The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-08-27
HAWANAN BRIDES WEAR FEW OR NO CLOTHES
Natives Are Ignorant of What is Proper in Refine
 ment and Culture.
GIRLS PROPOSE
 MARRIAGE TO MEN
Missionaries Sent by Epis- copal Churches Establish
 Schools.

A young woman about to be mar ried who should carry her rousseau under her arms, clad in little but smiles, while she walked several miles with her husband to-be to the church to be married would create something more than a sensation in this country, but missionaries become accustomed to many things.
 It is on record that hadf a dozen couples were married on one after noon by the missionary at Kohala, Hawaii. Brides and bridegrooms pre- sented themselves in a long line be- fore the clergyman. When their names were called and their hands Joined for the ceremony one of the brides was found to be missing. To the missionary's question as to her whereabouts her affianced replied without any trace of embarrassment. "Oh. she's at the door putting on her dress
 Native HaEaiians had little use for dress of any kind often not even the malo or loin girdle of tapa or bark cloth-when the first missionaries reached those islands. Marriage was not a rite and the relations of the sexes were very loose. A man could have many wives and a woman many husbands. As there was no modesty there was no sense of shame. Ac- cording to Hawaiian ideas of etiquet- te, it was the woman's privilege to propose marriage.
 "Nlone of the girls has asked me yet replied one fine-looking Ha- waiian youth when asked by ali American why he had never married He was quite frank, and unconcerned ill his reply.
 Native Hawaiians are now practi- cally all Christians and have adopted American customs of dress. Ha- waiians. however, arc no longer nu- mericaIly superior in their own is lands. The Japanese far out-num- Der them and the worship of Budha is gaining ground rapidly despite the heroic work of the Christian mission aries. One result of the Nationwide Campaign of the Episcopal Church, now in progress in this country to mobilize the complete strength of the church in men and money to help solve tho worlds cry for Christian enlightmenG, will be more schools and missions, more teachers and mission aries in Hawaii to maintain the ma lives in their new faith and to in struct the Japanese, Chinese, Ko- TearS ana OlneT ItE64ShtTS IlA LA4C AS ligion Of the Christian world.
 Hawaii is known as The Paradise of the Pacific because of it's equable climate and it's remarkable fertility. Men from nearly all nations of tho earth have settled there. The natives, from being ignorant, supcrstitions, filthy and immoral human beings, have developed into educated, refined, moral and religious men and women. Richard Henry Dana. Jr., writing fin 1859 of the work then accomplished among them by the missionaries said:
 Tt is no small thing to say that the rnissiona ries have. in less than forty years taught this whole people to read write. cipher and sew; they ! have given them an alphabet, gram mar and dictionary; preserved ihet- language from extinction: given f.
 literature and translated into it tho Bible and works of devotion. science,
 C1tertainm ent, etc.: they have estab- llshed schools. reared up native teachers. and so pressed their work
 that the proportion of the inhabitants who can read and write is greater than in New England.
 'swhereas they found these people half naked savascs. living in the surf and on the sand. eating raw fish. lighting among themselves, tyrann.zed over by feudal chiefs. and abandoned r to eeusuality. we see them decentiy l clothcd. recognizing the law of mar | riage, knowing something of accounts ! going to school and public worship with more regularity then people do | at home, and the more elevated ot | them taking part. fin conducting the | affairs of the constitutional govern
 ment under which they live, holding seats on the judicial bench. and in the legislature chambers, and nIlins