Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-16


emptied her tubs for her. he washed the
dinner dishes (Which was obviously her
tered UP his neat Kitchen; her combs and
hairpins Uttered his bachelor bedroom
for where else could O-jo-san Tia smooth
her satiny locks-and for return she
laughed at him and tcased him all day
long called him "old man. and "sood-
for-nothing." and treated him generally
as the dust beneath her feet
There were also others: Yamashito, the
painter. who took three days to do one
days work, flirting with Tia at my ex-
pense, and carpenters and butcher boys
and itinerant turnip sellers. O-jo-san Tia
laughed at them all.
Then came Ishiwara, the barber. 1t
might be said that Ish,wara was in the
air from the beginning. but it was some
time before it materialized.
If Tia was Japan feminine, Ishiwara
was Japan masculine-a strapping lad
with square shoulders and lean TANKS that
would have done credit to a West Point
er. His backing brush hair. cropped close
behind. grew longer on top and fell pic
turesquely almost to his eyebrows, and he
wore always a blue-and-white kimono.
grit with a white silk obi. He had been
soldier ESQ he told us). and his swaxser
was worth crossing half the Pacific to see.
Maso. with his ill-fltting American clothes
and STOPPING shoulders. was undistinguish-
able from the common herd, but Ishiwara
might have been mikado incognito.
the garden with two swords thrust
through his girdle. and retinue of
princes.
Twilight by twilight he came to sit on
his heels under the banana trees and tell
Tia tales OF his prowess-magnifcent
tales. interspersed with many cigarettes
(his fingers were mahogany colored with
nicotine) and acted out with all the su-
perb aplomb of the oriental. Now he
ground li-chi nuts beneath his heel like
Chinese skulls; now he reconnoitered
among the papai trees: now he crouched
in ambush behind royal palm. and now
he charged upon platoons of ti-plants and
swept them from the face Of the earth.
Maso took no part in those seances He
retired to the tara patch on the other side
of the kitchen and studied his catectism.
Only once did he condescend to comment
when I ventured, in an ante-dinner inter-
view, that Ishiwara was a mighty war
ror. Maso, posing the Worcestershire
sauce bottle over the soup kettle, lifted
his languid eyelids: He shave soldier"
he said, and went calmly on stirring the
soup
But alas for Maso. Yia's heart like
that OF many another maid, was shared
in the moose Of adventure She took to
wearing her most sumptuous kimono-the
one with the pale blue crepe lining and
silsen tassel-when she waited for Ishi-
wara under the banana trees, and for the
kitchen there was naught but contuncly.
Cupid. or his japanese prototype, was
reaching for final shaft, when fate. in
the guse of a Porto Rican, interposed.
The Porto Ricans are Hawaii's latest
acquisition. Before them we
had only natives, Americans. English.
Scotch and Frenchmen. Russians, Japs.
-'hinamen. Portuguese. Germana and Jews.
with a few Nalays, South
Sea Islanders. American negroes and one
Greek. The Porto Ricans were imported
% work in the cane fields when United
States laws deprived the planters Of their
natural source. the orient AS yet they
rave eaten great deal, worked a very
title, and shown Observation-Disclosures
,ut jnconvenient-to turn highNayman
There had been several hold-ups ON
he Olaa road. but none, from Ishiwara's =
ccount, comparable to his He acted it
III out for Tia in the shadow of the ba-
lana trees; how he was driving alone I'D =.
he Olaa road when. from the suava
ushes. there sprung to his horses head =.
our vilains.-devils they were, with :,
,leaming knives:-how they had unhar- -
essed and stolen his steed-how they 8,
ad forced him to descend and deliver his -.
money (the money destined for a new Obi .,
Or Tia; how he. the hero of hundred fl