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“SANTA CLAUS’” ADVENT IN HONOLULU

It may interest others beside the inquirer of the Annual awhile ago, to learn when “Santa Claus” first came to town, and note the changes his benign influence has wrought in the community by the recognition of the Christmas season and their observance of the day.

Mention was made in one of our early reminiscent papers that the recognition of New Year’s was much more general formerly than was the observance of Christmas, not only as a holiday, but as the season for the exchange of gifts and for social calls. This was the custom in vogue which is traceable back to the early ’40’s, and probably earlier. Christmas had but occasional mention as a holiday till well into the ’50’s, the only event of a festive social gathering noted, being in 1844. That year’s Christmas was reported as observed by the closing of places of business, and “the people engaging in customary amusements of the day,” whatever that may have been. In the evening Mrs. Dudoit, the lady of the French consul, gave a large and very agreeable entertainment, but no mention is made of “Santa Clans.”

(The Camp Knox News, December 13, 1919) The War Department authorizes publication of the following from the Office of the Surgeon General:

Christmas in army hospitals will be a happy day for sick and wounded patients. A special Christmas dinner will be served and there will be other evidence of good in the form of decorations of winter greens, and in a number of cases there will be Christmas trees and special programs. Relatives and friends of the patients will not forget them in the matter of gifts. Every opportunity will be grasped in order to make the Christmas season this year as joyous and cheerful to the brave wounded men as it is possible to do.

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Rev. CORNISH,

The following article is taken from a late number of the New York Sun, and the Editor anxiously asks, “CAN THIS BE TRUE?” as if he had never heard before of such inhuman conduct. We answer, “YES,” and we have FACTS in our possession, in relation to the traffic to American Citizens, which are ten-fold worse than the African slave trade itself. Let it be remembered, that all the particulars, in this case, come directly from the very scene of shear atrocities.

Shall we conceal, from motives of delicacy, the awful features of this nefarious traffic? But this is only one solitary instance, and yet we weep when we peruse it. O! how different would our cold and lukewarm brethren, feel and act on the subject, if they could only have brought up, vividly, before their imaginations, the several thousand free Citizens of these United States, who are now pining in hopeless captivity in this LAND OF FREEDOM!

Now here is a free MAN, born and brought up in one of the British Provinces of America, put in prison by some ruthless white ruffian; and unless he has some white witness at hand to prove his freedom, HE MUST BE SOLD INTO SLAVERY, to pay for the expenses of his arrest! Is not this acting on inhuman and worse than heathen principles? Shall it not be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah, in the Judgment, than for slaveholding America? We caution colored seamen, especially, against going among those soul-searchers and man-stealers. When will that day arrive, that we shall be spared the painful necessity of calling the attention of the public, to such inhuman and disgraceful conduct, in a land of Bibles and Missionaries; and in a country, too, professedly the freest, most enlightened, and Christian, of any other on the face of our globe.

Yours, &c.

R.S.

(Frank Leslies Weekly for November 16, 1918) – When Germany is decisively defeated or surrenders unconditionally to what extent shall she be punished? Wide difference of opinion upon this point is developed in connection with the discussion of the fourteen paragraphs of the President’s speech of January 8 last as the basis for peace. Criticism is most acute of the famous third paragraph, which would remove as far as possible all economic barriers and establish an equality of trade relations among all nations.

Secretary of the Navy Daniels is quoted as saying that if we do not stand unitedly on these fourteen principles which our allies have accepted, the sincerity and good faith of America will be questioned. We cannot agree with Secretary Daniels, nor does the President, himself. In one of his recent notes to Austria Mr, Wilson said that conditions had so changed since last January that the pronouncement then made concerning Austria’s subject races no longer held. Professor George Trumbull Ladd of Yale, in an analysis of the fourteen points, argues that they are so vague and indefinite that a “complete acceptance would only be a bid for further parleying,” and that in such an event it would not be Germany but the United States that would have “to eat her own words.” In England special concern is shown regarding the President’s phrase “the freedom of the seas,” and the British Navy League has called a meeting to protest against making this a principle to be discussed at the peace conference.

The latest Parisian craze is the stare! A crazier-looking picture it would be hard to find; but the stare is, nevertheless, the fashion. In order to “do it” you must assume a look of utter abstraction and appear to be gazing at something all unseen by your friends and well-wishers; but which, in its contemplation, causes you to open your eyes very wide, and to persevere in doing this strange and uncalled-for thing. What you see apparently appalls you. And yet, the prettiest women are staring persistently in this insane way. What will not fashion’s votaries do?

Fashions are growing more eccentric daily; the more extreme they are, the more popular they become. Lace is regaining much of its past favor, although always popular, it has not been so universally used for the last few years; but now all kinds are in great demand. Black lace flounces have been in oblivion for some time; but the happy possessors can bring them forth, as they are growing in favor for trimming silks and velvets, and Worth has the daring to festoon them on the light cloth gowns now worn in the evening, while some of the famous Paris milliners are trimming felt hats with black lace. There are jetted net flounces that must be scantily gathered to show their beauty, and others lightly wrought with gold, steel or silver, or with tinsels of many colors. Raised figures of gold or of steel are most effective on black laces, others are jeweled in Russian fashion, and some of the prettiest are studded with turquoises amid gold, or pink coral with silver. The three-inch trimming laces with turquoises or corals have also pretty insertions of similar designs.