Economy | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

November 9, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Black Cat Cafe

“During the 1930s, the thousands of young men who joined the military service and sailed to the Hawaiian Islands for duty considered themselves fortunate indeed to receive such a choice assignment.”

“They enjoyed the beautiful beaches, lush foliage, and year-round pleasant climate that characterized “the Paradise of the Pacific” but, at the same time, they also served as the first line of defense for the United States.”

“On payday, it was the first sergeant who sat with the pay officer at a desk in the day room and called out the names of assembled personnel, one at a time.”

“As his name was called, each man stepped up, saluted the pay officer, repeated his own name, received his pay in cash, saluted again, did an about face, and left the room.”

“The pay in those days was $21 a month for privates, and from that amount 25 cents went to the Old Soldiers Home and $1.50 to the quartermaster laundry. After receiving what was left, the men normally had the rest of the day off.”

“If they wanted to go to Honolulu, a bus ride cost ten cents and taxi fare was a quarter. The bus line ended at the Army and Navy YMCA on Hotel Street in downtown Honolulu where a taxi depot was conveniently located so military members could take cabs to other areas.”

“Across the street was the famous Black Cat Cafe, a favorite hangout for off-duty soldiers and sailors. A Coney Island atmosphere prevailed there, with hot dogs, hamburgers, sea food, slot machines, and various other concessions.” (Arakaki & Kuborn)

“Throughout the afternoon and evening … buses and rattletrap taxis raced down the two-lane highway connecting Pearl Harbor and Honolulu, past the wrecks of similar taxis, and by sunset, a white river of sailors was flowing down Hotel Street.” (Clarke)

“On weekends, the streets of Honolulu were jammed with sailors. Here you will see one location that was popular for its cheap but good food.”

“Nowhere was the hustle and bustle greater than at the Black Cat Café. Ideally situated across from the Armed Forces YMCA at the corner of Hotel and Richards streets, the Cat provided the men with food, slot machines, and various other types of entertainment.”

“One very popular concession was the photo gallery where they could pose for photographs with “hula girls” to send to their families as souvenirs.”

“But for servicemen the food at the Cat was the major draw and after the war it was one of the most fondly recalled pleasures of their time in the Islands.”

“Prices were rock-bottom — the menu in 1941 listed hot dogs for 10 cents, hamburgers for 15 cents, a roast turkey dinner for 50 cents, and the most expensive item was the porterhouse steak with mushrooms for a dollar.” (USS Helena)

“(T)he bar most favored by servicemen. Many said it was the best joint to buy cheap beer and whiskey after working out at the YMCA across the street and before going in search of women.” (Knotts)

“But for servicemen the food at the Cat was the major draw and after the war it was one of the most fondly recalled pleasures of their time in the Islands.” (USS Helena)

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Black Cat Cafe Honolulu, HI 1939

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Black-Cat

Soldiers and sailors lined up at a business near the bus depot and taxi stand. Building with the gabled facade is the Black Cat-PP-39-6-001

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November 8, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Musa-Shiya The Shirtmaker

Musashi was a province of Japan, which today comprises Tokyo Metropolis, most of Saitama Prefecture and part of Kanagawa Prefecture. It was sometimes called Bushū. The province encompassed Kawasaki and Yokohama. (My Japanese Hanga)

Chotaro Miyamoto emigrated to Hawai‘i from Japan on the ship named the Tokyo Round in 1885. He started ‘Musa-Shiya’, a store in Honolulu on ‘A‘ala Lane, not far from River Street and named it after his hometown province (the name was a combination of Musashi and ‘ya’, meaning ‘place’ or ‘store.’ (Hope))

“Miyamoto sold dry goods and did some custom tailoring. His son, Koichiro, was sent to Japan at the age of six in 1901. A couple of years later, Chotaro moved his business to a new location on King Street, near River Street and the busy Honolulu fish market.”

“After the merchant died, his son, Koichiro, despite poor English skills and scant business knowledge, moved back to Hawai’i in 1920 to run the family business.”

“Miyamoto wanted to expand Musashiya’s tailoring business. The young merchant had been sending broadcloth orders to the big textile firms in England, but due to World War I, he didn’t receive his fabric orders and impatiently ordered more.” (Hope)

“Year after year Musa-Shiya had sent his order for shirtings to the Englishmen. The first year of the war his order was unacknowledged. The second year passed and there were two orders in England for Musa-Shiya that were unfilled.”

“He sent more orders.”

“Patience and persistence were his two virtues. Patience and persistence made this particular day the saddest day of his life, when he read the custom’s house manifest on a huge box from England. The orders of five years had been filled in one shipment! The little shirt maker saw his end. It was beyond him to save himself.” (Haase)

“There was young Miyamoto, suddenly surrounded by many bolts of the finest English broadcloth. The store overflowed, and more was on the dock.”

“Fine broadcloth in those days meant only one thing. Fine shirts. So the young merchant sought out the finest seamstresses in Honolulu, and they began making very fine shirts indeed.”

“Miyamoto now had to sell those quality shirts. He went to the advertising offices of Charles R. Frazier, where copywriter George Mellen became intrigued with Miyamoto’s pidgin English.” (Hope)

“Now Musa-Shiya had a friend, a haole friend … The haole friend was inspired. The little shirtmaker agreed that the big business man’s advertising agency could run the shop of Musa-Shiya should it so desire.”

“The little shirtmaker began to live in the advertising pages of a Honolulu newspaper. The advertising man had chosen the obvious and easily overlooked style of copy. He wrote Musa-Shiya’s tale of his business … in pidgin-English.” (Haase)

“Here are the headings and introductory of one of his ads … ‘Owing to slightly perspiring climate of Honolulu and adjacently adjoining territory all these persons abiding therein require more than usual undershirt. Undershirt for every day practically inevitable. If more fat, sometimes two for day is advisory.’”

“He follows this with an announcement of ‘good news of undershirts 10 per cent off for one week.’ … (and later includes,) ‘Because shop of Musa is very small and locality obscuring, prices is also, but explorer will find’”. (Dry Goods Economist, December 12, 1922)

“Observe also the diplomatic way in which Mr. Musa introduces the subject of sweaters and explains why these warm garments are needed at times even in Hawaii. His ad on this line of merchandise says:…”

“‘Speaking of sweater in Honolulu may be misconstewed for insult to famous climate. Yet not so. Climate at some instance require sweater.’”

“He speaks of the use of sweaters in automobiling and also ‘when obtaining generous perspiration by long tennis and other muscle excitement.’ In the latter case ‘sweater,’ he points out, ‘is natural result for protection from Sneeze.’”

“Mr. Musa’s English is peculiar, but it is away ahead of the Japanese (or any other foreign language) that most of us could write. And Economist readers will admit, we believe, that there is nothing the matter with his instinct for effective publicity.” (Dry Goods Economist, December 12, 1922)

“He found the way to bring people to an obscure shop. The advertisements, attracting attention by their typography and drawings, were read. If the reader of the advertisement stopped to analyze the copy he would find that it dwelt upon the fact that the little shop was hard to find …”

“… but once found there were great rewards to be had in un usual shirtings for the persistent one. Of course the copy didn’t neglect to say that price would be in keeping with the size of the shop. By this method the agency man created great interest in Musa-Shiya throughout Honolulu.” (Haase)

“During the first week, the advertisements followed close upon one another. At the end of the week the agency man called on
the little shirtmaker. ‘You didn’t think it could be done, did you?’” … ‘No, but business very good and every body say very nice advertisement.’”

“The spectacle of a solid line of busy clerks behind the counters now replaced the old scene of Musa-Shiya and his partner sitting in the corner of the shop, finding time heavy on their hands.”

“The clerks were not only selling shirting, but handing out Musa-Shiya’s ginghams, flannels and silks, for it should be known that Musa-Shiya sold a general line of dry goods, and that the advertising was moving those goods also.”

“From that week on the little shirtmaker continued to advertise. Advertising is now part of his business. He likes it. He hears from his advertising from all ends of Hawaii. Tourists in Hawaii clip his advertisements and send them home. These tourists, themselves, come to the little shop.”

“The clippings they send bring others when they come to Honolulu, and even bring orders from people in distant lands who never expect to come to Honolulu, but who have been goaded into action by the advertisements.”

“(H)e says : ‘Because for appreciating delightful results business and many customers now coming this shop where shirt make and dry goods American and Japanese style selling …’”

“‘… also following very nice advertisement in Star-Bulletin daily news papers for two year mostly, feel very kinely for advertisement which everybody say very nice advertisement and asking one copy keeping person ally which have not got so order make some more on piece paper from house of printing.’”

“‘We incline mystery for this action but explaining away clearly when man living his home Kansas U. S. sending old shirt also advertisement also letter demand six shirt hand made similar to this one but pongee kine.’”

“‘Also one lady thin kine living home Boston, U. S. presenting advertisement from many month old ask if this same shop Musa-Shiya and while writing hand book with short pencil print one side ‘Fire Insurance.’ This lady not buying shirt and something else but saving come again and smile nicely.’” (Haase)

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Koichiro Miyamoto-Musa_Shiya the Shirtmaker-TheAlohaShirt

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November 6, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Sugar in Hawai‘i in 1915

“Sugar is the commercial life blood of Hawai‘i. There are 46,000 persons actually on the pay roll of the Hawaiian sugar plantations, with twice as many more directly dependent on the industry, and almost the entire population indirectly dependent thereon.”

“It takes, with a few exceptions, from eighteen to twenty-four months, and on the higher lands, as many as thirty months to make a crop, instead of a year, as is the case in almost every other sugar country, with the consequent increase of cost …”

“… for all expense of upkeep and overhead charges for the longer time must come out of one crop. There are always two crops in the ground, and during several months of the year, three, all under care.”

“With the exception of certain districts, Hawai‘i is too dry to produce sugar cane without artificial irrigation. The cane from which one half of the sugar output is produced has to be irrigated every week or ten days. One-third of the employees of irrigated plantations are continuously engaged in watering the cane.”

“There is more water used per day for irrigating cane in Hawai‘i, than the daily . capacity of the New York aqueduct – 700,000,000 gallons.”

“Sixty per cent of the cost of sugar in Hawai‘i is for labor; and on sugar plantations in Hawai‘i, laborers are better and more expensively cared for, and are paid more than in any other cane producing country.”

“Under the United States coastwise shipping law, Hawaii is compelled to use high priced American ships only, to carry freight to and from the mainland; while other sugar producing countries can use the cheap freight rates of foreign shipping.”

“The opening of the Panama Canal has reduced the freight rate on sugar, from Hawai‘i to New York, from $9.50 to $8.50 per ton, and it may go somewhat lower; but the freight on Cuban sugar to New York, Hawai‘I’s chief competitor, is only $2.50 per ton.”

“The average cost of marketing a ton of Hawaiian sugar, covering freight, insurance, charges and commissions, is from $10 to $15 per ton.”

“The freight on merchandise from New York to Hawai‘i ranges from $8 to $20 per ton. The canal has reduced the rate by an average of about ten per cent. Later the reduction may be somewhat increased.”

“Hawaii has to plant cane anew about every third crop. In Cuba they are said to be still harvesting cane growing from cuttings planted by the grandfathers of the present sugar planters. It is common to continue harvesting annually in Cuba from cane planted ten to twenty years before.”

“There are other minor handicaps to Hawai‘I’s disadvantage, among them that Hawaii is so bedeviled with insect pests, and cane diseases …”

“… and the problems of meeting the naturally adverse conditions are so ever pressing and imperative, that the Hawaiian sugar planters are compelled to maintain, at their own expense, an experiment station, demonstration farm and corps of scientists that cost from $80,000 to $160,000 per annum.”

“The foregoing partially explains why it costs more to produce sugar in Hawai‘i than in any other sugar producing country in the world, except on the mainland of the United States.”

“The great world sugar producers, Cuba, Java and the European beet sugar countries; have cheap material, cheap labor and cheap freights.”

“Hawai‘i is inside the sacred circle of the American tariff, with its resulting higher basis of cost as to everything which enters into the production of sugar.”

“If it, too, can receive reasonable protection, it can continue, and better its past magnificent record of development; but it cannot buy and produce in a protected market and sell in the open market.”

“In this respect, Hawai‘i is in the same boat with the cane sugar industry of Louisiana and the beet sugar producers of the North and West.”

“Although Hawaii has some advantages over them, they also have advantages over the sugar producer in Hawai‘i, such as cheaper material, cheaper freights and near-by market.”

“There are forty-five complete sugar plantations in Hawai‘i. They are nearly all incorporated and owned by thousands of stockholders.”

“Twenty-four of these are listed on the stock exchange, and their financial affairs are open to all. They are a fair representation of the whole.” (Thurston, History of the Panama Canal, 1915) (Images from Babcock – 1926)

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November 4, 2018 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Eben’s Glove

“He was always immaculately dressed and tailored when I saw him.” (Lucas; Watumull)

He was married to Elizabeth Pu‘uki Napoleon (“really Napoli. … Became known as Napoleon later.”)

“She was always known as Lizzie Low. My mother’s people were not well known to us because she was hanaied by Judge and Mrs. Sanford B. Dole when she was about twelve years of age [circa 1879].”

“Judge Dole was a teacher at Kawaiaha‘o Sunday School and had in his class a little girl of about six whose name was Lizzie Napoleon. And he became very attached to this little girl so when she got a little older, he asked her mother if she wouldn’t allow her to live with them.”

“She didn’t want to go at first but she did finally become attached to both Judge and Mrs. Dole and lived there until she was married.” (Lucas; Watumull)

“My father was known as Rawhide Ben because ever since he was knee high to a grasshopper, I guess, he loved the ranch life. And he was brought up as a member of the family in Mana and Kamuela with the rest of them.”

“So as a little boy he always had a chance to do something with animals. And this was his whole life. All he ever thought about was his cowboy experiences. But he became known as Rawhide Ben …”

“… I think, because even though he was sent to Maui and then to Honolulu later, at Iolani School, to get educated when he was a little fellow, he always went back to the ranch and that was all he wanted to do.”

“And as soon as he became an adult, his first job – big job – was given him by Theo. H. Davies and Company as manager of Puakea Ranch which is in Kohala – South Kohala there.”

Eben Parker Low was born in Honolulu, a great grandson of John Palmer Parker I and his Hawaiian wife, Kipikane. He spent his early years on Parker Ranch, Handling cows and calves by the time he was six years old.”

“He had very little education; in his own words, ‘… just plain common sense plus some English grammar and arithmetic and writing.’”

“At the age of 26 he became manager of Pu‘uhue ranch in Kohala, and began a career that made him one of the big island’s most famous and colorful paniolo.” (Hawaii Cattlemen’s Hall of Fame)

Unfortunately, he lost a portion of his left arm while roping … “he was trying to get a wild bullock that they had been chasing for a long time and he finally caught it but it was very wild and the thing was just swishing around this way (she indicates to the right and around the back of her) …”

“… so he had just enough time to duck down and the rope (with which the bullock was lassoed) went over his head. But he had the rope tied at the end of his pommel, which he never does ordinarily but he did that time because he didn’t want to lose it. And it caught his hand, see, ‘cause the loop was around his hand and it just tore the thing right off.”

“So then, there was one man with him and I don’t know how long they had – about two hours before they could get to anyplace. And of course he had this thing up and was bleeding like a cut pig.”

“And when they finally found the doctor and could get him up there, hours had passed and gangrene was starting to come in, so they cut it. They had to cut it down here (indicates forearm) and had to cut it again at the elbow.”

“But he got through that and, well, he was a young man then. I think he was about twenty-five when that happened, so he had a lot of time to get over it, too.” (Lucas; Watumull)

“Low was known as ‘one of the better artists with a rope, horse and steer’. Low had lost his left hand in a roping accident, but ‘managed to excel at roping despite his handicap of the one missing hand’”. (Marion Kelly)

“(H)e had that one arm that had to be amputated forearm and so he’d … usually wore a … false hand with a glove on his left hand and then when he roped he had a thing he’d put on with a hook it just you know a mean hook it you’d look like a pirate you look at the pictures of old pirates”. (Billy Paris; Hawaii Cattlemen’s Association)

“And I remember that leather glove. I always remembered that leather glove. I can just see him so clearly.”

“Yeah, he was a rascal with that glove because obviously, you know, there was an artificial arm. Let’s see now, his arm was cut here (indicates it was just below the elbow) so there was just a little leverage here, right below the elbow, and would give him leverage, so this thing – this gloved hand – would fit right into the end of this stump.”

“And so, he could twist it and take it off or not as he pleased. And half the time he would take it off and put a hook on it because he could handle a hook more easily than he could a glove. But oh, he used to do terrible things with that glove.”

“For instance, I remember one time when a woman – I can’t remember who she was now but it was someone that I thought should not have been in any way fooled with because she was very dignified and she was very well dressed and she was so sedate, so prim and proper …”

“… and my father just couldn’t stand it and so he just twisted this thing off and threw the [gloved] hand in her lap. That woman nearly died of a heart attack.” (Lucas; Watumull)

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Eben ‘Rawhide Ben’ Low-PP-75-5-007-1939

November 2, 2018 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pineapple Pier

Although sugarcane was ‘king’ in Hawai‘i, untilled government land was in pasture rather than sugarcane because it was too dry for unirrigated sugarcane and the elevation was too high for irrigated cane.

Several events occurred in 1898 that facilitated the development of the new pineapple canning industry. First, the annexation of Hawaii in that year resulted in the revocation of the 35% duty on Hawaiian canned pineapple.

Second, the Republic of Hawaii legislature passed a law that made some 1,300-acres of government land near Wahiawa available for homesteading once a pasture lease expired (13 southern California families came to Wahiawa to homestead the land made available under the new law.)

These early migrants and James Dole, who arrived in 1899, formed the nucleus of what would eventually become the largest pineapple industry in the world. (Bartholomew et al)

Homesteaders cleared land, built homes, and at first planted food and fodder crops. Byron O. Clark had obtained a small pineapple farm planted with ‘Smooth Cayenne’ plants near Pearl City in 1898 before the prospective homesteaders had left California.

Clark’s farm provided the first pineapple plants grown on the homesteaded lands near Wahiawa and they grew so well that other homesteaders followed suit. James Dole established the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1901 and is “usually considered to have produced the first commercial pack of 1,893 cases of canned pineapple in 1903”.

The pineapple plantation concept quickly spread to Kauai and Maui, perhaps because the already well-established sugar industry provided the near-ideal plantation model for those to whom it was not initially obvious. (Bartholomew et al)

In the early 1900s, to help with the burgeoning plantation population, government lands were auctioned off as town lots in Kapa‘a.

The first pineapple company on the island of Kauai was established in 1906. In 1913, Hawaiian Canneries Company, Ltd opened in Kapa‘a at the site now occupied by Pono Kai Resort. Through the Hawaiian Organic Act, Hawaiian Canneries purchased land they were leasing, approximately 8.75 acres, in 1923.

A 1923 sketch of the cannery shows only four structures, one very large structure assumed to be the actual cannery and three small structures makai of the cannery. (Bartholomew etal)

On August 21, 1929, a US trademark registration was filed for ‘Pono’ by Hawaiian Canneries. The description provided to the trademark for Pono is ‘canned sliced and crushed pineapple and pineapple juice used for food-flavoring purposes’. (Trademarkia)

By 1956, the cannery was producing 1.5 million cases of pineapple. By 1960, 3,400 acres were in pineapple and there were 250 full time employees and 1,000 seasonal employees. (Exploration)

Until the 1960s, the Hawaiian Canneries canning plant used to produce canned sliced and crushed pineapple and pineapple juice used for food-flavoring purposes.

Factory by-products – the crowns & skins from the processed pineapples – were loaded onto train carts and hauled up the coast to a pier. The pineapple rubbish was then dumped into the ocean from the end of the pier. (Kauai Path)

As canned pineapple from other countries began filling the market, Hawaiian canneries began to close and plantations, once located on Maui, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, and Kauai, began to shrink.

In 1962, Hawaiian Canneries went out of business due to foreign competition. (Exploration) Other smaller Kauai and Maui pineapple companies closed in the late-1960s.

In 1969, Hawaiian Fruit Packers (which was formed in 1937 by the reorganization of a company initially started by a group of ethnic Japanese growers) on Kauai, the last cannery remaining there, announced plans to cease planting. The cannery was closed in Oct. 1973. (Bartholomew etal)

Del Monte cannery closed in 1985, and Dole cannery in Iwilei closed in 1991. The Kahului cannery of Maui Land and Pineapple Company was the last remaining pineapple cannery in Hawai‘i. During the end of the 1990s and into the 21st century the value of fresh Hawaiian pineapple overtook the value of canned Hawaiian pineapple.

The Hawaiian pineapple industry has gone from its early days as a primarily fresh product, through most of the 20th century as principally a canned product and a major supplier of the worlds canned pineapple market, to the 21st century when it is once again grown mostly for fresh consumption. (HAER)

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