The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-01

a mountain pass, slid down to the
sparse rice-felds of windward Oahu
I and chugged along to the sea. Cad!
] how we tore along that beach, Thence
through miles and miles of sugar-cane
and groves of pineapple bushes and on
| to Oahu 5 biggest sugar-mlll. There
we stopped and submitted to an ex-
! PLANTATION of the machinery and an all
| oo-thorough talk on the
/ process from some self-eonseiOus fore
! man or ether.
! We "honked f" away and skirted Pearl
| Harbor-great, undeveloped, Pearl
Harbor, gem enough in the rough for
any nation s navy. The removal of a
sandbar. the building of equipments,
and in Pearl Harbor the United States
will have the grandest, prettiest, safest
haven in the world.
Twenty minutes covers the distance
lying between Pearl Harbor and Homo
lulu proper, and it s a ride through
fresh, rambling suburbs. And the ulti-
mate end of the most enjoyable and in
structive drive is a well-seC dinner
table.
The sublime sight of the day, the
sight that Tigers in the mind s eye, is
the Pail. Hawaii 8 many islands are
much alike in general form of contour.
A high ridge extending across the
island is usual. One side of the noun
tains tends to a volcanic barrenness,
while on the other the land is fertile
and vegetation luxuriates in the valleys
and down to the sea. The Pail is a
mountain pass-a cleft in Oahu s ridge.
A steady climb from Honolulu and the
climax, the Pail, presents a sheer drop
of some two thousand feet. One s spine
fairly thrills as he looks from theAPali,
down the sheer lava grayness of the
wall, over the semi-cultivated land and
merest villages, to the sapphire depths
of the sun-lit whiteeapped sea.
Hawaiian history tells us that Kane
hameha, the Conqueror, drove Oahu s
forces over the Pail. When one has
gone carefully down the road to the
sea, he instinctively turns to regard the
Pail. 1t IS easy to imagine Kamehame-
ha-the ideal Notwithstanding on
the brink, defying his little world with
tossed head and, eorOllary to the same
picture. all that is humane in a heart
SHES at the thought of the mangled car
cases of Oahu s defeated warriors ly-
ing at the foot of the Pail. Truly, the
Pail is the one sublime sight of Oahu.
To get back to the trend | took before
this verbose rampage, let me say that
I was free to loaf for the next three
weeks-and this | did to my heart s
content, thoroughly enjoying every
hour, helped by the fact that Honolulu
''grows on" one.
Or course, an excursion to the vol
cano Kilauea is in order for every trav-
eler-it is neither just to himself nor to
Hawaii to fail to see this one of the
world s wonders.
Thirty-six hours at sea brought US to
Hilo, the metropolis of the island of
Hawaii. All! | shan forget those
thirty-and-six hours! l was seasick.
After some twenty or thirty miles of
assorted land travel our excursion
reached the Volcano House. Supper
was-but you forget even such lurid
details when memory turns pages to
Kilauea. Two miles of real walking
and Hawaiian miles they must be,
too,-over lava beds, brought us to the
crater Silence seemed natural and, as
we peered, first searchingly, and then
with eyes focused at space, great real
izatiOn of the Creator s presence over
! came me. If ever my heart was filled
with the fear of God, that moonlight
night was the veriest time. How canny
was that silence, broken, or rather In
tensified. by the dull moaning and in
/ eassant Kissing of the molten stuff be-
meath us. A thought of Kilauea s pos
sibilities. even probabilities, are terror
| izinp; and science, with her knowledge,
I q N
| inspired the primitive Hawaiians to
worship a Goddess of Fire, resident IN
Kilauea With thoughts still rampant
we traced footsteps over the solemn,
grotesque lava beds an hour later.
could not begin to describe Kilauea CO.
, herently. As for naked, cold dimen-
si0ns. the crater is mile around, and
hundred and fifty feet below the spec
tator's viewpoint is the seething matter.
| ANY person--and particularly any
atheist-who has a two-month to spare
should visit Hawaii and its Kilauea,
The industry and geological conditions
of all Hawaii and the inevitable Ha-
waiian hospitality satisfies every Wis
itor And, withal, it is ''piece of oul
country
Hawaiian history is pleasurable read
! ing and IL touches heartstring that vi
brates with a tinge of sadness. The
Hawaiians are a people with a story
and that story-one of national degen
eration-ill fits the atmosphere of the
land. Conglomerate intermarriage, de
| baucherv and seeming lack of ambition
is rapidly completing the degeneration
of people which, in its prime, | shall
ALWAYS conceive as noble. Every yea
the pure Hawaiian population of la
wall decreases. and, of holder predict
ors. some maintain Shat the nationality
is bound to pine away in few years
Although the Hawaiian appreciates thu
protection of the United States. he still
| snorts the Hawaiian fag-a combina