Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 3, 1 March 2011 — London, a 1920s Hawaiian boy writes home [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

London, a 1920s Hawaiian boy writes home

ENGLISH TRANSLATION Submitted by Ho'olaupa'i First off, our apologies for the long hiatus! Today we bring you a personal letter from a son, who is traveling the world performing in a Hawaiian band, to his mother here at home. We think you will find this letter a good read for a number of reasons. Foremost, it is a sweet letter from a son to his mother; second, it is a

straightforward description of a young Hawaiian's impressions of the world in the Hawaiian language; third, it is an example of Hawaiian language used by a young Hawaiian of the 1920s; and fourth, it is a good window into the worldwide popularity of Hawaiian music in the Territorial Era, spread by the many Hawaiians abroad at the time. This letter was originally published in Ka Nupepa Kuokoa on March 25, 1921. Note that the text in italics helow were originally written in English.

over, they will return to America to onee again play with the "Bird of Paradise." Just as it was for us, when we were in America there were a lot of places to play. In Britain, it is slow. If you play for maybe two weeks, that is it. That's the problem. There are no tall buildings here like in New York. The houses and hotels are short. This is a good thing; you don't go up thirty or forty lloors like you do in America. When you look at the old buildings, you think they are a hundred or more years old, just like the houses you see in Fairy Tale books. As for tea drinking, I believe that the British are the most fanatical behind the Chinese and the Japanese. You wake up in the morning at 7 a. m., and drink tea; at 9 a.m., drink tea again; at 12 noon, you drink tea; at 4:30 p. m., you of course drink tea; at 6 p.m., you have tea while you dine. You drink tea five times a day. Some mornings I am too lazy to get up to have some tea, so I sleep in. Here is something we found funny. If you bump into someone on the street, the British say, "sorry," and not, "excuse me," like we and the Americans do. And another thing: at home and in America, we eall the device that takes people up an "elevator," but in hotels here, they eall it a "lift." On the first day we arrived here, we were told to get into the "lift." We stood there dumbfounded, looked about, and Mr. Pahu asked, "What's a lift?" Our promoter told us that it was an elevator, and we laughed heartily. Jan. 16, 1921 — Thisisagoodtimeformeto tell you about the new things here in London. I went along with my friend to see the plaee called "Piccadilly." There is the huge market there where one buys fish, meat, poultry, and all sorts of foods. When we returned to our hotel, we ran into a British friend who was waiting for us there. He invited all of us to his home to have tea with him, and we were there until night fell. He is an honorable member of the House of Commons here. Fromthere, we went to see a boxing matchfor the ehampion bantam weight of the world, between Pete Herman of America and Jimmy. The match went to the American challenger. Last week, we had an engagement to play at the famous London restaurant, the Selfridge. Five thousand people at a time ean dine within this restaurant; we eat here every afternoon. We play one hour a day, from one o'eloek to two. This restaurant is divided into four different dining areas. There are

To see the original article in its entirety, visit www. nupepa.org and search for Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, March 25, 1921, page 3. two clubs playing, us and a British Orchestra. Our corner where we play is called the "Popular Corner," because it is always full of people dining. Those who eome here to eat regularly are very taken by our performances. Some people have bought a table on our side for the whole week because they love listening to our singing and playing. Their favorite song is "Pua Carnation"; that song is very popular here. All of London knows the song. They sing along with us. They have Mekia Kealakai's band here. Yesterday we got our pictures taken, and also moving pictures. This is our first time posing for moving pictures. If our pictures eome out, I will send you some so that you ean see what we look like. Maybe we will look good, or perhaps we won't. I think that throughout our tour, we are at our healthiest since arriving here. Mrs. Clemens takes very good care of us. She is like a mother. So too her husband; together, they watch over us very carefully. Yesterday evening we witnessed the London fog. It was like the scene of a fire. The sun was gray like the moon and you couldn't see to the other side of the road, but the British, they ean see because they are used to it. The hall where we were playing at the time was filled with fog. When you sang, it is as if you had no voice — the fog filled your throat. When the British see that there is a lot of fog, they go and drink rum.

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Jan. 23 — We are singing in London, and we're all in good health. Last Sunday, we ran into a Hawaiian boy by the name of John Moe. He invited us to his home to eat poi. We accompanied him to his house, where we ate poi palaoa [poi made using flour and water]; it was like real poi, and was delicious with stew and raw mackerel, whieh is like opelu. So there we were, feasting on poi and raw fish. We are going to go eat poi and raw fish again next week with that boy, when he retums lfomFrance because he will eome baek and get us. Two Fridays ago, we went to a danee presented by the British Royal Society. The dance was crowded with invited guests. We played there as well. Last Thursday, a submarine sank in the British Channel. That vessel was practicing submersing. When it descended, however, it did not eome back up. All the people aboard it perished. London is without beauty; New York is by far the more beautiful. London is only famous in name,

perhaps because of the buildings that were destroyed by the bombing carried out by the Germans. I went to tour Westminster Abbey, where the laws here are created.

This building is huge. It stands on the side of the river Thames. In two weeks, we will be touring the British Isles, Wales, and Scotland, as well as the other famous spots of

England that we have yet to see. After that we will probably go on to France, though we are not certain as of yet. But we will indeed see France before we tum back to America. I took a trip to the big clothiers here. All types of clothing are so eheap. I will purchase a new suit for myself. It is so rainy, but it isn't really cold like it is in America, for when it snows there, everywhere is frigid, and you end up freezing. Feb. 6, 1921 — My dear mother, mueh aloha to you. Our engagement in London ended last night and we will begin to tour the islands of Britain next week Wednesday. We are quite in demand. We went to the world-famous zoo. We saw large and small monkeys, elephants, giraffes, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, all sorts of birds, eagles, tigers, llamas, etc. Eaeh type of animal has its own separate house. The different kinds of snakes whieh I've not seen in Hawaii are all in one building, and so forth, and so forth. You cannot go around the whole zoo in a single day, because this

park is so gigantic. Its size is maybe the same as the town of Honolulu, and there are so many things to see — some thousands of unfamiliar animals. You get tired and go straight out because of your aching feet, and you don't get to the end of the exhibitions. There's no time to retum to look at things because there are so many things ahead, waiting for you to eome look at them. I end my letter here with those little stories. May God watch over me and you until we meet again. Your loving son, KIWINI PANUI. ■ Ho'oīaupa'i: Hawaiian Language Newspaper Project is a collaborative partnership among the Bishop Museum, Awaiaulu ine., Alu Like ine. anel Hale Kuamo 'o to utilize moāem technology to preserve anel provide access to the voluminous writings in the Hawaiian language newspapers for free access at nupepa.org. Kau'i Sai-Dudoit has been the Project Manager ofHo 'olaupa 'i since 2002.

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A Hawaiian band touring England. Standing, from left, are Kuuleipoinaole Alicante, Kamaki Pahu, Mildred Leo Clemens Schenck, Kiwini Panui, Kahaia Pahu. Kneeling are Anehila Hobron and Keoni Panui. - Photos: Courtesy of Ho'olaupa'i