“‘I was walking along on Fort street and had just come to Chaplain lane,’ said Lieutenant Needham last night, ‘when I saw what appeared to be a large black dog curled up on the sidewalk. As I got closer I found that the object was not a dog but a black valise.’”
“The valise which Lieutenant Needham found evidently has a history. The officer thought nothing wrong upon finding it and carried it toward the police station, thinking some drunken person had left the valise on the sidewalk.”
“Researching a Chinese store on Fort street, Lieutenant Needham noticed something peculiar about the valise and stopped to investigate. He became suddenly aware of the fact that the word ‘Dynamite’ was printed in white paint across one side of the valise.”
“He stood paralyzed not knowing whether to run the risk of putting it down or throwing it from him. But calm judgment suggested that There was a joke somewhere.”
“Carrying the valise to the police station he opened it and found the contents to be human bones with a decidedly earthy smell. Two skulls wrapped in white cloth and tied with strings to match, were found on the top of the pile. The other bones were wrapped in brown paper and tied with various kinds of strings.”
“There were some Chinese cards, chop sticks and messages written on Chinese paper, were found in the satchel.”
“The bones were in a very good state of preservation, and showed recent removal from the grave. The supposition is that they had been prepared for shipment to China—a custom much practiced by the Chinese”. (Hawaiian Gazette, January 24, 1896)
“Situated just at the foot of Hotel street and a little back of the buildings fronting on the land now being built up by the dredger mud, silt and sand, is a very rough 8×12 structure of most unpromising appearance.”
“It stands on four posts about four feet from the ground and looks for all the world like a top-heavy pigeon coop. To look at its exterior would mean nothing to the observer, but to know of its inside workings would make everything about it interesting at once.”
“It is known as the Chinese club house. Whenever a Chinaman has a bag of human bones to prepare for transportation to China it is inside the very narrow limits of this structure that the work of scraping away dried-up skin fragments and other unnecessary matter is done.”
“A peep in at the window close on to the hour of midnight in the dark of the moon is perhaps the best mode of receiving a lasting impression on seeing a couple of Chinamen seated on the floor, each with a pile of bones in front of him and working by the dim rays of a peanut oil lamp.”
“A broken sickle in the hands of one serves to cut away the unnecessary dried skin and ligaments, while a cocoanut grater in the hands of the other, does good work toward removing what the sickle has failed to do.”
“A couple of black oil cloth valises constitute the receptacles for the bones which are done up, some in cloth and others in brown paper. Such portions as the skull are always wrapped in cloth while the legs and arms suffer the indignity of brown paper.”
“A pile of scrapings here and there furnish the only decorations that the room affords. Cracks in the walls serve, on a windy night, to make peculiar noises, which seem a fitting accompaniment for the work of the industrious ones inside.”
“Ever since the Chinese first came into the country has this custom been observed, and as long as they remain here will the same thing go on.”
“No matter if the law says they shall not dig up the dead from places of burial, they will continue to do it some way or other. If the present club houses is removed they will have recourse to another place.”
“The former position of the club house was where the dredger pipes are now emptying their mud. It will be remembered that Nu‘uanu stream was in a very decidedly marshy condition at that point before the introduction of improvements.”
“Then, as now, Chinamen made nightly visits to the place and scraped the bones of their relatives preparatory to transportation, but instead of carrying all waste material as they have to do now, they simply dumped this into the stream to be carried out to sea or to settle among the bulrushes.”
“The work of the preparation of bones for transportation is done openly and anyone who wishes may satisfy his curiosity by paying a visit to the place on most any night of the week.”
“Of course at the present time the Chinese are too much taken up with their new year to even think of the bones of their relatives, but it is very probable there will be a number of skeletons ready to be exhumed next week.”
“The sight is well worth seeing and should be taken advantage of by people interested in unusual scenes. To visit the place during the day would be folly for nothing is done then.”
“All that can be seen at that time is a couple of oil cloth bags, a cocoanut grater, a sickle and a pile of waste material.” (Hawaiian Gazette, February 14, 1896)
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