Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 94, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1912 — Features Honolulu [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Features Honolulu

BY KATHERINE POPE

I ITj^ I 4 & mA

EATURES of Honolulu? They crowd to mind fast. Rain on one side pf the street, sunBhine on the other. Daily rainbows, and occasional night ratohpws. Blazing sun but fresh breezes and often wild gales. Sea and mast and husky stevedores. Green trees and lawns down to the ocean’s on the brilliant water outrigger

canoes 'bobbing about, and surf-riders dashing shoreward. v An Arabian Night’s wonder of an aquarium exhibiting great ugly shark and hideous squid that offer strongest contrast to graceful small fishes tinted like unto the rainbow arch before the Koolau mountains. Valley after valley cutting the range that walls Honolulu along the side opposite the sea. Cloud draped mountain peaks towering above the town,_ever inviting and challenging the beholder. Flowers abloom on numberless hedges and various tall blossoming trees. Brownskinned men wearing hats wreathed with fresh posies and ferns. Old Hawaiian crones and young Hawaiian women sitting on shaded sidewalks weaving wreaths and exchanging badinage with tourists and Jackies. “Milingtary,” enlisted and commissioned. Representatives of races ranging from subjects of the czar, from the land of the Great Bear, all the way to folk from lower Polynesia. Between these extremes the jostling of European and Korean, New Englander and Filipino, Porto Rican And Chinese, with now and then a tall, white robed Hindoo, and swarming everywhere Japanese men, women and babies. Children, children, children certainly are a feature. The streets abound with them, the tenements overflow, automobiles are crowded to papa city with the rising generation. The world hears repeated reference to the Hawaiians as a dying race, but the pari-Hawaijans are unquestionably doing their duty toward populating "The Islands"; large families are the rule with the half-white Hawaiians, and the Chlnese-Hawaiians, all about the town, bigeyed, shy native kiddies add to the tropic picture. In the so-called Oriental quarter—although now the Japanese are so numerous they pop up in all portions of Honolulu—the newcomer is struck by the army of fond fathers, the doting male parent, Chinese or Japanese! tenderly toting offspring up and down in hours of leisure, the hunched-up Oriental live doll very fat and impassive and philosophical. Jap women pass along continually with anywhere from two to four chubby babies clinging to the mother—mayhap one tied to her back, one* carried before, two toddlers trying locomotion for themselves. The other day I heard a newcomer remark as she surveyed a street in Chinatown: “1 never in my life have seen so many men nurses, and how fond the Chinese seem of their babies.” It is all very different from the Sunday school tales we used to read about the cruelty of the Chinese fathers, who were painted as ogres forever devouring unwelcome infants. Here —perhaps because so many of the men are kept by the laws of Uncle Sam from having their wives and families Join them —the babies in the occasional Chinese families appear to be household idols, objects of worship and adoration. From the tenements and hovels these idols emerge decked out in most remarkable hues and embroideries, borne aloft in the proud daddy’s arms, they look down with condescension and hauteur upon the world at large. . The street cars day after day offer something novel and interesting. Of continued interest is the young Chinese girl standing with hesitant feet between the new and the old. Her dress Is that of her people and class, long loose jacket and wide trousers —a distinctly feminine costume in spite of the bi furcated garment. Her smooth-plastered hair with the pure £old band In the flattened knob at the nape of the neck, her delicate complexion enhanced by a bit of rouge, the bracelet of gold and jade, the slim' berlnged fingers, all bespeak care with the toilet, care of appearances. About these girls there is an air of reserve and self-respect; they do not suggest, are not, the "painted ladies” of civilization. Occasionally on the street may be seen a little-footed woman, not long ago 1 noticed one that was hastening to catch our car, and aa the conductor and motorman made unusually long halt for her accommodation, they indulged in appraisal of her appearance, concluded that she was "real cute.” She certainly was gotten up regardless, bright blue silk, richly embroidered, and pearls for her jewels. A passenger said that probabjg she was wife number one and that the plainly-dressed woman with her, attired in what looked like cheap black sllesia, probably was wife number two, a sort of hand-maid for the former. Whatever their relations, they consorted, together very amfabl/ on this occasion, appeared to be enjoying their outing with zest, it is only of late Chinese women have begun to appear oh the streets of Honolulu with anything tike the frequency of women of other races. And this, I am told, 'is significant of the Increase of freedom Chinese women are enjoying hi the homeland, a freedom that has spread to the colonists. The Chinese to Hawaii have been fpam the

atari most zealous in the revolutionary movement in the Flowery Kingdom; hundreds of thousands ol dollars haye been contributed, and the women have worked away earnestly for the cause. It was 1 of Interest to see the quiet’ little things modestly making their way in and’

out of the Chinese business houses on the mission of gathering funds and supplies for the Red Cross relief work in their disturbed land. All classes were represented in this woman's effort, from the wife of tha-Jowly duck-farm man to the silk-robed mate of the prosperous merchant. Side by side they labored for their country; rolled bandages, made garments, and made plans at their central club house on King street. As one saw them hastening hither with the red-cross badge on the arm, one turned Bmillngiy to ' contemplate the Chinese woman of today. Everywhere about the center of Honolulu now waves the flag of the every ' day the town wears a festal air with these flaunting banners so numerous and so gay. Turning from China and her revolution to shoes, I would speak of footgear as a feature of the Hawaiian capital. One is early impressed by the Cinderella nature of the footwear worn by femininity in Honolulu. Such ridiculous feet were not intended—as a matter of fact are little used —for walking. They seem to be designed chiefly for display, where- . fore are Bhod in silks and satins, in beads and bronze, in suede and embroideries, in delicate tints, extreme soles and heels. No matter how many stone the white woman may weigh, no matter how exuberant the avordupols of the native girl, the feet that peep beneath the gown are, at a rule, small, and elaborately shod. The average woman from “The States,” the athletic girl used to shoes for service, finds It almost Impossible here to renew her stock of footgear by anything that promises utility. Black velvet or white satin may be had, but not much comer wonders whether in time she herself will go in for pretty, idle pedal extremities and Increasing bodily weight, or send for sensible shoes and strive for slimness. *7^ In addition to the Cinderellas and their futile finery, there is other footwear on the streets and in the shops that holds attention. In muddy feather the Jap women keep their snow-whfte stoctlngs Immaculate by wearing a wooden sandal raised high from the ground. which protects the kimono ladles admirably and is a decided Improvement on our “rubbers.” Contrasting with the clatter of these Is the soft footfall made by the wearers of

straw sandals. The boat-shaped slippers of silk worn by the Chinese are very coquettish, though even the betrousered ladies are beginning to show preference for American shoes, Jamping to another subject as unrelated to shoes as shoes to a revolution, let us speak of the novel feature of an agricultural city. A goodly portion of Honolulu, in expanses scattered far and wide, is given over to wet farming, and some parts to dry farming. Those wide' fields that look like lakes choked with calla lilies, are really-taro patches, taro being the vegetable that provides the native food, pol. Duck ponds line the way to the seaside playground, Waikiki, and neighboring these are broad acres of bananas. Residents climb the moist breezy valleys for the sake of verdure and freshness, and compete for possession of a district with Oriental truck farmers who keep to their unspeakable Oriental Ideas of farm fertilisation. But the commercial flower fields of the Orientals one does not quarrel with; they add color and fragrance here and yon—one field in a resident district is given over entirely to red carnations, another flaunts asters month after month, another big, yellow chrysanthemums. Steamer day is surely a feature of Hawaii’s chief port. Yesterday Honolulu may have been as lethargic, lifeless, as the poor jaded horses of the Chinese hackman waiting there disconsolately for the fare that never comes. But today all is different, for today is Bteamer day in the inarnin’! Behold a town alive to its farthest outpost Automobiles dashing everywhere, every seat full. Business bouses hustling, clerks counting seconds before the mall departs. At the postoffice frenzy running high; congestion within and without incoming foreign mail to be distributed, outgoing foreign mail to be delivered at the' wharves, island mall transhipped, and addresses in so many languages, such a Babel outside the windows, the wonder is anything goes right Gold clinking at the banks, tbe Impassive gentlemen in the cages handling in one day wealth which would make the outside world. If It knew, sit up and take notice. Tourists from Australia and India, officers from the Philippines, Chinese and Japanese notables, fresh-cheeked folk fresh from “The States” and Canada, fly here and there, bringing in life not tnsaiar. '

livening things up at a great rate. From wese the flower venders reap their harvest, share with the chauffeurs in a renewed prosperity. Of course the “tourlser” desires to wear lels (garlands), of course the traveler wants ail the local color possible. He puts a wreath of carnations about bis hat, a long garland of maile over his shoulder, and starts forth on the mission of “seeing Honolulu.” The Hawaiian band plays for him, the water heroes do their best stunts out in the surf, the very waves glitter and roll high In his honor, the curio shops present all of the primitive they possess to tempt him, downtown case and seaside hotel have an added sparkle, townsfolk are out in careful costumes. Everyone is In a hurry, but everyone seems in holiday humor, hastening because there is something worth while to hasten for. The street urchins are especially alert, and most alert of these are the eager elfin newsboys, the olive-skinned , urchins whose shrill cry of “Daily ’Tar, Plenty News!” is now full of meaning, for Is not this Steamer Day and Foreign Mail? The street car service In Honolulu is noted for the courtesy of Its employes; an outsider used to the rudeness that is the rule in cities at home. Tubs his eyes, thinks those polite servants of the public must be the figment of a dream. The Idea of a street car conductor listening attentively, answering politely, pub ting himself to trouble smilingly, seems too good to be true. Conductor and motorman in Honolulu are under one great strain that interferes with, their equanimity and reveals that they are mere men after all, that they occasionally indulge in violence of language and act. Japs newly arrived from Nippon, or just in from a sugar-mill village, are blandly, crassly ignorant about street car customs and restrictions. Individually and in groups you see them do this incomprehensible thing—touch the bell, then immediately and confidently step off. Often they are killed; always they are hurt, for the street cars not only go buzzing along at a good pace, but because of the slope of the streets they have their steps very high from the ground and a fall from one of these rapidly moving cars is anything but a joke. The number of accidents, one would think, would have been noised about among the Orientals so that by this time they would have learned their lesson, but even today the closest watdh has to be kept on the Japanese passengers—some conductors put on a worried look the moment a Jap enters the car, and are on the v « ve to clutch his shoulder the second he Angers the bell. I have seen a pretty little doll of a Jap woman board a car daintily costumed, daintily coiffed, fresh and colorful as the flower in her hair, her face alert and Intelligent appearing as though she could very well take care of herself, as though very modern decidedly of the new Japan. And I have seen this little goose touch the bell and skip lightly forth, seen her come down with great heaviness and force, her poor little rose crushed In the dirt, her wonderful obi deep in the mire, and heard her scream of amazement and terror. Another time the case was worse, now a mother, father and babe the victims. The father had stepped on the car with the proud air of owner of the infant he held so tenderly in Ms arms, after Mm had stepped the little mother. The elders seemed devotedly attached to the wee morsel with them, but what did they do the moment the woman rang the hell but alight In a bunch on top of thi morsel! It was dreadful, and proved too muctf for the nerves of the much-tried conductor. All white and trembling he bent over this species of “Japanese tumblers” that is part of the white man’s burden in Honolulu, and picking them up with more emphasis than gentleness, he proceeded to give them a very frank opinion of themselves and the place he considered they rightfully belonged. We passengers expected the three to swoon to our arm* and perhaps die there; but no, the baby but. gently whimpered, Mr. and Mrs- Kimono gently., brushed off the dust and smiled apologetically and conciiiatingly upon the angry street car man. Autos might be called a feature of Honolulu were it not that they have ceased to be looked upon as needing much comment nowadays. It is the occasional carriage and pair one torn* to look at twice, and a certain carriage and pair of Honolulu attracts the passing glance. “The Queen” drives out of afternoons sometimes to take the air and perhaps mark some new change that Is helping transform the capital of what was once her realm. - ’ ■ • _ Honolulu Is fond of outdoor life, has the Outrigger dub down by the beach and aquatic sports, the Country club and golf; various athletic fields, and a fine polo field Just beyond the town, on a private estate called Moanaloa. Men from other islands bring their polo ponies to Honolulu during the season. This year the Island of Oahu played the island of Kauai only, but generally Maui sends men and ponies. The United States cavalry hare their own polo, grounds about thirty miles from Honolulu,’and send to Moanaloa players and ponies of excellent mettle. There are no more interesting events to Honolulu than the polo matches, the game, the plucky horses, the Add in the mountain valley all making a spirited. beautiful fosctade. V? - ' >; ' . , >.asi