Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1893 — IN HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. [ARTICLE]

IN HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.

BOMKtfftlNG ABOUT THEM AND THEIR PEOPLE A Delightful Climate—Trees Are Always Green—Habits of the Natives— In the Family Circle. If the United States is going to enter npon a career of foreign acquisition it could find no fuirer domain than the little group in the middle of the Pacific. Think of a climate the outside variations of which cover not over thirty degrees—from sixty degrees to ninety degrees on rare occasions. Here trees are always green, taking on a new life while still throwing off the old. There is no sere and yellow leaf—no dying year there. Watch the guava trees, and while on one side the fruit is mellowing into yellow ripeness on the other side will be green fruit interspersed with white blossoms. In all Honolulu there is but one brick chimney and that was buit by newly arrived New England missionaries before they had learned to tear out of their minds their bleak winter. In the lowlands and the fertile valleys there is an infinite variety of products that would be profitably cultivated were there a market assured to them. Rice was ilibluded with sugar in the list of products accorded free entry to the United States. As a consequence the nearby reed-grown shores have been partitioned off into trim rice beds, with intervening banks by the thrifty Chinamen, and tneir tender, vivid green is the brightest feature in the lovely landscape seen from the heights of the neighboring mountain. On the mountain sides a brilliant scarlet berry on a small, dark green, small leaved bush will attract an observant eye. Break open the berry and imbedded in each half will be found a white seed with a line running lengthwise through the flat exposed surface. In this unfamiliar guise it will not take you long to recognize coffee, which is indigenous to this soil. Some exports have been made of this product and it is found in the Honolulu groceries under the title of Kona coffee. Connoisseurs have pronounced its flavor and aroma equal to the Mocha. It could doubtless be cultivated to advantage. Successful experiments have aiso been made in the cultivation of the olive. Limes grow in great profusion and to a fine size. Efforts have been made to raise lemons in the islands.

It is curiously asserted that after a few crops of lemons the tree runs into a lime and yields only limes after that. As the lime is the preferable fruit this cannot be called an unfortunate tendency. Pineapples abound and the tamarind can be had by those who like it. Mangoes are especially plentiful and good. Many other tropical fruits have been successfully grown here, though not on a large scale. There are plenty of noble groves of cocoanut trees along the seashore, one of the iiuest being at Waikiki, the beach near Honolulu. A quarter will induce a diminutive kamalii (boy) to walk up the slender stem and twist off the nuts beneath the tuft ol graceful palm leaves at the top. Garden vegetables of fine quality are to be had in Honolulu all the year around, thanks to the thrifty foresight and labor of the Chinese gardners. These can be seen daily with broad pagoda-like basket hats on their heads, a tough, elastic stick like a long bow across 'their shoulders with a great bucket of water hanging from each end, passing between the rows of vegetables and plentifully besprinkling them. They carry these vegetables around from house to house in flat baskets, which are substituted for the sprinkling baskets at the end of the yoke stick. Of the people of these islands it can be truly said tnat they are the most amiable, careless, irresponsible people in the world. The nearest approach to work of any of them is in their employment as cowboys on the stock ranches. They are wonderfully expert horsemen and also become adept in the use of the lasso. A native man, or native woman for that matter, is never so happy as when on a spirited horse, going at hand gallop, decked out witli flowery leis and streamers o:.' bright colored cloth, in screaming conversation with a whole troop of companions. They ride their horses to death, they kill their babies with neglect and improper food, and yet it cannot be said that there is a grain of conscious cruelty in their nature. The household sits on mats around the calabach and all dip their fingers in the common supply, bringing them out with an upward and outward twist, followed by a downward and inward twist and to the desired haven of the mouth. In a family circle there is not unlikely to be an old crone who puts in almost all her waking hours iu a monotonous chant, which is carried on steadily through all the clatter of small talk by the others. These old women are possessed of prodigious information and have been industriously drilled and trained through early life iu these chants, which are a recitation of the traditions of her people. These old women, in fact, constitute the archives and take the place that scrolls and bound volumes fill with more civilized people. —[Washington Star.