REVIEWS — THE SANDWICH ISLANDS MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 453 



floor is of a shafey character, and each passer imparts a tremulousness to its sur- 

 face which occasions the present "writing to assume a character that Champollion, 

 were he one of our compositors, ■would find it difficult to decipher. Cavities, 

 large and small, lie in "wait for individuals passing into and about the establish- 

 ment, •which have already resulted in serious shin damage to the major part of its 

 occupants. The ' editor's desk ' is a bundle of printing paper, skilfully poised 

 upon a leather trunk, vibrating -with each movement of the writer's hand, and 

 compelling him to double up his person in the act of preparing ' copy ' in a man- 

 ner more curious than graceful. The ' Editor's Easy Chair ' is a Chinese trunk, 

 whose top would be on a level with the desk, but for the brilliant idea of increasing 

 the height of the latter by the paper expedient alluded to. The striking thoughts 

 which pervade the brain of the individual favored with these facilities would find 

 a much readier expression at the point of his pen, but for the drawback of being 

 compelled to retail copies of this journal, receive items of news, and correct mis- 

 directed intruders on the point of their destination, simultaneously with inditing 

 those remarkable conceptions. Two huge fire-places adorn our sanctum. These 

 ornaments, having been built with a view to convey all the heat as well as the 

 smoke up the chimney, are as little dangerous in the matter of risk of a confla- 

 gration as they are but slightly conducive to comfort in modifying the blasts of 

 Boreas which dispute occupancy with the present sojourners in the establishment 

 we are describing. We had designed supplying these fuel-eaters with a pile of 

 lumber belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company, stored in the premises, but the 

 printers having occupied it in lieu of a table, we have been compelled to postpone 

 indulgence in that (to us) economical expedient. It is possible, also, that the cor- 

 poration in question might entertain some objections to the proposed use of their 

 property, which objections, although we consider them absurd in view of our 

 necessities, we are bound to respect. The pleasant sounds of wood-sawing, nail- 

 hammering, &c., add to the facilities for editorial labor of which we are now in 

 existing enjoyment, and an occasional procession of Indians cheers and invigorates 

 the writer by stopping and surrounding his locality of labor, and gazing upon his 

 deeds with the expression of intelligence common to the physiognomy of the 

 intellectual race of which they are the representatives." 



Compared with the scene of lahor of this north-western disciple of 

 FaustuSj the Sandwich Islands are ancient seats of civilization ; and 

 there accordingly we find, not only the "New Era" and "Argus" 

 the broad-sheet representatives of social and political freedom, but 

 also " The Sandwich Islands' Monthly Magazine," specially devoted 

 to literature, and not altogether neglectful of science. Nor are such 

 evidences of progress limited exclusively to the Islanders of English 

 descent, including those directly from the United States. A para- 

 graph more recent than any of the pages of the Honolulu Monthly 

 which we have, as yet, had an opportunity of perusing, somewhat 



