The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1910-01-08

tndOlent or SHp-Shod, you mSleau yourself
Where nerves do not sputter, fewer motions
give more results. Hawaii is slow but busy
We have great riches but no idle rich.
The extra-natural conditions conduce to
tolerance and breadth of beam. SHIPS are
civilizations; and Hawaii is the crossroads
for the ships of all nations. All sorts and
conditions of men mingle on our water
front All freaks and ingenuities of vice,
and all the standard forms of virtue, gather
there.
American civilization is on trial in Ha-
wall, with every known competition present
and working, and tourist statesmen, students
and philanthropists from the four quarters
Of the earth, taking notco
The Territory of Hawaii is Inspector Gen
eral of American public heath, against the
invasion of Oriental diseases. No infected
ship gets farther thai Quarantine in Homo
lulu bay. Nor clears that port without full
timely warning to the malniaDd.
The TeIritor Ct Hawaii is the master
key of the Pacific ir case o: war No fleet
{, ON the far Last could ever deliver chal-
lenge to America, without coallng at Homo
lulu The great American quo stion, in the
event OF trouble with Japan, would be,
"How strong is Hawaii?' And the federal
government is constructing the answer now,
regardless of expense.
In the curve of the beach at Waikiki, deep
emplacements are waiting for the greal
guns that will command the roadway from
the harbor to the sea. Dead in front of the
channel and sweeping it from end to emu
another battery has its position. Further
on. Pearl Harbor hides impregnable arma-
ment. The entrails of the old volcano Dia-
mond Head have been replaced with vitals
of artillery and ammunition for action IN
definitely prolonged. The adjacent sea is
plated in mathematical squares; and from
his lookout on the lip of the crater an
expert aims the great mortars in the pits
below.
To man the batteries and shipyards and
police every foot of the shore, bodies OF
picked men from all arms of the service are
on duty. 1t has been part of my business
to observe them carefully. They are young
clean, quiet, and a credit to the country
But the monotony and enforced idleness OF
the life they lead put heavy strain uLon
the soundest character. And it is there
that the liquor trade gets in its sneaking
poisoning work among them.
More than seventy-hve saloons are licens
ed to lay for them in the one island Of
Oahu-about $50 in the group. Wholesale
liquor stores are mere saloons in Hawaii
except two or three great firms that sci
) liquor incidentally, and bona fide whole
sale. The others are dram-sellers and thu
) worst of dram-sellers willing, and legal.
entitled, to sell any quantity, however small
, as bottled goods" and to operate outsid
bars.
. The federal government has drummed tn
. drink out of the camps, for the health safe
: ty and efficiency of the soldier The rul
is enforced, and increasingly respected b
the officers. The territorial authorities CT
. operate, as to the camps outside the cit!
+ and refuse to license man-traps at the gate
" But distances are short The marine ba
racks is in the heart of the city And tn
! City is cantonment of saloons:
1t is not worse in this respect, tina
other license cities of its size. It is rattle
better. But the conditions that obtaiI
. make the saloons of Honolulu more mi
= chievous than those that prey upon mai
y land cities of the same class.
The island of Oahu is to all intents an
:, purposes a naval and military camp, fro
= the water to the clouds on the mountain
The rule of congress should embrace II a
. and the illicit liquor seller should be hunte
= out as diligently as plague rats. for Il
= health and honor of the soldier and tt
. country
>, The native Hawaiians, reduced now, |
- the vices and diseases of Christian nation
- to some forty thousand in number are ,
IS fine a race, under the circumstances, as IL
world can show. Measured by any standar
ID they exhibit some virtues that would adol
re the nations that are more advanced. The
are nominally Christians. That is, they al
is precisely like other Christians. But they a