The Pacific commercial advertiser., 1910-12-26
SEARCH POVERTY
IN PAC|F|C'S
PARADISE
And Best People on Earth Dis
cover Plenty of It in Spite
of Doubts.
HAD EIGHTY BASKETS READY
Christmas Hereafter Becomes a
Day of Labor for the
Antered Ones.
lad EIGHTY BASKETS READY

Prepared to meet a poverty it did
not know existed, the Benevolent and
Protective Order OF Elks, yesterday
morning. donned its best Christmas
spirit, loaded into eighty baskets as
MANY Christmas dinners, chartered a
fotilla of automobiles and armed cap
a-pie with smiles and turkey sailed
forth to conquer the wolf of poverty.
The venturesome quest was an eX-
pertinent and. like most Benevolent and
Protective experiments, was complete
success. AS result the EIks have
dedicated themselves to Christmas day
and taken il 10 themselves, mOnopOliZed
it. as it were. as their particular day
of good endeavOr. Not that they intend
to confine their good endeavors to that
day!
The matter of dispensing their Christ
mas spirit in the substantial form of
turkey gobber and gabbling goose was
brought up when the Christmas shop
ping was a coy young thing just grow
ing into major proportions. There were
skeptics who did not believe that there
was any poverty in Honolulu, and were
not backward in coming out and stat
ing it as their honest belief.
Poverty Phases.
Consequently committee of full
antIered Elks. headed by Jimmie
Dougherty, was appointed to delve into
the question OF sociology and its pow
erty phases. While not claiming any
more experience in the sociology line
than they had before, the committee
members are sadder but wiser men.
The Associated Charities furnished,
on request. a list of the poverty strick-
en-. and while even this list did not
entirely dispel the well fed doubt of
existing poverty. eighty baskets were
pledged rather than take chances Of
passing the dav and forgetting the
really needy.
The tour had not been Of long dura-
ton before absolute poverty was found,
within three blocks of the home of one
of those who had doubted the existence
of need in the Paradise Of the Pacific.
The old grandmother of the family was
sleeping beneath burlap, and the chll-
dren. half starved. were 50 overcome by
, the sight Of the unheard-of quantity Of
good things that the benevolent Santa
Clauses cot out of the gate before the
little ones recovered sufficient breath
to express their gratitude.
Spanish Sufferers.
Contrary to the general expectations,
eases of poverty among the white peo-
pie were frequent, and other cases were
found among. the Spanish. although lit
tie absolute poverty was discovered
among the Portuguese.
Before the tour might have ended
the autos returned to town, minus their
eighty baskets, but full of animated,
wiggling information about poverty,
especially the possibilities of starva-
tion in Honolulu, where the hills and
bays are supposed to contain food for
the asking.
As an experiment, the Elks Christmas
yesterday turned out rather more Of a
revelation. and it IS now proposed by
the Best People on Earth TO repeat the
same "sturt' every Christmas. with
the skepticism hereafter missing.
They also put forward the PROPOSE
ton that every like society set aside n
certain holiday for the entertainment
Of the poor. who are always with us.