The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1908-06-23
MAUNA KEA EXCURSION
Continued rom Page One.1
OFF FOR THE VOLCANO

clock Saturday afternoon took the
Governor S party to Glenwood, where
automobiles had preceded them, and
conveyed them the remaining nine miles
to the Volcano House. The regular
| train. which took the volcano excur-
sionists, and the travelling island peo-
pie to Glenwood, or way stations, left
fifteen minutes. later.
HILo'S FUTURE.
Nearly eleven years ago made a
visit to Hilo and the voleano-one of
the first things l did after arriving in
the Islands. My guide and compan-
ion on that visit was P. Maurice Ne
Mahon, then stenographer in Judge
Hitchcock court, and known famil-
iarly as the "Bard OF Hawaii OPP
portunity never occurred to revisit
Hilo until this trip. In comparing notes
l find that while most of the people l
met on the first occasion have either
died or removed from the pretty little
| city, the place has made material
progress, of which its citizens may well
feel proud; and l am false prophet, or
else the place has near future of
growth and commercial prosperity that
will bewilder its older residents with
its magnitude. With a principality of
the richest of virgin land tributary to
it, with its growing sugar, pineapple
and other resources expanding, with its
good railroads, which will rapidly in
crease in mileage and earning capacity,
and its new breakwater, which will give
the place an unrivaled harbor. and its
United States building and all the in
crements all these things bring-with
these things backing it, what is to keep
Hilo from forging ahead'
On the train l recognized and re-
newed acquaintance with Mr.. Chas.
Furneaux, who on my former visit to
Hilo (before annexation) was United
States consular agent. He was then an
enthusiastic coffee grower-and l found
him so still. He left the train at the
14-mile station, where his coffe trees
are. 1 enjoyed his enthusiastic talk,
and believe the unrivaled Hawaiian
coffee has a pleasanter tang to me
for it.
At Glenwood, the present terminus of
the Hilo Railroad Company tracks,
we found nine big passenger coaches,
provided by the Volcano Stables Com
pany. waiting to convey us the remain
ing nine miles of the journey to the
Volcano House. There were over
hundred of us, and the nine convey /
ances were none too many. Because of
the road being decidedly uphill all the
way, and the heavy roads, the stage ride
was rather slow, but the novelty of the
seenery-the rank tropical growths I
here and there mixed with things ia
miliar in the temperate zone-always
something new and beautiful-dispelled
tediousness. And then, it was certain !
" a novelty for a person who has not
left Honolulu for years to ride muffled
in a big ulster, stamping the feet to
keep them from getting genuinely cold,
and finally arrive at the Volcano House
with fingers so numb from cold that
writing in the register was performed
with difficulty. Such was my expert
ence.
A BUSY TIME FOR MINE HOST AT
THE VOLCANO.
Host Demosthenes Lyeurgus certainly
had his hands full in providing for
sudden acquisition to his family of over
a hundred persons. But a jOllier host
and a jollier crowd of guests seldom
meet, and arrangements and perpfexi-
ties were met and settled with the best
of good humor prevailing. 1t was about
six 'elock when the big party arrived
at the hotel, and after a hearty din
ner-good in itself, with its embellish-
ment of erispest of celery, grown along
side the volcano. and given the pi-
quaney of good appetites- preparations
were hastily made for the trip down
into the pit of the crater, the prime
object of the trip.
1 have heard the distance from the
Volcano House down to the great vent
hole in the floor of the crater estimated
variously from one to four miles, but
am inclined to think Mark Twain was
about correct when he said it was
''three miles down and thirty miles
back
CROSSING THE CRATER.
But a transportation dilemma pre-
scented itself. There were something
like ten saddle horses and hundred or
more people determined to make the
trip-and part of the animals had al
ready been requisitioned by the Gov
ernor's party, which had arrived by
automobile from GlenwOod long before
the coaches. But little difficulty like
that did not stop the party, many of