The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-06-08

ago l met an old sailor friend who is
now living in Honolulu. He said to
me: 81 am glad when saloon is
| closed up; it takes away great temp
tation from the sailor who visits this
city. Some people think that just as
soon as sailor reaches port, all he
wants is to find a saloon sr some other
bad place. That is not really so. /
have been a sailor, and have travelled
the sea for a good many years. A
sailor can take his grog or go without
it. He is easily open to temptation. He
likes to have a good time when he gets
kind If he did not see and smell the
drink, he would not want it so much.
But when he finds the saloon waiting
for him, ready to get his money, he is
very likely to get drunk. Many of us
who are sailors would be glad to have
fewer saloons, and then it would not
be so hard to keep out of them. A
sailor does not really need TO have
liquor, and many a sailor man knows he
is better off without it, but he just can
not help himself when he gets ashore,
for the saloon is, waiting and open to
receive him. -
This is the substance of the testimony
of one old sailor, who has spent many
wears before the mast and who is now
trying to make an honest living on
shore. He feels, as many others do,
that the saloon is one of the worst
enemies that sailor has.
One of the most intelligent gentle
men of Honolulu said to me the other
day that he was about convinced that
"the success and prosperity of a sea-
port town does not depend upon its hav-
ing saloons; in fact, it might be very
much more prosperous without the sa-
loon. Tourists who come to Hawaii do
not. as rule, come for the drinks they
can get here, nor would they keep
keep away of the town was dry
Tourists come for the climate, the seen
cry, the mountains and the seashore Tt
is the beautiful port of these Pacific
Islands that will attract the traveller.
The saloon can not add TO these beau
ties. Neither the tourists nor the sail
ors demand the saloop1,
The rough toiler of the sea who has
come through storm and tempest would
receive gladly kindly welcome on his
arrival in port. But how often the
saloon is the chief attraction held out
before him.
Another sailor has thus described
himself and the troubles and tempta-
tons that are waiting for the sailor
when he reaches port. He says:
Lonely and stranger he readily
falls a prey to the host of crimps who
lay in wait seeking whom they may
devour,' and who under the title of
boarding, furnish poor meals and poor
er lodgings, from the loneliness and
sad cheers of which he is fain to seek
short lived pleasures too often bought
with pain, in the deceitfu1 embrace of
her whose steps lead down to death.
Is it strange that such is the almost
universal course adopted by the sailor?
Do we seek the irresistible cause which
thus seems to impel him to ruin? His
total exclusion from the hallowing in
fiuences of all respectable female So
ciety is the rock upon which has been
wrecked the brightest hopes of many
a youth of promise. Lasciviousness
and intemperance stalk hand in hand
to overwhelm the unconscious youth
on his first return from sea.
Ponder well this, o. We who seek the
sailors welfare; We turn him aside to
experience the cold comforts of those
who regard him only according to the
glitter of his gold. Let him find among
you the comforts of a home and the
example of Christians, and the work
OF regeneration long sought for, will
have commenced in earnest, and from
your Father in Heaven may you re-
ceive the reward which your kind ac-
tions on earth have merited."
This is the plea of the sailor man
himself and should receive considera-
ton. More than fifty years ago some
of the residents of Honolulu, and sail
ors who came here, sent & petition to
the government asking that the sa-
looms might be reduced to the lowest
possible number. That same wish is
felt by many today. The interesting
petition is given below:
ITO the Honorable the House of No
b1es and Representative of the Ha-
waiian Islands.
Your memorialists, residents of Ho-
nolulu, and masters. officers and sea-
men belonging to vessels frequenting
the port, impressed with sense of the
immense evils attending the traffic in
intoxicating liquors, humbly pray that
you will be pleased
"First-To reduce the number of IL
censes to the lowest possible number,
consistent with treaty stipulations:
'Second-To require the number,
when reduced. to pay as license money
an amount equal TO that now paid by
the whole;
'.Third-To destroy and not sell all
confiseated liquors for the benefit of
the treasury of the nation; and
'F'inaIly-To enact such other laws
as in your wisdom you may deem best
calculated to promote the virtue and
| temperance of the community.
In, mem -