Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 184, 1 May 1891 — Page 4

KA LEO O KA LAHUI.

"E Mau ke Ea o ka Aina i ka Pono."

KA LEO.

Friday, May 1, 1891.

PEARL HARBOR AND TREATY.

 

            We clip the following from the S.F. Chronicle of the 21 ^st inst :

            “The native paper of Honolulu KA LEO O KA LAHUI, is slightly mixed on the subject of Pearl harbor. It assumes that the United States has appropriated $700,000 for the purpose of putting it into shape, whereas the proposition failed to commend itself to Congress, so far as we are able to learn. Our Hawaiian contemporary is also slightly mistaken in its assumption that the islands may profitably negotiate a differential treaty with Canada. Of course, such a treaty might be made, but if it were the islands would have to abandon all hope of an American market, for under the suspensive clause of the McKinley bill the old rate of duty could be exacted if Hawaii cut up didos.”

            When the above was penned we were under the impression that the vote of $700,000 proposed for Pearl Harbor was safe. We are not so sure about not being able to negotiate a treaty with Canada, which might be advantageous to us. In the face of the fact that our sugar has suffered a decline in price of about 35 per cent, within a month, we are brought to a position in which we shall have to look our treaty relations squarely in the face. The strong probability that Cuba will be among the number of states whose sugar will be on the free list, and above all the bounty paid the American grower, must place the Hawaiian shipper at a positive and permanent disadvantage. Our 96 test sugar is quoted at 3 ½c in San Francisco, while the grower of California beet sugar will be ahead of us in the matter of the 2c bounty, and plus the freight and other charges.

            We are clearly in a position never contemplated by they authors of the Treaty.

            The following is a quotation from the Sydney Herald of March 23rd:

            Sugar.—The position of sugar is unaltered. The volume of business reported is not large. Whites may be quoted from @23 to @25; yellow @19 to @21 ; rations @16. The Colonial Sugar Company’s quotations are unaltered.

            Our No. 1 sugar would rank in quality with that quoted at @21, which would be fully equal to 5c. a pound, and the 1 ½c which the Sydney market would yield over that of San Francisco, would more than pay the Australia light duty and increased freight, whilst the duty collected on the goods free by treaty from the United States for the last year would at 10 per cent. yield $320,000 to the Hawaiian Treasury, and it don’t look such a bad “dido” after all.

Letter from Somewhere.

            Dear KA LEO: --I did not expect you to build a par out of my little visit the other evening. I called merely to let you know how amused I felt.

            I was really tempted to look at the glass to make sure of my own identity. Mama entered my room unobserved and was really alarmed [dear old soul that she is] when she found me alone, and as she thought in hysterics.

            Well, I had to get out for a change just to work off  my hilarity, and took Ma for a drive and thought I would drop in to see you that was all. and you have said the rest for me. It is surprising what a number of men suffer from phrenological disturbance, the failure to grasp a fact or tell the truth is really more of a misfortune than a fault. Matters may be explained to a man, but it is rather a difficulty to supply him with the brains requisite to understand. It is not so with a woman.

            You “touch the button” of our inquisitiveness, and the keen and rapid perception of natural instinctiveness will enable us to estimate men at their true value. That we girls do not honestly abide by our convictions about men, is to us the cause of much sorrow and suffering, and I have seen many girls throw themselves away on worthless whiskey sponges, whose sinister intention at the altar was to live on the girl’s father. An instance came under my notice recently in San Francisco of a worthless scamp who came here sometime ago as a tramp Insurance agent, carrying away one of our most charming girls, only to subject her to cold and cruel neglect when he discovered that he could not live on her parents. What affliction this has brought on the family, and indeed our community just now, is known to those who attended a certain fashionable wedding a little over a year ago.

            I am sorry the poor dear has not such a brother as my Jack, who would I am sure—if her case were mine, give a good account of Mr. Lothario and search the world ‘round, like the good brother, in Mayne Reid’s “Lost Lenore,” to rescue his sister, and avenge her wrongs. With so many examples of what “might the,” I do hope I am sure, to remain in that happy frame of mind in which Beatrice found herself, when she declared to Benedick that: --

            “I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow,

            Than a man swear he loved me.”

            I have so many things to write about, that I want a whole page of KA LEO once a week, instead of the two columns, to which I am now confined. Well, we had letters from Papa and Jack, and Papa’s opinion of what he termed a ‘shady transaction,’ meaning the new sugar combination, has not grown any more favorable; nor does he think young Spreckels’ letter to the public is in the least calculated to allay distrust. “The bottom fact in the whole business,” writes Papa, “is that the resolve of the new sugar trust to keep German beet sugar out of the States, can only be effected by keeping the price below four cents a pound, and what this means to the islands, we all know.”

            I hinted to you last week that the boys on the Nipsic were addicted to the pastime of embalming their recollections in prose and verse; which as I learn, a usual way with young officers of combining history making with amusement. An officers collection of photos from the various ports visited is surprisingly large, and afford no small scope for character sketch and epigram. I need hardly say that my access to some of the “portrait galleries” was gained largely by virtue of being, as they say, a “blue-stocking” I regret that want of space confines me at present to “lines of Don Carlos.” The ‘cognomen’ said Jack, “was bestowed in recognition of a facial resemblance to that decayed scion of Spanish royalty.” I hope no newspaper man here will attempt to appropriate the title:

TO DON CARLOS,

Don Carlos, you will come again

            And sample three stars brandy,

You’re fond of fiz, pray don’t refrain

            From anything that’s handy.

With evenings mist, the girls like whist

            (Adept in loves devices)

Come fill up Don, another one,

            We’ll cool you down with ices.

 

            Space will only permit me to give the last of the four verses:--

At nightfall, when the sultry heat

            Is tempered, Don, by breezes ;

And each heart feels the other’s beat

            In ecstacy o’ squeezes;

O! love it is a pleasant dream

            Which makes the senses tingle,

And waltzing belles so ardent seem

            E’en when no longer single.

 

            And Honolulu is really assured of the pleasure of seeing Bernhardt in Camille; a great character sketch of French life, and in the sweet soft cadences of the French language too; but every word will be so interpreted by that action and mobility of look and expression for which la belle France is famed that all will be plain to the most ordinary comprehension.

            Talking of the drama reminds me of music and of the Bissel organ recital, it was a most enjoyable affair—“Music and morals” have something more than a merely alliterative association. The tendency of good music is a moral tendency and “hath charms to soothe” almost every evil passion of which human nature is capable. Good music has no small share in forming and fostering the virtues of a people. Let us if possible, have more organ, at least once a week, so as to agreeably alternate occasionally with the band.

            With music again, my senses involuntarily recall Patti, who when I last saw her, wore an evening gown which had a tablier skirt of cream Genoa velvet with shaded flowers, the edge of the skirt bordered with a wreath of chrysanthemums matching the flowers on the velvet, the same round the low bodice, and a train of yellowish pink velvet. Another dress was of white satin, the tablier covered with silver embroidery and pearls, low bodice of spangle gauze, with a Byzantine, belt richly embroidered with gold, silver, and imitation diamonds. The sleeves of both dresses were small with tufts of flowers or feathers on the shoulder.

            For ways that are dark and tricks that are vain, commend me no longer to the Heathen Chinee! Compared with some of his white fellow travelers, Ah Sin is a mere long-suffering imbecile, an incapable and shallow innocent, designed for the patient culture of “cabbagee” and devoted by the fates to be taxed and “run in” for “smokee” opium and harmless fantan.

Yours

                        Sissy Scissors

“Europe’s Disturbing Factor.”

            The movements and relations that circle around Constantinople, the key of the East, are in a constant state of ebullition. Under the heading given above, the New York Staats Zeitung of March 31, has the following note on the present situation. Russia is the disturbing factor. Like a colossal avalanche this power hangs over Turkey. All know what Russia’s desires and designs are. And it would be easier to keep the mountain avalanche from descending up on the plan below when all its props are removed, than it would be to keep Russia from fomenting trouble by pressing her designs, till the Turk is driven from Europe, and Constantinople becomes the Southern outpost of the Russia Empire. The Staats Zeitung says:--

            “The question which Russia has pushed to the foreground, and which appears to call for immediate decision, is whether the Coburger, is to be regarded as prince of Bulgaria. Russia protests against it on the ground that the East Roumelian Deputies took part in the election of Ferdinand; and not only in Bulgaria, but also in Austria and Germany, the murder of Biltschow is regarded as the fruit of a conspiracy directed by Russia. Russia’s determination to have a directing hand in the politics of the Balkans is further emphasized by her @@@ce with France and Europeans statesmen have awakened to the recognition that the Bulgarian question has passed the stagnant stage and must now be disposed of, and that promptly. In fact, the Russian press openly demands it. This is, as a matter of fact, the background of the current war rumors, and we need not deceive ourselves with the idea that anything short of a peaceable settlement of the whole Bulgarian question can avert the threatened danger. As long as Bismarck was at the helm, his attitude toward Bulgaria was, “What’s is Hecuba to me?”—but it is at least doubtful if the emperor of Germany regards the matter with like indifference, and whether he will yield to Russian demands, notwithstanding the fact that Germany has lost prestige and the Triple Alliance is weakened, while Russia and France have decidedly advanced.

THE EX-SCHOOLME’EM

            The ex-schoolme’em who writes the local column of the Advertiser rashly accuses us of misstating facts in regard to the lepers and says that we are “an enemy to the progress made there,” whatever that may mean.

            Now, let us see. We said that the lepers are in a terrible condition. Is not that true? It was observed that the aforesaid reporter did not have the nerve to look at ghastly sights but had to turn away to hide his emotion. We said that another physician was needed. There are twelve hundred very sick people in Molokai located at two settlements three miles apart. They are dying at the rate of ten a month. Can one physician attend to them?

            We said that four were found in a room ten feet square. Now, what can that reporter know about that? He stuck close to the royal party and endeavored to keep clear of the contagion. He saw only what was shown to him and wrote what was told him. His business was to report that every thing was all right That is the policy of the Advertiser—to suppress unpleasant facts. Ours is to expose them. We wrote a truthful account. No description can give more than a faint idea of the reality. Our reporters went in the houses and talked with the inmates. They were there to find out the truth about the lepers and their needs; not to report the speeches of the Qeeen, Princes or Excellencies. It is our task to point out the road to further improvements, not to indulge in congratulations and compliments about what has already been accomplished.

ON DIT.

            That two of the old members of the Board of Health had not the courage to go to the Molokai Leper Settlement, undoubtedly fearing a warmer reception than would be pleasant from those whom they had ill-treated.

            That official slaughter was promised to take place on the May day—a rather inappropriate season to die, even if its only an official death.

            That all the “on dits” of KA LEO are made up at the British Club, the most likely place to find Her Majesty’s Cabinet, and where appointments and dismissals are discussed before hand.

            That President Dayton, of the Kalaupapa Republic, intends to split a house in two and to build an addition in the middle. This is another example of Dayton’s capabilities, and is about equal to old Gov. Kauoa’s recommendation when lost at sea, to go back to Kauai and make a fresh start.

            That Sam was gulled by Henry Peter when the latter told him that he alone could hold the administration in office on Maui. By Jove! This saved Peter, but the next crowd will probably not be so easily gulled, and they propose to crucify him head downwards.

            That the Lunalilo Poor House Fund is still the nest egg for the poor unfortunates of our relations, who often get bitten when they try to rise to the level of our nutmeg brethren across the pond.          

            That the War Minister was as mild as a lamb under the sweet influence of the masonic rose buds, whose sisterly attentions made him forget the cares of his office and promises.

            That the Marshal has up hill work, so he thinks, especially, when Mr. Whiting and Creighton, Crown Prosecutors are seen in close confab in a quiet nook with Messrs. Neumann and Peterson, ex-Crown prosecutors.

            That a garnishee was made on the balance due Mr. Evans as an employee of the Board of Health. But a note given for the amount of the garnishee endorsed by an ex-Attorney General sufficed and the matter was dropped. The way of the transgressor is hard.

            That partnership in the opium smuggling hits high and hits low, taking pillars of churches and pillars of the bar.

            That one of the bondsmen of Mr. Evans, wishes to withdraw.

            That a large firm here—who has the “I am” in its employee—appears to have had some influence in placing Mr. Place in his place at Kahalui.

            That the Attorney General says the removals of Assessors cannot be made without due cause. How fortunate for our cousins. But how about the facts brought out before the Appeal Board, in the case of Jas. Campbell, Esq., and the difference of assessment between lands belonging to the Assessor and that of Mr. Campbell adjoining, and how about the Legislative Committee’s Report in reference to the Assessor and his deputy Assessor.

            That is all very fine to say this and to say that, but there is a day of reckoning coming when some of these self-constituted defenders will have to don the maro and take to the taro patch, especially as Uncle Sam’s cow does not give free milk any more.

            That it is a matter of satisfaction to us when ever we learn of instances where young Hawaiians show an independent spirit.—We have and with good reason severely blamed the three last administrations for the treatment which they have used towards the young Hawaiians capable of holding office.—We are now made to understand that the Postmaster Generalehip has been offered to Col. C. P. Iaukea but that this gentleman has declined to accept the office preferring to make his living in a private occupation to being the football of a lot of imbeciles whose caprices can kick him here or there at any minute. If the rumor is true, Col. Iaukea has greatly risen in our estimation and we hope other young Hawaiians will follow his example.