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Horse_drawn_tramcars,_Honolulu,_Hawaii,_1901

March 3, 2017 by Peter T Young 5 Comments

Taxi Dance

A dime a dance … guests could pay 10 cents to dance with a girl for 90 seconds.

Clustered in a rectangle, two by eight city blocks in size, in the less elite business district, were Honolulu’s seven taxi-dance halls. Around the entrance sit sellers of leis, corsages, and boutonnieres.

The ballroom is just a large room, whose floors are heavily painted, varnished, and oiled … Lining the walls are benches where the girls sit and wait for dances, or chat with the men.

In one corner is a counter and an ice-box, where soda pop is sold. A peek into the ice-box reveals about a dozen leis and corsages, presented to the girls by admirers.

They are not worn because, in the stuffy smoky room, they wilt quickly, and because they offer too much incumbrance to the hopping around of the girls. (Lord & Lee)

“Dance halls that cater to Filipinos waste no money on overhead. The Filipinos have a need for feminine companionship, and accept it under any conditions.

“They are offered partners, room to dance, and exceedingly “hot” music. These halls are smaller, darker, more crowded, and to a considerable degree, more odorous.” (Lord & Lee)

“Considered one of the more popular and common forms of masculine recreation during the 1920s and 1930s, taxi-dancing all but disappeared following the years of World War II.”

“A taxi-dancer or dance hostess is usually a Caucasian, Hispanic, or Asian female between the ages of 18 and 25 (sometimes older), employed by a public dance establishment which caters to the tastes of male customers by providing paid women partners for dancing within a reasonably acceptable social sphere.”

“A man can, in effect, “rent” a woman’s company for as long as he likes; thus, the term “taxi-dancer” appears applicable.” (Meckel)

“The customers (would buy) tickets by dollar’s worth or two dollars’ worth, and they would dance with the girl. And if the girl not so good, they would change.”

The customers “were mostly Filipinos, Japanese, Chinese (local and a few servicemen —and lot of servicemen too during the war. Yeah, a lot of servicemen used to go.” (Dacossos; NPS)

There were live bands … “The Brown Cats of Rhythm played in a taxi-dance hall called the Casino Ballroom, which was located on the corner of Nu‘uanu and Beretania Streets in downtown Honolulu.”

“It was a typical dime-a-dance hall with about sixty to sixty-five hostesses of all nationalities. The dances lasted about two minutes and then a bell would ring.”

“Soldiers and sailors frequented the place, buying rolls of tickets at ten cents a ticket, which they would give to the hostesses at the end of each dance.”

“The music was a mixture of popular tunes and hard-driving jazz, riffing very much in the Kansas City and South-Western style; …The musicians worked from 8.00 to 12.00 p.m., Monday through Saturday, for approximately thirty-five dollars per man.” (Storyville)

“When a lull occurs, the customers are scarce, the girls pair off, and rather than let the music go to waste, dance together, displaying an amazing series of intricate steps, slides, dips, twirls, and backbends. Because they have to be able to follow anyone, they display rare ability and grace. They are marvelous dancers!”

“The taxi-dancers are all much alike in appearances. The average age is twenty-two years, with eighteen as the lower limit and thirty-eight as the upper, most girls being around eighteen years.”

“Out of about three hundred girls, forty are Portuguese, thirty-one are Filipino, twenty-eight are girls (are) pure Hawaiian. twenty-seven are Hawaiian-Chinese, twenty-four are Japanese, fifteen are Korean, and twelve are pure Chinese. No girl admits having either Negro or Jewish blood.”

“The older dancers are of the Caucasian races, and the reason is an obvious one. They come from the mainland where dance halls have been operating for years and they are old hands at the game, whereas in Honolulu, dance halls are a comparatively
new development.”

“One distinguishing characteristic of the taxi-dancer is the inevitable permanent wave. This, added to plenty of mascara and eye shadow, rouge and lipstick, is supposed to render her sexually attractive.”

“She usually chooses a dinner, or cocktail dress, of clinging form-revealing lines, and of medium length, worn with sandals — for comfort and for durability.” (Lord & Lee)

“Previous to becoming a taxi-dancer, the girl works in the pineapple cannery, in private homes as a house maid, or in a restaurant as a waitress. Monotony, long hours and little pay are the rewards of these positions. However, at this period, she still retains her neighborhood or childhood friends.”

“Through another taxi-dancer or a patron of the dance hall, probably just a chance acquaintance or a friend of recent development, the girl gains her introduction to this vocation.”

March 1, 2017 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Blending Traditional and Modern Medicine

In the Islands, “Medicine is generally practiced by the priests (kahuna la‘au lapa‘au,) whose contemplative way of life has led them to acquirement of some knowledge of botany …”

“… they understand the use and application of vomits and clysters, which are drawn from the vegetable reign, and sometimes exhibited with success.”

“Topical bleedings is also in use, but a larger share of priestcraft and mummery enters into their practice. Fortunately the good constitutions and temperance of these islanders prevents their having often occasion for the skill of their physicians.” (Shaler, 1804)

The medical practice in the 1820s and 1830s was not as advanced as many people might assume. The end result of treatments by Western doctors and Hawaiian doctors were the same: purging, vomiting, sweating or managing pain.

Disease was not well understood and was attributed to a mixture of outside influences and physical influences of the afflicted person. Climate, age, temperament, gender, lifestyle, and “constitution” (a subjective idea of how susceptible to disease people were) were thought to cause disease.

Remedies included changes of climate, cupping or bloodletting (in order to weaken the disease you had to weaken the patient), changes in diet, herb or plant based ingestible medications, external topical plasters, and chemicals were all part of the Western pharmacology.

Dr Gerrit P Judd was one of the very few Western doctors in Hawai‘i that was interested in learning about Hawaiian medical practices and remedies. He hired Native Hawaiian assistants and apprentices. (Mission Houses)

Judd’s fairness would not let him condemn everything about the native materia medica. No doubt other haole physicians had indulged a curiosity about kahuna medications, might even have tested or used some of them.

But Dr. Judd was the only haole physician of the 19th century who has left evidence that he knew from personal experience the properties of at least some of the native medicines.

Always inquisitive, always sympathetic to the good things his adopted people could offer, and genuinely fond of them as individuals, Judd investigated their pharmacopoeia very early in his career as a physician among them. (Bushnell)

“It has been an object with me not to oppose the practice of the native physicians in mass, but to endeavor by the best means in my power to correct and modify their practice so that it shall save, not kill, the people.”

“It is my intention, if possible, the coming year to make Ho‘ohano (his assistant) acquainted with the native practices as it now exists and make him the agent for collecting facts on the subject.”

“It is out of the question for us to think of putting down the native practice unless we will attend all the sick ourselves, since it is not human nature to be sick & die without seeking some means of alleviation.”

“The idea of improving the native doctors has therefore suggested itself to me as an exceedingly important one demanding immediate attention.” (Judd, Report to Sandwich Islands Mission, 1839)

“At the commencement of the year (1839) I took a young man who had been at the Seminary six years, with a view to giving him instruction in the Medical art.”

“I commenced the investigation of the native practice and by the aid of these two assistants (Ho‘ohano & Kalili) obtained from several native Drs the various doctrines and practices of the art which have come down through the legalized channels mai ka wa kahiko mai (from ancient times.)”

“These investigations occupied several weeks in the early part of the year and have been continued as opportunity afforded.”

“We also instituted a series of experiments on native medicines which resulted pretty much as all experiments of the kind usually do.”

“We found we could prepare from the native Gourd alone, or combined with Koali (morning glory) or Pipa (Japanese plum) and extract which would physic most delightfully & like Brandreths Pills to any amount which might be desirable.” (Judd, Report to Sandwich Islands Mission, 1839)

Over the years Dr Judd modified his practice to include Native Hawaiian ingredients in his treatments. He also published the first medical textbook in 1838, Anatomia, and founded the first medical school in the Kingdom of Hawai‘i in 1870. (Mission Houses)

Anatomia is the only medical textbook written in the Hawaiian language. Dr Judd, for a time the only medical missionary in the Islands, wrote the text in 1838 to teach basic anatomy to Hawaiians enrolled at the Mission Seminary (Lahainaluna.)

Working from a standard elementary textbook of the time, Judd provided his students with more than a simple, straight translation. He devised a new vocabulary and explained medical functions and practices in words that would be understood by a Hawaiian.

Judd’s use of Hawaiian terms and descriptions gives us insights into native cultural and healing practices in the early decades of the nineteenth century.

Anatomia is a valuable addition to the growing collection of translations on native health and will be greatly appreciated by linguists, historians, and students of Hawaiian language and culture. (Mission Houses) The image shows the Judd Dispensatory at Mission Houses.

Judd_Dispensatory-MissionHouses

February 28, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Timeline Tuesday … 1880s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 1880s – Kalākaua goes on his world tour, Matson acquires his first vessel, Pauahi dies, Bayonet Constitution and Pearl Harbor is leased by US Navy. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.

A Comparative Timeline illustrates the events with images and short phrases. This helps us to get a better context on what was happening in Hawai‘i versus the rest of the world. I prepared these a few years ago for a planning project. (Ultimately, they never got used for the project, but I thought they might be on interest to others.)

Timeline-1880s

February 27, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hamaite

The first Hawaiian word written is ‘Hamaite’ – it was spoken to Captain Cook at the time he made contact with the Islands and he wrote it in his journal.

It was made in reference to iron. Some suggest it refers to Hematite (ferric oxide – a mineral form of iron oxide – that is Hematita in Spanish.) However, others suggest ‘Hamaite’ is actually a Hawaiian expression of He maita‘i – good. (Schutz) The following is Cook’s explanation:

“In the course of my several voyages, I never before met with the natives of any place so much astonished, as these people were, upon entering a ship.”

“Their eyes were continually flying from object to object; the wildness of their looks and gestures fully expressing their entire ignorance about every thing they saw, and strongly marking to us, that, till now, they had never been visited by Europeans …”

“… nor been acquainted with any of our commodities except iron; which, however, it was plain, they had only heard of, or had known it in some small quantity brought to them at some distant period.”

“They seemed, only to understand, that it was a substance much better adapted to the purposes of cutting, or of boring of holes, than any thing their own country produced.”

“They asked for it by the name of hamaite, probably referring to some instrument, in the making of which iron could be usefully employed …”

“… for they applied that name to the blade of a knife, though we could be certain that they had no idea of that particular instrument; nor could they at all handle it properly.”

“For the same reason, they frequently called iron by the name of ‘toe,’ which in their language signifies a hatchet, or rather a kind of adze.”

“On asking them what iron was, they immediately answered, ‘We do not know; you know what it is, and we only understand it as ‘toe,’ or ‘hamaite.’”

“The only iron tools, or rather bits of iron, seen amongst them, and which they had before our arrival, were a piece of iron hoop about two inches long, fitted into a wooden handle, and another edge tool, which our people guessed to be made of the point of a broadsword.”

“Their having the actual possession of these, and their so generally knowing the use of this metal, inclined some on board to think, that we had not been the first European visitors of these islands.”

“But, it seems to me, that the very great surprise expressed by them on seeing our ships, and their total ignorance of the use of fire-arms, cannot be reconciled with such a notion.”

“There are many ways by which such people may get pieces of iron, or acquire the knowledge of the existence of such a metal, without ever having had an immediate connection with nations that use it.”

“It can hardly be doubted that it was unknown to all the inhabitants of this sea, before Magellan led the way into it ; for no discoverer, immediately after his voyage, ever found any of this metal in their possession …”

“… though, in the course of our late voyages it has been observed, that the use of it was known at several islands, to which no former European ships had ever, as far as we know, found their way.”

“At all the places where Mendana touched in his two voyages, it must have been seen and left, and this would extend the knowledge of it, no doubt, to all the various islands with which those whom he had visited had any immediate intercourse.”

“It might even be carried farther; and where specimens of this article could not be procured, descriptions might, in some measure, serve to make it known when afterward seen.”

So, it appears evident, before Cook’s contact with the islands, the Hawaiian already had, used and wanted more iron – to make tools and weapons (principally to shape into knives.)

In answering the obvious follow-up question – Where did it come from? – we need simply recall our existing apprehension of the recent and coming debris from the Japan tsunami, as well as the ongoing volunteer activity by thousands across the State clearing our shorelines of marine debris.

As noted in historic records, examination of the flotsam on the windward beaches of the islands reveals principally logs from the north-west coast of America and floats from Japan.

After comparing and considering the possibilities in 1778, it is probable that floating pieces of shipwrecks and other marine debris, from Japan and elsewhere, were the more likely sources of the iron.

Or, maybe the Spanish made contact with the Islands centuries before Cook …