letter xxxi.] SMALL CRITICISMS. 



291 



the Republic at Washington. Except sugar and dollars, one 

 rarely hears any subject spoken about with general interest. 

 The downfall of an administration in England, or any import- 

 ant piece of national legislation, arouses almost no interest in 

 American society here, and the English are ostentatiously 

 apathetic regarding any piece of intelligence specially absorbing 

 to Americans. The papers pick up every piece of gossip which 

 drifts about the islands, and snarl with much wordiness over 

 local matters, and in the absence of a telegraph one hardly but 

 feels the beat of the pulses of the larger world. Those intel- 

 lectual movements of the West which might provoke discus- 

 sion and conversation are not cordially entered into, partly 

 owing to the difference in theological beliefs, and partly from 

 an indolence born of the climate, and the lack of mental 

 stimulus. 



After all, the gossip and the absence of large interests shared 

 in common, are the only specialities which can be alleged 

 against Hawaii, and I have never seen people among whom I 

 should better like to live. The ladies are most charming, 

 essentially womanly, and fulfil all domestic and social duties 

 in a way worthy of imitation everywhere. The kindness and 

 hospitality, too, are unbounded, and these cover " a multitude 

 of sins." ' 



There are very few strangers here now. It is the " dead 

 season." I have met with none except Mr. Nordhoff, who is 

 writing on the islands for Harper's Monthly, and his charming 

 wife and children. She is a most expert horsewoman, and has 

 adopted the Mexican saddle even in Honolulu, where few 

 foreign ladies ride " cavalier fashion." 



My friends all urge me to write on Hawaii, on the ground 

 that I have seen the islands and lived the island life so 

 thoroughly; but possibly they expect more indiscriminate 

 praise than I could conscientiously bestow ! 



Honolulu is in the midst of the epidemic of letter writing, 

 which sets in on the arrival of the steamer from " the coast," 

 and people walk and drive as if they really had business on 

 hand : and the farewell visits to be made and received, the 

 pleasant presence of Mr. Thompson, and Mr. and Mrs. Seve- 

 rance, of Hilo, and the hasty doing of things which have been 

 left to the last, make me a sharer in the spasmodic bustle, 

 which, were it permanent, would metamorphose this dreamy, 

 bowery, tropical capital. The undeserved and unexpected kind- 

 ness shown me here, as everywhere on these islands, renders 



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