The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-09-14

LalnS OF IRE appeared as great gutter
ings Of oozy blood fresh from the dying
veins of slaughtered giants.
And all this great show was for me
| alone. For one lone reporter, travelling
on pass, this greatest show in all the
world was given, for no other person
stood on all the rim of that great cir
Gle AS l watched through those fas-
cinating minutes, shading my face from
the heat of the swelling fires, under the
hypnotic influences of all that swirl
and flow of molten lava, Madame Pele
herself appeared. Presumably the
goddess did not know that rash NOR
tai, and that mortal reporter, was at
hand, because in all the glory of her
beautiful womanhoOd, giant in stature,
she emerged from the center fountain
and laved her cleaning body in the
living fires. Winding her tresses about
her brow, she scOoped great handfuls
of the fires and poured them over her
shoulders; in glee she tossed the lavas
into the air, and the wind that swept
across the frepit streamed through the
pelting rose-red pebbles and bore
brown wisps of Pele s hair against the
windward edges of the rugged pit. /
saw the brittle filaments blown away
from the shapely head, and I gathered
handfuls of them afterward from where
they lodged, SO I know I dreamed no
dream.
Her bathing finished, the goddess,
slipped slowly back into her fires just
as others from the Volcano House
| trudged up beside me. They saw the
fountains play and the lake rock and
surge and spread, but [ alone had been
a witness of the coming forth of the
mistress of the pit.
From the time of her withdrawal
| the violence in the lake decreased,
until, an hour later, the lowering of
the lake was perceptible, the fires
| draining back from the edges and
cracking open the darkening surface in
sinuous cracks like writhing, blood-red
serpents. Lower and lower sank the
lake, and less and less violent played
the fountains, until, five hours after
the first stream had welled from the
depth, the activity had practically
ceased. Two hours later, after dark,
the scenes of the day were almost re-
peated, the darkness emphasizing the
extreme liquidness of the fire lake.. the
surface scum being fairly agleam with
the heat from the under lava, the
whole surface of the lake from edge
to edge of the firepit being a cleaning,
ever-changing sea of light and fire,
wonderful to see and fascinating TO
watch as it shifted, changed, formed
and reformed increasingly; fretting be
meath the blows of the fresh lava
pouring into it from the fountains.
The Volcano House.
Much has been written in praise of
the courteous treatment accorded the
volcano travellers by Host Demosthenes
Lycurgus and his aides at the Volcano
House. Like the volcano itself, there
is nothing new to tell. 1t has all been
written and said, but a comparison of
the comforts of today with the ac
commodations that were to be had at
the volcano by the earlier travellers,
as written few days ago in the guest
book of the house by Professor Brig
ham of the Bishop Museum, who com
pared his visit last week to one he
paid to Madame Pele s domain forty
four wears ago. is interesting. He
wrote:
SAT the request of our most kind
host / break my custom on this my
fortieth visit to Halemaumau, or Lua
of the volcano, which reminds US of
the conditions in 1864 and 1880 so far
as the action in the pit is concerned,
but to the visitor the important change
in the creature comforts he now expe
riences. At the earlier date the main
crater was four hundred feet deeper
than at present and there was no trail
suitable for horse, hardly one practi |
II 8. chr xVoG
a grass house of one room with floor
of coarse hala mat, no other bed, no |
cook stove and attendant Chinese, but |
the visitor must bring his own provi- |
sions, and water was condensed from |
the steam cracks, which were then |
much the same in volume as at pres |
emit Later came the frame house, OF |
which the present billiard room is a |
relic much improved. 1t seemed a |
great advance and my conservatism |
was a little disturbed when the pres |
ent hotel was added. But as we grow |
in years appreciation of the mere phys
zeal comfort also grows, and now, after |
many kind and pleasantly remembered |
pasts. it is pleasant to have such |
shelter and to be cared for by Demos |
themes n. Lvcurgus and his obliging |
staff. w men i CdiiC LII 1CSA |
to survey the crater and for the first |
time carried chain around it, assist |
ed only by Hawaiians, provisions were |
scarce and other visitors rare. Now |
that after forty-four years L am again |
here to collect more of the local ma
tive plants. I find abundant many |
fine vegetables grown in the hotel
kikehau garden, good enough roads, tel
ephonic connection with the rest of |
the island, wireless with the rest OF |
the group, gas in the house and hospi- |
taIitv such as is seldom found in hos |
telries. and guests in ever-increasing |
numbers. I have brought with me |
from Hawaiian institutions not dream |
ed of in 1864, two men of about my |
oga tben-Mr. Charles N Forbes, the |
botanist of the Bernfee Pauahi Mu-
scum, and Mr.. Clifford B. Thomp-
SON. instructor in the Kamehameha |
Schools. -