Lower coast gazette., 1914-11-28
ON BRINK OF KILAUEA
TOURIST TELLS OF A VISIT TO
FAMOUS VOLCANO.
Finds It Is Not Just Back OF City Hall,
as He Had Supposed, but Is
Forced to Admit It Was
Worth Seeing.

had always thought that kilauea,
| The largest active volcano IN the
world, was just back of the city hall
In Honolulu, but when | got to Homo
lulu | found that a person has to get
on a boat and ride all day and night
to the island where the volcano has
secreted itself, says a writer IN Les
lies Weekly. Instead of having to
| climb a towering cone with one OF
those alpenstocks they have IN the
chocolate advertisements, all we mad
to do was to sit still and be whirled
| clear to the crater. The only cone IN
! sight was one with ice cream inside
it. On the way to the crater | tried
to give sharp, penetrating glances at
the rock formations SO that when peo-
pie asked me what kind OF trees,
shrubs, and flowers grow along the
way, and how many eruptions there
had been, I could tell them, but for the
life of me / couldn't look outside. l
couldn't keep my eyes off the newly
married couple and the man from Der
lin, who kept his camera open Will
the bulb dangling ready any moment
to snap something for his my Trip
Abroad" The newly married couple
cared nothing for flowers or how many
disturbances there had been. He was
more interested in knowing If she was
happy, and she in throes OF keeping
his tie straight.
"Kilauea crater!" called the chauf'
feur, as If announcing a station, while
I marveled at the luxury OF going to
see a volcano. All around was a deep,
rich-looking, black mud all tumbled up
as if an unseen hand as big as a state
had squeezed it out between Its mn
gers In rich, black streams, then gone
on to a new toy. 1t looked as II we
were going to step into 40 acres OF
gumbo, but instead Of being rich, first
bottom mud a few steps out showed
it hard volcanic rock.
Watching until the wind lifted We
would edge in to the crater rim ano
peer over, down into the heavine
depths. We could see nothing, wher
suddenly the smoke would rise, anc
down in the blackness of a millior
nights would come a glimmering light
wavering and feeling, like a man Will
a lantern coming around the corner
beams reaching out and lingering tn
way. With numbers lending courage
the lanes Of light would gather ant
spring up in a flare, would come tum
bling and rolling up the sides as !
the lava were seeking freedom while
the guarding smoke nodded.
The light would shoot and reacl
blindly for a moment, to be suddenl,
cut of, as II massive firemen Wer'
coaling the world, shutting their door
behind every shovelful. Behind al
, under all, came a swapping and
snarling, not like the complaint Q
, waves, but like the charging OF
Gagged lioness; a frenzied, trapped al
imal defiance. Just as silence was be
! ginning to burden and ones hear
ached for the %lioness, light for a thol
, sand temples would leap and a grow
ing would come as If the creatur
, were climbing the very sides.
!, Standing on the brink and peerin
, down into the boiling bottom, on
, trembles and fear lays hold OF hi
lest he go crashing, but when on
stands long with only a few inche
, for shelter a wild desire comes t
leap owe Only does the shout OF
companion bring one to a realization
and then n turns guiltily away.