River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1911-11-16


from the top of the Wafanae mountains down
to the public highway, across this into pine
apple and sugar-cane territory. Leiehua ranch
was leased crown land; the 3O-year lease al
most run out when Uncle Sam took posses
sion of the 10000 acres-a goodly exercise
ground for cavalry men and cavalry horses
When l visited the place, for me the inter-
est began at the very entrance gate. The
gate differed little from the ordinary barn
yard affair, but on the high framework there
printed in three languages an order to
those entering there, sign expressed in Eng
fish, Hawaiian and Japanese. English and
Americans that ran might read Keep This
Gate Shut" The Hawaiian direction was
"Poni Ka Puka" The Japanese chicken
scratching forbear to give.
Schofeld barracks being close to the pine
apple country and the workers in the fields
Japanese, there was necessity for using the
Japanese language. The little pineapple vii
lage of Wahiawa lies only a short distance
beyond the Leilehua gates, but is such new
and small center that the soldier finds here
nothing of consequence in the way of amuse-
ment, longs for the moving pictures band con-
certs, sea bathing, peopled streets, and cor
ner" social offerings of Honolulu. And various
causes pointing towards the permanent
settlement of the soldiers, the Capitalization
Of troops in Honolulu.
AS it is now Honolulu seems fairly well
soldiered Off at the west end Fort Shafter
set upon hill, keeps guard over the town be-
low, and not only promises present and fu-
ture protection, but also gives valuable OBJ
ject lesson in soldierly trimness and tinish-a
needed object lesson to the slovenltness that
marks various portions of what should be one
Of the fairest cities in the world. At quite
the opposite end from Fort Shafter, off there
about the famous headland, old Diamond Head,
Fort Ruger is situated, companies of coast ar
of of infa of
Forts Ruger and Shafter lies Fort de Rus
sey, eventually to be an artillery post.
It is generally understood in the army that
the men do not like service in Hawaii. They
complain of lack of variety, that life here has
too much sameness, and they complain be-
cause service in Hawaii does not mean in
creased pay or time allowance, but of these
granted elsewhere in the tropics. Yet many
of the men give other testimony, approve OF
The equable climate, the cool trade-winds, dis
cover no little variety in the multitudinous
races with their multitudinous customs and
costumes; the inland boy finding in this port
In the Pacific babel of voices, a marvellous
motley people-Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese,
Portuguese, Korean, Porto Rican, Filipino,
East Indian, Scandinavian, German, French,
Anglo-Saxon and others He hobnobs with
all of them, picks up jargon that he is never
to lose-but which it would take a Kipling to
put into cold print
The officer who obgingly answered my
questions and also volunteered information re-
garding the invasion of The Islands by Un-
Gle Sans men, told me that while the sol
diers we're supposed to be Indifferent to serv-
Ice in Hawaii, still there were very few de
sertions And then we both laughed-for
where would the disgruntled desert to? They
could scarcely swim the 1000 miles to San
Francisco, and departing vessels are watched
by sharp and experienced eyes. If they fed
to the mountains or the cane-helds, some day
they would have to leave this secius1on, and
to secure safe seclusion in a small, sea-glrt
isle is very difficult. One thing and another
keep the soldier to his task, and 1t is probable
that the days do not drag so very heavily, that