Ka Leo o ka Lahui, Volume II, Number 179, 24 April 1891 — Page 4

KA LEO O KA LAHUI.

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

 

KA LEO.

THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 1891.

 

NOTICE.

 

            Copies of the KA LEO O KA LAHUI can be found every morning at both the News Agencies in town. Price 5 cents a copy.

 

THE BULLETIN CAT.

 

            We congratulate the Bulletin's boss, Tome Feline, on the length o his cat's tail as spread out on last evening's fence. He has not not that Inspector-General's job yet. Stick to the caterwaul old man and you'll get there bye and bye, unless the skunk drops out.

 

WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT.

 

            To clearly understand the position of the present Ministry before the National Party,—whom the last elections showed to be the majority of the Nation—it will suffice to review what the Government have really done, since the down-fall of the Reform Cabinet, in the way o recognizing the popular party and deferring to its wishes either in the political line of our comprehensive platform, or in the general conducting of the administration, or in the purifying of the "personel" of the Hawaiian Civil Service.

            It is a notorious fact that the insolent Brown-Cummins Cabinet purposely and most stubbornly ignored the National Party, to whom they falsely declared allegiance on the day of the installation in office; but,—up to the present time,—the new Cabinet have hardly done any better, and moreover they have to assume the moral inheritance of their predecessors' mistakes. The policy of the Party's Platform has not been followed at all, and the wishes, nay the orders, of the Legislature itself have been disobeyed, and Brown was reported to have proudly stated, after the prorogation of the House, that he did not care a .... continental about the Legislature, or its wishes and intentions.

            The various improvements, measures and public works, for which money had been specially appropriated, have not been carried out according to the spirit of the Legislature, but through caprice, partiality or favoritism.

            In the Civil service, no purifying sifting has been accomplished; on the contrary, all the obnoxious and unfit servants condemned by the National Party, are still triumphantly in office, whilst—with the exception of two secondary ones, the Port-Surveyor and the Jailer, [to which nominees in good standing with our Party were selected only by pure accident], and with the exception of a few, very few, minor ones,—no appointments have yet been made, satisfactory to the National Party, the personal applications and recommendations of the individual members elect having been disdainfully overlooked, unless when coming from such members as have proven themselves traitors to the Party.

            When the present Cabinet took office, they most distinctly gave the public to understand that they intended to lean on the National Party, to abide by their platform and to give satisfaction to their just demands and wishes; but the only showing make up to the present time are innumerable promises, toned down with the excuse that the Government had to be very cautions and avoid hastiness. Caution and dilatoriness have thus been used to such an extend that not one single measure has yet been taken, giving real and universal satisfaction to the People, whilst many not only failed to be popular, but have even proven to be absolute blunders.

            The first one,—properly noticed in the LEO—was the re-appointment, and not, as was expected and desired, the reorganisation of the Privy Council, in which the Cabinet lost a splendid occasion of showing their sincerity and well-meaning; and the result of re-appointing men absolutely unfit for the office, as many of the old Privy Councillors were, has already been made apparent under the shape of certain extraordinary appropriations of public funds, which the LEO intends to properly ventilate at some future date, showing that the individual members of the Privy Council might eventually be made to pay personally for what they had no authority to order out of the People's Treasury.

            The second blunder was the partial—very partial—reorganisation of the Board of Health, from which has resulted the obstinate refusal of the present Board to consent to certain measures, which all the native population have set their hearts upon, and among others, the re-instatement of Dr. Lutz. In that board as it now stands, the only two good men, J. Ena and His Ex. S. Parker, find themselves in a minority; the president has been weighed and found wanting, whilst the "coming man" (!) her Majesty's petted bad boy, the great and infallible J. O. Carter, is banded together with his accomplice Waterhouse, as subserving the good of the natives to some mysterious personal ends, which the LEO will bring to light in the near future.

            In the foreign office, it has been a blunder to appoint a foreigner, and an ex-official of the U. S. Consular Corps at that,—however good, efficient and honest he may personally be,—to the most important and confidential situation under the minister, whilst so many young Hawaiian subjects could have been found to fill the place; and another and still worse blunder was not to defer to the wishes of the commercial community, irrespective of party, for the removal of our unsatisfactory consular official in S. Francisco, the brother of the tariff man of the United States, who has brought ruin on our principal industry.

            The Finance department contains several Bureaus in which the public are highly interested and which have not been attended to as yet, such as the Post Office, the Custom House, the Port Collectors, the Tax Assessors and the Boards of Appeals, all of which we shall review, together with other departments.

 

            That the Lutz petition has been handled very delicately with a pitchfork for fear of the foreign members of the Board of Health would be infected with Lutzmania, a virulent disease from which the Honorable Member from Hilo is being treated by Dr. Hitchcock.

 

OUR CONTRIBUTORS.

 

            We have much pleasure in informing our readers that in pursuance of our intention to make our paper a live, readable and attractive sheet, we have made arrangements with a lady, who under the nom de plume of "Sissy Scissors," is well and favorable known to Honolulu readers, and who will henceforth be on our contributing staff.

 

Letter from Somewhere.

 

Dear KA LEO:

            After almost a year's wandering in the hurlyburly of the outside world of wires and cables and the omnipresent interviewer, and the omnivorous reporter and the general smash of business excitement which keeps ones brain in a perpetual whirl. I feel tired of it all, and therefore have I sighed again for the land of the lotus-eater, and the taro-patch       fiddle, and the child of the sweet mahope philosophy, and the cooling zephyrs from the shade of Mount Tantalus. I could not induce Papa and Jack to leave 'Frisco just yet, so I persuaded Ma to come on at the last moment, leaving Jack and Papa, who is watching some goings on at the San Francisco Stock Exchange, to arrive later.

            I believe Papa is anxious to get at the mysteries of the new sugar deal, about which there is much whispering just now on Kearney Street, and he promised to mail me his siftings of the shady looking racket as he call it, "for Sissy" said Papa; "I fear it bodes no good to the islands, as the sudden convulsion in the sugar market here is largely attributed to it."

            But after an age of separation I should have something less ponderous than sugar stocks with which to re-introduce myself to my sister readers.

            Ah me, what changes in the few short months of my absence. How fleeting is life, even that of Cabinets, especially when built on the skew-whiff plan out of green lumber with the brown end up.

            I have come to the conclusion that the only abiding universal circumstance recognized as permanent is, Fashion.

            Go where you will, in Pall Mall; the Bois de Bologne, Broadway New York, or Colling St. Melbourne, its devotees are on tip-toe. Even staid old Oliver Goldsmith in his day wrote:

            "And e'en while fashions brightest arts decoy,

            The heart, distrusting, asks if this be joy."

            Of course it was joy, what is life without this "decoy" of a pretty girl dressed in "fashions brightest arts." One wonders whether poor Oliver's landlady wooed him in anything more attractive than the coffee-color gown and poke bonnet of the period, as she stood at his room door giving him 'Hobsons choice' to marry her "at once" or take the alternative of the fleet prison as a rent defaulter. Dear old Goldsmith, sweetest of our last age poets! it was a pleasure in "all the silent manliness of greif," to make a pilgrimage to his tomb at Kensel green during my London visit.

            I cannot tell you in a breath my dear sisters, of the pretty sights and marvels which I have seen in my six months travel over Europe through Egypt, to Australia and back to dear old Manhattan. I shall have to try to spread—or rather condense—it is a series of weekly letters in KA LEO.

            In Paris I saw the great Sarah Bernhardt as Cleopatra, and it was no wonder Anthony's brain was set on a whirl, if the original Cleopatra was anything like her French representative. You can have no idea of the pretty and catching costumes, which do not over conceal the natural grace and pose of Sarah, and which has for months caused a furore at the great Theatre Francais.

            It was rumored in London that Mrs. Langtry was likely to start as a rival Cleopatra, but the "jersey Lily" lacks the vim necessary for the character. It would probably be a much easier tack to conquer a live Prince of Wales in the green room, than to boss an Antony in buckram before the foot lights. Talking of theaters reminds me of the event of the amateur opera season in San Francisco, the production of Givofle-Givofia which was to take place at the grand Opera House on the eventing of Tuesday the 7 inst. As our Zealandia was to sail on the morning of Tuesday. I managed [through my press connection] to get in to see the dress rehearsal on the Monday evening and the staging and dresses were real pretty and effective. Mrs. Mary Williams as Gerofle—the leading soprano—has several dresses which she changes as a necessary part of the business in mystifying the lover, who is thereby unable to tell t'other from which. The first dress was a lovely cream brocaded satin enbroidered down the front with rich pearls; next, a pink and blue India silk, and the third a white brocaded silk trimmed with valenciennes lace. The remaining four principle lady characters were effectively draped in rich materiel; while the six leading male characters were dressed perfectly in artistic requirements to Oriental life; among whom George Hall was conspicuous as Mourzouk with Mrs. William Crockers $8,000 worth of diamonds in his turban.

            Referring to music. On an Alameda concert programme recently, a song my Tosti was erroniously billed as by "Tolstoi." It came low on the card too, but every woman in the audience [they had all read the "Kreutzer Sonata"] was firm in her chair till that was disposed of. And when it came it was the good old "For ever and for ever," such is life.

            The very latest gift from the engaged girl to her lover is a pair of embroidered braces with their combined monograms worked in her hair. By-the-by, gold-washed girls are warned to leave these offerings strictly alone; as the gift comes off the hair even in the working, and if Adolphus is confronted with a wishy washy monogram in mouse-color instead of tawny gold, he would suspect aureline and fly to return no more.

            You remember dear girls, Jack Sherman of the only Nipsic. Well Jack was the best chaperon I ever had and he expects to change to the Charlston and be here again soon. Jack was among our frequent visitors in 'Frisco and would "reel off" some lively yarns and poetry on Honolulu belies. I shall tell you more next week.

            SISSY SCISSORS.

 

ON DIT.

 

            That the Board of Health had a big pow wow over many things that had to be taken into consideration, some of which was strictly private, last Wednesday.

 

            That Premier Parker has a worn out don't bother me sort of look about him. That he is evidently growing weak from the exhaustive labors he has been obliged to attend to since the reception of the news from abroad.

 

            That the Army and Navy is being gotten ready owing to possible complications in the coming campaign.

 

            That judgement has been reserved in the late tilt between Sam et al. vs. Carl.

 

            That owing to Queen Victoria's having retired to Grasse all the wiseacres say,

            "The index points the Empire's fall,

            The augurs brighten never,

            But dirge the day when monarchs all

            Are 'sent to grass' forever."

 

            That the way justice is meted out to the Hawaiian in the district courts is a farce, by judges highly endorsed, you know.

 

            That Messrs. Justitia, Ruat & Coelum, has gone into bankruptcy, and that the stock in trade of the firm brought much less than Plantation stocks.

 

            That it is about high time that the Hawaiian people call a mass meeting and petition the Great Powers to look into their condition. State rights under the stars and stripes is not bad, and seem to be the only remedy.

 

            That the way they use the Hawaiian up is by injecting virus into his arm and then—seize the wretch, and send him to Molokai, there to live and die. In fact, he ought to die, he is getting too knowing since the arrival of the Philistines among his people. Slay them all, but, first secure the land, so that there be no disputations among the tribes.

 

            That Hawaii nei was the Paradise lost, and is the Eden that was promised to the overcomer—over all righteousness. How thankful we children of the Lord should be, for it seems to have been left to "our generation" to realize the promise that was made to Jacob as a heritage. A whinny—"Thank the Lord."

 

            That thus far the P. M. G. has disproved the old saying that a setting hen grows fat—though she may be tough.

 

            'That the victories in Chile' has given hope to the young Bowoweean; and that the establishment of a Caribbean Republic gives hope to the young Owhyheean.

 

            That in making the Pauoa road, the Minister of Interior employs for a luna a man who sold the party he pretends to represent; and the Road Supervisor another luna to represent the reform section of the road; the two lunas quarreling, another luna was mutually agreed upon to keep peace between the first two lunas.

 

            That the great "I am," on the Board of Health, struck a $1300 snag that will test his integrity and prove his righteousness.

 

            That President Dayton is reported to have said that "his honor" will not allow him to reinstate Dr. Lutz; if true, that Dayton is thus "honored" he ought to "honorably" resign. But we do not think he will.

 

            That there was a vacuum in the editorial department of the Bulletin necessitating the republication of those Financial Statements, which cost the government about $500 each issue.

 

            That if the Queen did intend to show her aloha for her unfortunate leprous subjects, before going to Molokai, she ought to have visited the Kalihi establishment, and there give a proof of her good will by attending to the requests of the native inmates.

 

            That the Queen is waiting for her intended Molokai trip until she be sure of being tendered a sympathetic reception; but that the good will and enthusiasm of the Molokai people cannot be raised until the Board of Health is duly changed and occupied by true friends of the natives.

 

            That the pet Leper Luna Kahalehili is to be decapitated—politically—but we do not believe it, until we see it.