Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1909-12-02

mills, which last year had an output
of over half a million tons of sugar,
which sold for an average Of $4,000
per ton. and Hawaii is, today, the most
advanced sugar-producing country in
the world.
Most Of the plantations have COM
plete systems Of railway tracks which
connect the mills with the fields and
landings. Where water is plentiful, as
on the windward side of Hawaii. the
cane is lumed to the mill. When the
mountain slope is abrupt, gravity
roads and overhead trolley cables are
used.
Rice comes next to sugar in the
area of production and value. 1t is
grown in the valleys and on the fiat
lands near the sea, and is an industry
almost entirely in the hands of the
Cinnamon.
Coffee grows we'll in sheltered parts
Of the group, yielding a berry equal to
the best Java or Mocha, and some tea
of a good quality is also raised. Rub
Der producing is growing to be an i'm
portant industry, as is also the pro-
duction of tobacco. The cocoanut is
of some Importance to commerce, and
while hemp and ramie have not
been produced very extensively, it is
thought that in time they will also add
to the value of the islands output.
Next to sugar and rice in import
ance, however, are the fruits of the
islands, which include many that 1t
would be useless for me to name, but
those of the greatest commercial
value are pineapples and bananas.
There are miles and miles of pineap-
pie ranches and banana plantations in
the islands, and l want to say in pass
ing that | never knew how luscious a
pineapple is until l plucked n from
the patch. 1t was SO sweet, juicy and
delicious that / didn't wonder that the
canning factories ran day and night,
And cocoanuts, you'll never know how
good inc is until you knock it from
the tree yourself.
Bananas, which have for a long time
been more or less "tabu" with me,
because, when a boy l had been sur
feited with them one day in my
brothers store when he was away,
tasted much better to me when taken
from the stalk in the Jap's planta-
ton, than they ever had tasted be-
fore. There are several varieties Of
them,-some SO perishable that they
will not stand shipping and are
therefore, consumed in the islands.
These are the most delicious, of
curse. There is another variety,
which looks very much like our river
bottom paw-paw. This kind the island
ers bake like a potato, and it is very
palatable. The thing that worried me
was that the bananas were growing
upside down-that is to say, just the
reverse from the way they hang in the
grocery store, and when l show to my
friends a photograph l have Of a grow
ing bunch, they invariably turn the
picture upside down.
Hawaiian Women.
I now come to a subject that will
interest the voters of the district,
namely, the women of Hawaii, whose
graces and charms are equal to, and
in some respects greater than, those
of the women of other n|ationalities.
Most of them are large and in many
instances quite fleshy, which is said
to be due to the nutritious value of
poi. The dress of the modern Ha-
waiian woman is that of the European
and American woman, but the dress
Of her older sister, which is the IA
tional feminine costume, is a sort of
mother-hubbard, usually made of white
1t is a hoary joke on the
islands, enjoyed by the natives as well
as by visitors, that the first women
missionaries who landed at the islands
were SO shocked upon seeing the na-
tive women clad only in little grass
reaching from the waist to the
knees, that they threw their night
robes overheard to them, and these
were donned by the native women,
thus forming the national costume
which has been handed down to the
present day.
A large number of Hawaiian women
attended the reception given to the
Congressional party by Governor Frear
of the islands, for natives and whites
in society there. At this
reception the Ex-Queen, Liliuokalani,
was a noted guest, and it was inter
to see the Hawaiian women
dressed in the costume described, pay
ing their obeisance to her and bowling
themselves backwards out of her pres
ence, for you must know that in the
olden times it was tabu to turn ones
back upon the sovereign. The charm
Of these costumes was increased by
the addition of a lei of yellow feathers
the necks of those who were de-
of chiefs and the leis in i'm
Of the same, which were worn
by women of the different Hawaiian
patriotic societies, The lei proper is
wreath or garland of flowers, and a
custom which is INDUCED in in
the islands and in NJ other part of the
world that I have eve heard of, is
that of the placing Of the leis around
the necks of visitors on the occasion