The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1910-01-11
The Banquet Of Lost Souls

along the top Of tho crust in n crooked
little stream and then had been taken
out and allowed to cool. The intensr
heat from the oven had warmed up the
kitchen so that while the humps OF
dough had not been burned they hak
dried out into the most indigestibln
looking rubber.
A number of the invited lost sou7
banquet guests must have been women
and college-bred girls at that for the
pan next the cake was filed with =
connection which the .college-girls Good
in n chatting dish and call by thu
slangy name Of fudge. But the rankest
freshman miss chatting dish amateur
could never have turned out such q
looking mess as that one. / know Just
how 1t looked when it was poured our
and how nicely that thin shining crust
began to form over the top and l knox
how deceptive was this pretty appear
ance. / have made that kind myseE
and know how tho little cracks which
soon appear on the shining surface fore
tell sticky underdone caramel instead
of the smoothly beaten melt-in. YOUR
mouth sugary fudge
The worst failure of all in the sweet
line was an attempt at moulded piece.
de resistance of gelatine. Two large
e-shaped moulds had been used and,
probably the gelatine used was origin
ally of that bright red color all pack
ed from the same mixture and sold
under strawberry, raspberry, cherry or
dozen other fruit favoring labels.
After burning all of the other foods
by leaving them too long the cook had
here gone to the other extreme and
had removed the gelatine from tho
moulds too soon and it had settled
down and out bit with few of thosN
funny oyster-quiver shakes that in
variably destroy or distort the mould
cd designs into all kinds of weird ana
fantastic shapes. A closer scrutiny OF
the sides of the distorted cones ana
| put out my hand to touch them 10
find that my lost soul intuition and the
feeling of the supernatural had been
well founded. The cones were petrihed,
or else the heat had baked them into
hard rocks and every one knows thu
natural effect of heat applied to CELIA
tine is neither to petrify nor bake. I
was not exactly frightened but queer
little shiver ran over me.
For the same reason that a smaN
boy will whistle when walking alone at
night / put on my best know.it-all arr
and said to myself that / would 60
Immediately and investigate the range.
How stupid of me not to have known
the cause of all this was due to the
fire. / walked with what I tried to
make firm step straight to the corner
from whence came the heat and bright
glow of fire.
reached the fire and then I stood
and looked down into the fiery depths
of the range. / bravely stood there
for the reason that was incapable
of moving. / could not even whistle
for now / was positive of something
uncanny about that kitchen.
have used for fuel, coal, wood and
oil, have risked bankruptcy by trying
gas and have looked with eyes of long
ing at one of those latest electric
ranges with all the shining little switch
buttons and bright attractive alumni
mum utensils, but there was one and
only one place I could call to mind
where the fuel used for cooking could
send out that awful heat and that un-
mistakable odor of sulphur.
My knees gave way under me and I
sank down and gazed in fascinated
dumb bewilderment into the molten
fires of His Satanic Majesty's kitchen
range.
do not know how long I sat there
or where / got the strength to get up
and move slowly and tremblingly away
for fear that I would find my name
among those present at that lost soul
banquet, but at last found myself
back in my room at the hotel and
looking out of my window into thu
kitchen of Kilauea, the ruined equip
ments of which were family lighted by
the glow from the fiery furnace OF
Halemaumau.