The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-06-01

neutral in color. A cloud floating over
the valley, or cIinging to the mountain
| side, may suggest shadows of gray, but
there is more in it of ashes of roses or
| the heart of the turquoise.
| The modern globe trotter demands
that the beauties of nature be served
to him on a golden salver with al the
latest conveniences. Hawaii meets this
demand Honolulu's hotels are of the
| best and varied to suit the taste In
| one of them, a great pile of stone and
mortar, one might think himself Iiv-
| ing in a Broadway hosiery. In anoth-
er, framed in a setting of exotic flow
ers, one finds still lingering the atmos-
phere of the old Hawaiian royalty Yet
another spreads its quiet verandas
where the surf of the finest bathing
beach in the world threatens to break
| over the breakfast table.
| One is whsked in a rapid automobile
over a perfect road of asphalt and ma
cadam to the ma gniicent precipice of
! the Pail. the trysting place of the
winds and the grandstand before which
Hawaii proudly displays one of the
most inspiring views in the world. One
takes a Pullman car on the toy rail-
! road for a journey to the other side
of the Island. In Hawaii, and Hawaii
only. can one have his dinner on a
hotel veranda overlooking a lake of
living fire in the crater of the creates
active volcano on the globe This great
sight is only four days and forty dol
lars from Honolulu. To Hawaii's ma
tural beauties, and to its perfect eli
mate, have been added all the convent
ences which modern American civiliza-
ton can suggest for the care and en-
tertainment of the visitor, be he sight
seer, commercial traveller or prospec-
tor.
To most American visitors, except
those who live along the Pacific Coast,
it is the up-to -dateness of Hawaii
which is its most striking feature. A
newspaper in an Ohio city few weeks
ago caused much amusement in Homo
lulu by its astonished comment upon
copy of the Honolulu Pacific Conn
mercial Advertiser, which by chance
had fallen into the hands Of a Buckeye
editor. The Ohio man thought it worth
comment in his columns, and in an
amazed tone informed the public of the
fact that Honolulu was a place where
people not only conformed to the con-
ventions of life, but had a newspa per.
From letters that constantly come to
Honolulu it is to be seen that the
Ohio editors ignorance upon the sub
ject of actual conditions in this really
progressive part of the United States
is widespread. In the Pacific Coast
states, to which Honolulu is as near
as New York, the people know better,
but east of the Rocky Mountains Ha-
waiians complain that the prevailing
ideas of these Islands are obtained
from pictures of the death of Captain
Cook in the old-fashioned geography.
The Sandwich Islands were savage a
century ago, but the modern circum-
navigator of the globe who stops in
Honolulu will have no need to look
at the Stars and Stripes to tell him
that he is in an American town, with
all the American attributes. The Mer-
nv Widow hat. the Diabolo top. and
all the little fads and fancies of our
national life have their run in Homo
lulu Just as promptly as they do in
Quincy, Illinois. or Bangor, Maine.
1t is interesting to know that Wire
less biography was first used in prac-
teal commercial affairs in Hawaii.
The first commercial system installed
by Marconi was that connecting the
islands of the Hawaiian group, and this
preceded for some time the connection
of the islands with the rest of the
world by submarine cable. The ques-
ton of inter-island communication had
always been a perplexing one. Ho-
nolulu was the capital, both politically
and financially, and the people were
put to great inconvenience by the ne
cessity of waiting upon communication
by slow and irregular steamers from
island to island. Experiments were
made toward an inter-island cable, but
as the channels are so very deep the
shore ends were cut off on the sharp
coral reefs almost before the cable was
laid.
Once the people turned to carrier
pigeons as their saviors. Pigeons were
bought, cotes erected, and arrange
ments made to forward messages and
letters from one island to another by
means of the homing birds. But the
pigeons failed to become a commercial
success. Then came Marconi's discov-
cry of the wireless. Hawaii was first
to see the practicability of the discov-
cry. Marconi was induced to set up
stations on the various islands, but as
his system was then in an experiment.
al stage the service was inadequate and
not reliable The Territorial Legisla-
ture had faith enough to grant the
Wireless Company a subsidy. and it
struggled on with its experiments. FL
nancial success finally crowned the eff
forts of those interested, although not
until the original company had failed.
Now one walks into a telegraph Of
flee in Honolulu and sends a telegram
to any point in the islands in just as
matter of fact fashion as he would send
wire from New York to any other
city of the Union.
In 1903 when the Pacific cable reach
ed Honolulu there was day of great
rejoicing. The newspapers issued spe-
cial cable editions and for the first
time in its history Honolulu knew what
was going on in the world on the same
day that it happened. But the same
which made so much of
the cable news had been using press
specials by wireless for many months.
In fact, Honolulu had the first paper
in the world to employ the wireless
I, 1