The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-03-21

island; cold, gray light marking the
stormy setting of the sun. Then head
on goes the great ship, breaking a
wide white road among the vast bill
lows that rolled beneath a gale of
many days
Few of us had ever seen a wilder
night at sea than that. You could
lean against that southwest gale as
you lean against q wall. The black
ness of the sea and starless heavens
was fearful, and the ghostly- white AMI
lurid biIlow, sheared by our bows,
swept widening aft. the only break in
that surrounding Erebus. Yet another
light at intervals swift flashes of
green lightning which seem to spring
cut of the sea on the close horizon, and
the portentous diapason of thunder
such as we never heard ashore.
What became of the brave gulls that
at dark were still wheeling about us?
Weary, perhaps, of breasting the gale
for hours, they set their white wings
kite-like and were borne to Monterey
in an hour. Gone, at any rate, when
morning came, and no wing of any
bird nor sail of ship lit the deep-blue,
eloud-swept sea. The seas were strange
I " lonely; scarce single flying fish,
and none of the usual marine birds
/ from shore to shore.
Morning of the sixth day out, and
all passengers watching the southwest
horizon for a glimpse Of land. First,
/ I IL +ho how
Molokai, and soon faint headlands at
| the starboard. Coming nearer the
more distant one took on familiar
shape, and Diamond Head was light
| ing up at the touch of the sun. A
gentler sea now, by reason of protect
| ing shores; pilot boat under our
Quarter. and Honolulu seemed advanc-
/ ing from her circling mountains to re-
| ceive us.
Imagine an Eskimo taken aboard an
arctic whaler and touching no shore
! till the ship anchors in Astoria har-
| Dor. How nobly the green hills, spring
/ frs, broad-spreading alders and per
fumed cedars spread their beauty be-
/, fore his astonished eyesi And so to
us, from temperate skies, where now
the hardest evergreens alone are YER
dant. the equal wonder of this new
world of everything flowers, smiling
skies and iridescent mountains. dis
plays its strange beauty.
/ No American is ignorant of Hawaii
Most OF US know by picture and story
the Pail, the harbor, Diamond Head
and the palace as we know Gibraltar
! Rock or ST. Paul's. We know Hawaii
on the Coast better than we know Del
aware. And yet, though I knew d
banyan tree at first sight, how little
knew of its tempted majesty of dome:
and eolumns
Take book of unknown songs and
read the music in silence. This IS tht
picture. Hear the same music sung
eloauently-that is like seeing Hawai-
itself.
There is a nobility and splendor il
every vista our eyes have beheld
/ whether the clustered city, with it
stately ships; the frowning pals, witt
limitless blue seas surrounding; tn
wide. opulent plantations, or the ever
varying beauty of your regal noun
! tains. Steep activities that in Amer
lea would be bare of all vegetation ar
mere upChcQ anu utdBS0 " 'N0'1 "
SURPRISING beauty Your rivers leap L
JOYOUS bounds from summit to the sea
The sky itself is ehanged-the change
less sky. Orion strides across the zer
| it'll; Campus swings where Sirius hun
at home, and Sirius is exalted to tn
zone in which we see -Spica and Aide
NJ baran.
II The man is unfortunate indeed VIII
can find Nature uninterestlng, b
where he may. There is no wearines
in the grand monotony of the sea. !
II monotone indeed, but the one vast un
| versal dominant. The very desert
peopled for him whose eyes and hear
| are duly opessed But though the i
lumined soul sees beauty in the simpl
lowlv flowers and stunted miniatuI
trees of the arctic or desert lands, no
| overwhelming is the glory of LAWS
II Nature in these Hesperides!
II The neighborhood of Honolulu
| richer in the variety of its trees an
| flowers than any other part OF tines
Il islands, apparently. This wealth
Il trees and flowers in and about the CIT
| is an inheritance from many famol
II pnefactors-Cook, Vancouver, Broug
II ton. Meek, Judd and many others
| who brought to this port the trees an
| plants of many chimes. These exoti
| are not all tropical, some, indeed, q
| ing visitors from northern lands I
| miliar impressions of some home tree
The alearoba is a locust of Iarg
growth. and the grand monkey pc
| suggests in it's massive high-spreadlr
II branches the oaks of Oregon. 1t he
| benefactor of his kind who eaus
| two blades of grass to grow where w
but one, what shall be his. need WI
makes luscious fruits to grow Whe
| there were none before? Some OF 20
| beautiful flowers may doubtless be So
| eessfullv acclimated in the PacI
= States. If possible [ shall make t
go lovely ironwood.. which is doubtless
exotic here, at home at latitude 40
Hawaii has not lacked admlrlng 10
ers who have sung the praises OF b
j. tender skies, green mountains, exqulsi
flowers and respondent seas. MOI
have said too much or even enoug
Methinks a hedge of hibiscus in ia
nary is sight well worth comm
| / p-x. ~ Auot her