Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1909-12-02
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
CONGRESSMAN ELvINs BACK
FROM HIS VISIT.
Writes Interestingly Of Uncle SANS
Mid-Paeifc Possession and
Its People.

the neat OF August had come, Mrs.
Elyins and / took a little vacation OF
ten days duration, which included q
stop at Atlantic City, a sail up the
Hudson River and a cruise through
Lake George and Lake Champlain to
Montreal. We then went up the st.
Lawrence River, through the beauti-
full Thousand Islands to Toronto;
thence across Lake Ontario to Buff
falo and thence home by rail. A
most delightful outing it was, and in
point Of beauty, far excelled the trip
down the Mississippi from st. Louis
to New Orleans, a journey which,
later, it was my good fortune to take
with the Presidential party. I shall be
glad to tell about both these trips
some time.
The former mentioned Of them,
however, would not have been taken
had l known of the pleasant surprise
that greeted me when l got home
from Buffalo, for there / found a tele-
gram from the secretary to the Dele
gate in Congress from the Hawaiian
Islands, inviting us to join a party
of twenty Congressman and fifteen
ladies, who were leaving Chicago on
the 18th Of August to visit the Ha-
waiian Islands at the expense Of the
territorial government, $4,000 having
been appropriated, by unanimous vote
of the island legislature for that pur-
pose. 1t vas a recognition that sell
dom comes to any Congressman and
one that had never before come to
one SO young in Congress as l, so
the invitation was most gladly and
promptly accepted, for | saw in 1t not
only an opportunity for the realiza-
ton of a long-dreamed-of trip that
would be enjoyable and broadening
to me, but also an opportunity to gain
such information and make such OBJ
seryations as would conduce to my
usefulness to my district and to the
country generally. But the invitation
came not because ! was /, but be-
cause / was a member of Congress.
! therefore feel that that constituency
which sent me to Congress Is also
entitled to benefit by my experience,
IL any benefit is to be derived, hence
these lines to the newspapers of our
congressional district.
We Joined the party at Omaha, and,
after much entertainment in San
Francisco, sailed from there on the
good ship Siberia on August the Gath.
On the morning Of the seventh day
following I peered through the port
hole in my cabin to see one of the
most beautiful sights it has ever been
my lot to behold; for there, rising
sheer out of the ocean half a mile
into the air and covered all over with
a dense tropical growth of the green
est and thickest Of vegetation, was
old Diamond Head, a mountain in the
Mid-Pacific, on the Island Of Oahu,
the first in Importance, though not
In size. of the Hawaiian Islands.
Geography.
Outside the knowledge conveyed in
the ten lines of matter which oc-
Cured In my little, brown-backed
geography, / had never known any
thing Of these islands, except what l
had read in the early part Of 1898 in
the newspapers concerning the de-
thronement Of the queen, and I am
sure that a large number Of people
in the United States hardly knew of
the existence of the Hawaiian Islands
beyond, perhaps, a vague recollection
Of having read in their school books
OF Captain Cook and the Sandwich
Islands.
When Captain Cook discovered the
Islands in 1778 he named them the
Sandwich Islands after the Earl Of
Sandwich, who was then the First
Lord Of the British Admiralty and the
chief patron of Captain Cook.
The Hawaiian Islands, as they are
now officially called, consist of a
group of twelve islands, only eight
of which are inhabited, four Of them
being but barren rocks, and consti-
tute a part Of an archipelago which,
on the map, looks only large enough
to form a landing for the Pacific
cable. They are about 2100 miles from
San Francisco and 4700 miles from
Manila. In the order Of their size
the eight inhabited islands are named
as follows: Hawaii, Maui, Oahu,
Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, Niihau and
Kahloolawe, the area Of them all be-
ing 6454 square miles-a little less
than our congressional district.
These islands, which formed along
4 assure In the earth's crust, ex-
tending northwest and southeast,
consist of craters that were probably
built sp from the bottom Of the ocean
by out-pouring lava, but they impress
one, on first sight, as having been
heayed up into the air at one weird
~convulsion of nature. The volcanic
fires evidently ceased at different
times in the islands, as some Of them
have become more eroded and have
acquired more forms of plant life than
!, the others; and Hawaii, the youngest
and largest island, with its two active
VOLCANOES, ID still In the making pro-
ccss, though 1t has already been built
UP to a height greater than the fa-
nous Pixies Peak OF Colorado.
The surface features Of the group
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