The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-06-20
FATHER VALENT|N
TOLD Of HAWAII

The Hanford (Cal.) Sentinel has the
, following notice of lecture on Ha-
wall given in that city on May 80 by
Father Vaientin:
Rev Father Valentin, a priest who
has spent IS years in the Hawaiian
Islands, lectured to a small but very
interested audience at the opera house
Sunday night. The lecture on the land
and people of which Mark Twain years
ago. when the group was known as
the Sandwich Islands, said No alien
land in all the world has any deep,
strong charm for me but that one; no
other land could so lovingly and be-
seemingly haunt me, sleeping and
waking, through half lifetime as
that one has done. For me
| its balny airs are always blowing, its
summer seas flashing in the sun; the
pulsing of its surf beat is in my ear.
1 can see it's garland craigs, its leaping
cascades, it's plumy palms browsing by
the shore; its remote SUBMITS floating,
like islands, above the cloud rack. I
can feel the spirit of it's woodland soli-
tude; I can hear the splash of it's
brooks; in my nostrils still lives the |
DICdlil I'll 1loWCIo tlilb pCA1oA1S0 ~N
wears ago. That is what Twain wrote, |
and in the lecture by Father Valentin |
Sunday night the same thing was said, |
but in different language.
When introduced, Rev. Valentin said
that he called his address artalk rather |
than a lecture. He had resided in the /
Hawaiian Islands for Is years and had |
passed from the period when that coun-
try had king, then a queen, and until
now it is part of the United States. !
He named the islands that form the
group and described them, He dYelt !
upon the description of Honolulu, the /
only real city there, and described it's
street railroads and hotels, which are
excellent, and told how civilization had
placed the electric light in all the city, |
even unto the common shack. He told |
of the beauties of the land, described
the sugar plantations, and how well |
the irrigating system had been perfect
ed, and said that of the present popu.
lation of the islands there are 10000 |
JAPANESE. 2a.0fso Chinese, some Porto
Rleana and Portuguese and a very few
E'renchmen. In the ministry there are
many churches represented, and the
the various elements of nationality and
there are services conducted in several
languages.
In a rapid style, that was both very |
interesting and entertaining and in a
language somewhat hard to catch be-
cause of a foreign accent, the well-in-
formed padre told of the conditions of
the people ard what had happened In
their history, saying that the native |
race of Hawaii was destined to become
extinct. The influx of the Japs and
Cinnamon was the result of the demand /
for sort of labor that would work the +
plantations where cane sugar is made, /
and the white people, he said, were To 7
blame for, the conditions. They per- |
mitted the necessity for the Oriental |
flood, until now the work on the islands |
is principally done by Asiatic labor. He |!
described interestingly the character |
and habits of the natives and told sew
eraI anecdotes that well illustrated his !
lecture
The most pleasing parts of the en- |
tertainment were his rendition of sew
eral Hawaiian songs, which he sang in |
an exquisitely musical tenor, and the !
last song was sung in both Hawaiian |
and English.
Rev. Valentin gave an interesting de- |
scriptfon Of the colony of lepers which
is maintained on the Island of Molokai, |
where On a peninsula thexe are kept
| all the time some 1000 people who have
become afflicted with leprosy. He de-
scribed the place and gave a deserved
tribute to those priests and San Fran
ciscan Sisters who surrendered all there |
| is in life to them in order to go there, |
| voluntarily, and minister to those who, |
afflicted with the black curse never
can get away from that district to
which they are consigned.
The lecture was very interesting from
| start'to finish.