remaining three hour of the trip. When only three mile yet remained before the Volcano Hous was to be reached the Kanaka rider whipped and spurred their horses. bu | it was no use.
 The Kanaka runner let out a linl and disappeared beyond their sigh along the tortuous trail, and when si: of the ponies pulled up at the hote veranda about half an hour later tn runner was sitting on the steps, coo as cucumber. and enjoying a pot 0 sake. Two of the ponies had droppe, dead in their final effort.
 That was some runping, and I'd lik | to see two or three of those Kanaka l go in the Marathon race the next tim