The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-04-03

'N' A'i''NiNNf NNNIihN'N ilA NH'
Christian Herald, New York. Is by a
nowspaperman who was employed on
"a Honolulu paper last year:
An immigrant woman from Asiatic
Russia landed at Honolulu. She was
penniless and carried a baby In her
arms, while two other small children
chung TO her skirts It was early in
the spring of 1910. About thousand
muiiks left their homes in Siberia and
in Manchuria and went to Hawaii.
where, they had been led to believe,
high wages were paid on the sugar
plantations.
The woman had Joined the band Of
immigrants, hoping that she might bet
ter her lot by going to a strange coun.
try She fell in,o the hands of the
federal immigration officers, who soon
learned that she could not speak a
vcrd of English. They were about
TO send for an interpreter when the
woman began to open a bundle of mis-
celaneous wearing apparel. Piece
after piece was peeled off the roll OF
garments and in the middle she found
a fragment of crumpled paper
Somewhere in the Orient a stranger
anticipating her difficulties, had given
the woman a note which read: "If in
distress when you arrive in Honolulu
go to P. w. Rider He will see that
you are taken care Of"
That brief epistle gives us a partial
introduction to Phares w. Rider He
is an interesting person. You d. not
stay in Honolulu more than ten min.
utes to find that out, for any resident
of the city can tell you about the un.
official ruler of Kakaako, until very
recent years probably the lowest slum
in the world.
/ In the spring Of 1899 Rider left
+ MERGED, Calf, and went to Honolulu
He was a carriage trimmer by trade,
and he soon found employment in the
Paradise of the Pacific. On a Sunday
afternoon he took walk through Ka-
kaako, small but populous district
I situated between the executive build
ings and the beach, and separated
from the rest of the city by an invisi-
BILE though nevertheless real barrier.
Honolulu is sort of halfway house
for globe-trotting adventures; a rem.
devious or ne'er-do-wells. criminals
and the destitute poor. On that Sun.
day afternoon Rider observed condi.
tons which staggered him. Disorder
and rowdyism were rampant. Even
in daytime, women and children from
elsewhere in the city did not dare go
alone through Kakaako. The better
class of citizens went about their daily
tasks unmindful of what was going on
in Kakaako. If somebody was killed
the police took notice; if there was
a riot, the police quelled it; but or.
ganized, persistent effort to preserve
order in that district. there was none
Phares w. Rider resolved to under
take a reform. He decided that only
the Gospel could save the people and
purify the district. He had had little
or no experience in that kind of work
but he had courage enough to begin
For three years he worked at his trade
six days in the week, and on Sundays
he and his wife conducted religious
meetings in the streets. Mrs. Rider
sang and played portable reed organ
and her husband begged small crowds
mostly pagan, to accept the religion
. Of Christ. Friends went to him ant
told him he had better quit, for he
was not only wasting his time, but
running the risk of being shot dowr
or beaten by thugs. Frequently OF
ganized bands of rowdies overturned
Mrs. Riders organ and broke up the
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