The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-12-05

I Inc beauty of Hawaiian homes is i
, the outlook-the turf. the trees. tn
shrubs, the vines. the sea, the valleys
the mountains, the things no man "a,
own, the beauty-property of everv
body having eyes to see and seeing
This tends naturally to altruisn. and
aside from the theory, the fact is tina
Wnile this community has faults an,
blemishes enough, it is relatively fire.
from selfishness. The rich. with on,
or two exceptions, are generous gfvers
public sympathy is easily aroused: ana
when these people waken up and ge
the hang of Notwithstanding democ
racy-that fusion of fair play. horse
sense. piety and practical politics.
model community will not be hard te
find
MISSIONARIES PATRONIzTNG.
A hundred years of prompt and
thorough recognition of their superior
ity by the natives in addition +o the
security and supremacy that came
with wealth and travel and cuIture
have, unconsciously to themselves
given to the missionaries and their
descendants a certain patriarchal at
titude to the masses, which was all
very Well under the monarchy. but
now somewhat clouds their vision of
the democracy that has arrived and
causes them to have a patronizing.
condescending air toward their less
/ fortunate fellow citizens, that greatly
diminishes their interest and their
usefulness in the solutions of the COM
mon problems, with the result that the
best men have been losing their in
fiuence with the natives to a lot of
party beach -combers, who having fail
ed on the coast or felt a premonition
of coming failure have followed the
flag and the saloons to these islands
and become the spores of San Fran
cisco politics and the scandal of the
good, clean. powerful men who made
the territory fit for annexation and
then began to lose the battle of a hum
dred years, by failing to rise to the
meaning and measure of the oppor-
tunity of a real Christian democracy
This condition is mending rapidly,
FASTENED by the impudence of a little
cabal of purchasers that calls itself
the party and pretends to dictate
the selection of the Territorial and
local offices, to the amusement and
disgust of all the decent. So far as
can see, party politics is seen here only
70 be despised, and civic righteous
ness on democratic lines is receiving
the attention of all classes, for love
of it or fear.
PLANT OF BEACH-COMBERS
The note of the beach-combers is a |
whine or howl at the missionaries"
meaning the families that have |
and
here. OF course, they would have |
scorned to profit by such opportuni- |
ties, although so diligent now in trying |
to turn a penny by any means or any
body. And very likely, things to be
criticized in the missionaries" are not |
wanting. But the fact remains that |
the missionaries who put their lives |
into these islands, the rendezvous of |
crews, Oriental coolies and ad-
venturers slicker but harder to deal /
with, the prey of the liquor seller, the |
home of long misrule and the sport of |
diplomatic intrigue-after eighty-five |
years of labor in plain view of all the /
world can point to the best bit of |
Christian civilization ever worked up
in the same length of time, including
their own families. many of whom have
themselves, and the natives
whom they came to seek and to serve.
I have just returned from a trip to
he island of Maui, where among other
curious experiences was fortunate
enough to visit what is now hard to
linda real ancient grass house that
las been continuously inhabited since
nobody knows when. 1t stands in the
midst of rich taro land and is the
property of a prosperous native of the
,lden time. Somewhat remote from a
school, the children of it have had no
Instruction to speak of, but their cloth
ng shows in some degree the fashion
i the town. Eight persons lived in it.
leeping promiscuous on piles of home
made mats upon the earthen floor and
ating poi with their fingers from the
ommon calabash. It has only one
pening, the door, and is about ten by
welve feet square. | send an excel
ent photograph of it. made by myself,
ne of a fairly typical yeranda, or
utdoor living room, taken in the same
ocality. and one Of the boarding house
4 which we live. The pictures tell
he story of Hawaiian missions and
hawaiian homes.
-s.$-s-