The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-03-08
i MONKEY AND PARROT TIME.

Editor Advertiser:-The present snarl
in city and county affairs reminds me
very wildly of picture I saw in a
small stationer s window, some thirty
odd years ago, while walking down
Wall Street one quiet Sunday after
noon A forlorn-1ooking monkey, hold
ing his aching head, with the blood
oozing from numerous gashes in his
skin, was curled against the pillow at
the head of immaculate bed.
Nearby perehed large green parrot
with sadly ruffled feathers. An over
turned handbook and the tattered rem
nants of the handsome Easter bonnet
were there, and wreck and ruin every
where The mistress of the chamber
stood in the half-open doorway, a look
upon her face that can fbetter be i'm
agined than described A line from
the parrot told the story We have
been having hell of time!''
l am somewhat curions to know what
expression would appear upon the face
of Mistress Honolulu, should she ever
arouse from the coma that seems to
hold her fast, take a peep into her gov
eminent chamber, and behold the wreck
that is being made of her new city anu
county bonnet.
1t was the learned Professor Guizot
who said that 1.-The end and aim of
all society is the establishment of
government at once regular and free. -
The enthusiastic modern reformer cries
that municipal government is bust
I'd Z l. e
given, in his zeal for a better condi+
ton of things, the apparent paradox
for the good word politics has been so
corrupted by association with time
servers and self-seekers that its Greek
ancestor would have difficulty to re-
cogniZes it.
But the average citizen is so en-
crossed with his hustle for bread and
the effort to scrape together enough To
appease sthe demands of the tax-gath-
erer or to crafty the desire for an oc-
casional luxury, that he patiently plods
along, for the most part unmindful of
the professor S wise deduction or the
reformer's enthusiasm. If the pave
ment does not cause him to stumble
over half a dozen times on his way
downtown or uneven streets do not
bounce him too hard when, he has car
riage or an automobiles; if the streets
are occasionally lighted in the dark of
the moon, and the wind does not fill
his eyes too frequently with dust, he
will display a patience, under almost
any kind of government, that is truly
pathetic. He is easily satisfied and
cares not whether Tom, Dick or Harry
fills the offices and does the public
work. What a Reuben he is, and how
easily gold -bricked!
Down in his neart, the average eit;-
zen desires good government He either
knows not how to get it or has not the
training and patience to make the nee.
essary effort to attain it. Hence the
need of honest, earnest leaders to con-
stantly strive to bring the people into
line for civic virtue Honolulu boasts
of her high percentage of college bred
men and women. She has her Civic
Federation; improvements clubs ga.
lore; church leagues and numerous
other organizations processing a desire
for the betterment of mankind; schools
filled to overlooking with susceptible
children growing into citizenship.
What a field fer a. union of moral
forces to teach the principles of gov
eminent and the wisdom of abiding
by themi golden opportunity for
another Moses.
Meanwhile, let me suggest to our new
municipal offieeholders the self-saeri-
ficing observation of Aristides to- The
mistoeles, at the siege of SaIamis. a
If we are wise, we shall hence
forth lay aside those vain and puerile
dissensions which have hitherto sepa-
rated us. One strife, and noble emu
lation it is. now remains for us, which
of us shall be most serviceable to our
country
The praises of that great American
citizen, A braham Lincoln, are still
ringing with new acclaim in our ears
He, it was, who said that God must
love the plain people-He made so
many of them. As worshiper at
his shrine, I am pleased to subscribe
myself as one of the
PLAIN people,