Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-03-18

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fact that most of this brightness and
color did not come to these islands
until the missionaries from America,
nearly hundred years ago, made
their slow and toilsome way around
Cape Horn to this present Paradise
of the Pacific - -<.: s.
Il suppose shall be called upon to
prove the remarkable statement that
the present color scheme of Hawaii
came with the missionaries, or was
introduced by them An aged and
honored .missionary-the son of a
missionary who was born in Honolulu
tells me that 80 years ago Honolulu
was q windswept village, with the red
dust of the soil flying in choking
clouds along every street. that there
were very few flowers or trees or
shrubs, and that the general appear
ance of the mud-dried brick and
matched cottages and native huts was
somber and depressing.
"For miles we rode together in a
trolley car, past magnificent estates
fronted by smooth, velvety lawns and
brilliant flower gardens; past miles
of hibiscus hedges, glorious with their
enormous red flowers peeping through
the glossy green; past great avenues
of stately royal palms and beneath the
shade of great algaroba, poinciana
and banyan trees. All these, said
my friend, are foreign trees; none of
them was here when was boy. He
.peered eagerly to right and left to
find a native tree indigenous to the
fhok
tie palm is native, but the swift
trolley car swept by before / could
get my eye on it. 'Four-fifths Of all
the trees and plants, il not nine-tenths
of ALL he went on to say. have been
introduced from abroad, and most OF
them by the missionaries or their de-
scendants. Some have come from
California, some from Brazil, some
from the West Indies and some from
the East Indies
ut is the same with the fruits. Pa
payas, breadfruit, bananas and CO.
nuts the missionaries found here; but
the gorgeous displays of the fruit
stalls in gold and purple and orange
and crimson, representing a score OF
delicious fruits, were unknown for
years.
!, And, as to the people, instead OF
the Gorgeous mixture OF costumes ct
iChinese and japanese, Filipih0s and
Portuguese, Koreans, Americans and
Haas.ilans. the latter constituted the
whole liquidation. and as they wore
no clothing to speak of, a rather SON.
Der brown must have been the pre-
dominating human color.
Here is the graphic account which
one of the early missionaries gave OF
her first glimpse Of Honolulu as the
ship approached the harbor: =
March 80, 1923. The island Of
Oahu, our Ultima Thule, looms up, In
the distance, displaying gray and red
rocky hills unrelieyed by a single
shade of green, forbidding enough in.
aspect. ...'~. II. H..
"'Please give me the glass for
moment. There, see the town of
Honolulu, mass of brown huts, look
ing precisely like so many haystacks
in the country; not one white cot
tage, no church spire, not a garden
or a tree to be seen, save the grove
Of coconuts.' ~. ~.
Now, what do the thousands of tray
elers see, who every year on mighty
ships steam into the harbor of Homo
lulu? A beautiful city, embowered in
trees of scores of varieties; city Of
splendid schools, of churches that
would do credit to any great metrepo-
lis: and ab0Ve all, city of such love
ly and hospitable homes as challenge
any town in the world of five times
its size to equal. $685., .. .. -..:,.
.Such is Ne city founded by the
IS years ago. Here their
influence and that of their descend
ants is still Predominant In many re-
speets. But the moral change! This
is the brightest end of the rainbow
after all.
They found a nation of drunkards,
and IN spite Of the efforts Of unscrup-
ulous traders in New England rum to
debauch the natives stiIl further, tenn.
perance sentiment has steadily risen. |
-, nara