Evening star., 1939-02-20
By GIDEON 4, LYON.

lStdHdS.
BY GIDEON A. LYON.
I have just returned to my Homo
lulu hotel from visit to the Hawaii
Tourist Bureau, where I was form
ally initiated as a member of the
Hawaii Comeback Club, the oath be-
ing administered by George T. Armi-
tage, the executive secretary of the
bureau. My initiation came about
through chance remark I made to
him in the course of a talk when I
was seeking some statistical in
formation about Hawaii. I men
toned the fact that I had briefly
visited the islands-or rather Oahu
in 1929 on my way out to and re-
turning from the Far East as a
member of the Carnegie Endowment
party OF neWspapermen sent out
there to observe conditions. He i'm
mediately declared that was eligi-
BILE as a Comeback" marched me
out to the counter in the outer Office,
called for the requisite document
and administered to me the follow
ing oath of allegiance:
Il solemnly swear to come back
to Hawaii as often as can and stay
as long as l can"
To that I gave hearty affirmation
and on the basis of having revisited
the Paradise of the Pacific" I was
thereupon declared to be a member
and was given an attractive certifl-
cate mounted upon a piece of "tapa"
paper, which is the characteristic
aboriginal decorative fabric of the
islands. My number, I have noted,
is 1893. That signifies that there
are many times that number of
people who have revisited Hawaii
after the first contact. For there can
be no question about the effective
lure of the palm trees, the flowers.
the surf lines at Waikiki. the dra-
matte hills and the lovely valleys,
the volcanic areas, the wide stretches
of sugar cane and pineapples, the
soft atmosphere, the gentle breezes.
the high average of delightful
weather and all the other tourist
attractions" of HaWaii-not to men,
ton the back-to-nature spectacles
daily presented on Waikiki Beach.
Much Folklore Available.
Specific evidence of this quality
of Hawaii that interests, allures and
holds all who know it, either as mali
hinis or as NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
or old -timers-is furnished by list
of books and articles on Hawaii that
have lately been published, the lat
ter during the year 1886, which is
one of the features of the Hawaiian
Tourfax Annual for 1887. One group
of book titles includes 20 volumes
that may be found in the Honolulu
stores and in the public library,
mostly folklore, legends and customs.
An additional list names 125 VOL
umes to be found at the library,
including history. biography, music,
poetry, botany and natural history,
fiction and miscellaneous. That
makes total of 145 volumes. enough
to give any newcomer with time
for reading material sufficient for a
very thorough research.
That. however, is by no means all
of the Hawaiian literature" that is
available for study. Most of the
remainder, in the form of magazine
and newspaper articles, is scattered
through periodical files in great
abundance, for these islands have
for good many years provided ma
terial for print that has resulted in
vast volume. The Tourfax Annual
cites Sc articles of this character
published in 1886, and this is doubt
less an incomplete list.
Speaking of literature" I am re-
minded of a recent demonstration
given to me of the lure of Hawaii
to which the fiction writer yields on
first occasion after a visit to these
lovely shores. I was being escorted
by friends through some of the Wal
kiki Beach attractions and was
taken into seaside hotel which,
I was told, had been made the
scene of one of the biggest-selling
pieces of fiction Of recent years. a
novel by the late Earl Derr Biggers.
His House Without Key" a
Charlie Chan story of exceptional
cleverness and interest, was one
of the bungalows that constitute
the greater part of this Waikiki es-
tablishment. It is not usual for a
hotel to be favorably advertised by
a crime. But this was only STORY
book" crime and I was informed
that the original cottage that fig
ured in the Biggers story is much
in demand by traveller guests.
One does not associate crime with
Hawaii. 1t is true that the modern
history of the islands, reckoning
from their discovery" in l778 by
Capt. James Cook of the British
Navy, opens with tragedy, the
killing of Cook a few weeks later