Hawaii — page 49: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Me ail 40 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS—INHABITANTS. CHAPTER IV. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS—INHABITANTS AND SCHOOLS. The domestic labor in Honolulu and in all parts of the island. has been performed for many years by the Chinese males. They make excellent servants, and with ihe perfection of the climate, and the absence of many ills which the housekeepers of America have to contend against, it has made the art of entertaining not a tax. upon the hostess, but a real pleasure. As neither the theatre nor the opera has as yet appeared in the islands, the people are thrown upon their own resources, and substitute dinners, luncheons and picnics. Hospitality is second nature both with the natives and foreign residents. They visit each other without even the ceremany of — knocking, and evening seems to be the general hour for calling. Mark Twain gives a very amusing account of ‘his visit to these islands in 1866. He writes that he saw houses “surrounded by ample yards, and shaded by tall trees, - through whose dense foliage the sun could scarcely pene- trate . . . huge bodied, wide spreading forest trees, with strange names, and strange appearance—trees that cast a shadow like a thunder-cloud, and were able to stand alone without being tied to green poles. In place of fish wriggling around in glass globes, assuming count- comicbooks.com ee «