American Hawaii [pp. 432-454]

AMERICAN HAWAII
trying to give readers of this article
an idea of the present status of the newest territory of the United States of America.
Events have moved swiftly, however,
even in Hawaii in the last three years,
and the long trial of patience during the
annexation struggle has wrought its
deep effect on the social, commercial,
and political order of things. Of course,
there is much that can never change
about these beautiful isles of the sea.
Photo by Davey
the time too deep in the earth to show, or
whether the fiery glow lights the heavens
and the fountains of molten rock leap
from the rending surface of Kilauea.
For many years to come there will be
also the gentle dark-eyed natives with
their pretty custome of flower-wearing
and their soft-voiced alohas. It would
be well if I could say of this, too, that it
will always be, but the cruel figures of
the census-taker show that since the
white man first settled on Hawaiian soil,
DIAMOND HEAD FROM THE PALl
There will always be the delightful climrnate where the tropical languor is offset
by the ozone blown from thousands of
leagues of ocean. There will always be
the tangled tropical vegetation, where
the tree ferns and the flowering trees the
twining vines and the broad-leaved bananas mingle in delightful profusion
There will always be the great volcanic
craters, wonderful whether as the largest
in the world, even tl-ou'h tile fires be for
two generations ago, the natives have decreased to barely one sixth of their earlier number. Annexation, however, is not
likely to hasten this process of decay in
the Hawaiian people for by the restrain
ing of the influx of Asiatic races and of
the less desirable European immigrants,
which American law can enforce as Hawaiian could not, there will be less danger of the immediate extinction of the
original stock. As it stands there are
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