The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1908-09-18


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 / 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 firepit streamed through the
lpelting 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 know / 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 1 alone had been
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 perceptibIe, the fires
draining back from the edges and
cracking open the darkening surface in
simmons 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 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 a 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 years ago, is interesting. He
wrote:
90 AT the request of our most kind
host / break my custom on this my
fortieth visit to Halemaumau, or Lua
Pele, to note not merely the activity
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-
cable for man. For shelter there was
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 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 sueh a
shelter and to be cared for by Demos
themes N. Lyeurgus and his obliging
staff. When / came in 1864
to survey the crater and for the first
time carried a chain around it, assist
ed only by Hawaiians, provisions were
scarce and other visitors rare. Now
that after forty-four years | am again
here to collect more of the local ma
tive plants. 1 find abundant many
fine vegetables grown in the hotel
kikehan 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'
tally such as is seldom found in hos
telries, and guests in ever-inereasing
numbers. have brought with me
from Hawaiian institutions not dream
ed of in 1864, two men of about my
age then-Mr. Charles N. Forbes, the
botanist of the Bernice Pauahi Mu'
scum, and Mr.. Clifford B. Thomp
son, instructor in the Kamehameha
Schools.
49,