The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1907-08-20
MAIL CARRYING
IN BIC STORM

HILO, Aug. 13.-Uncle Sans mails
must be delivered. Storm or no storm,
strike or no strike, accident or no acct
dent, shipwreck or other disaster, the
mails of the United States take prece-
dence.
This was the case on Friday of last
week, when bridges were reported
washed away ON the main thorough
fares, when washout delayed the Hilo
trains, and when landslides checked the
progress of the coaches bringing mail
to its destination in Hilo.
1t was shortly before two clock in
the afternoon that word was received
at the Office of the Valcano House Sta
bles, in Hilo, that the washout of a
bridge between here and Laupahoehoe,
with both coaches on the far side of
the gulch, had delayed the United
States mail, for the safe delivery of
which, in good order and on proper
time, the Volcano Stables Company is
by contract responsible.
Manager Wright lost no time in put
ting ON his thinking cap, and by two
clock he had sent orders for one of
the two coaches to be taken to pieces
and brought across the bridge with the
mail. By two O'Clock relief stage
had been started from here to meet the
incoming one A driver was selected
who knew neither fear nor failure. He
was told to bring the mails. He did
so, though it took him eight hours to
travel eighteen and half miles on the
return trip.
Leaving here at two o'clock, the re-
lief stage reached Honohina, eighteen
and a half miles, shortly before five
o. clock. 1t was not only raining all
the time, uut floods were pouring down.
Still there was daybreak and this made
the journey easy in comparison with the
return one. Horses were changed once,
at Hakalau, the return start from there
being made at $3.50 p. NJ, sixteen miles
from Hilo. Then it was pitch dark,
except for the lightning, while the
noise of the thunder was almost drown
ed by the noise of the falling rain.
1t was hard journey Alone, with
no company other than that of Uncle
Sam s mail sacks and what they con-
tanned, with one lantern, and with the
road under water most of the way, the
fearless driver kept urging his team
onward, onward to Hilo. At Honomu
the road was covered three feet with
water, and the driver had to wade in
and lead his animals through. At
Hanalei the water was level with the
bridge and he crossed it at gallop,
fearing lest every plank upon which
the animals set foot might give way
to their touch. Between Honomu and
Hakalau he came across gang of men
trying to prevent the county's rock
crusher from being washed away. They
were working it to place of safety by
placing planks under the wheels, often
losing the planks in the mud.
Across gulches, around bluffs, the
four animals struggled, the driver
shouting himself hoarse in urging them
to drag their load There were land
slides at Pepeekeo, at Kahili and at
Papaikou, where he had to literally
dig way through the mud. At Kahili,
for distance of fully thirty feet, the
landslide had brought down huge rocks
which blocked the way and which had
to be dug out of the mud, with the aid
of Hawaiians and Portuguese, till a
space was cleared wide enough for the
coach and team to founder through the
deep and sticky muck, that had been
washed down from the higher ground.
1t was one O'Clock in the morning
when the coach rolled into Hilo, to find
the city in darkness A tired team and
a tired driver struggled into the Vol
cano Stables. But the United States
mail had reached its destination. little
damp, perhaps, but with nothing seri-
ously injured and with nothing lostl
But the driver was one mass of mud
from his head to his heels.
The driver, who modestly declined to
give his name when telling his expert
enee to the Herald, is Hilo born boy