Prominent People | Page 139 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

February 5, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

London Missionary Society

Captain James Cook made three Pacific voyages, which, with those of Byron and Wallis, covered a continuous period of British exploration in the south Pacific from 1764 to 1780.

Cook’s first expedition (1768-1771) was under the auspices of the British Admiralty and the Royal Society, primarily to observe the transit of Venus from the newly found island of Tahiti. Cook was given command of the bark Endeavour.

Cook’s second voyage (1772-1775) was for the purpose of searching for the south continent. He had two ships, the Resolution, and the Adventure. The ships the Antarctic between the meridians of the Cape of Good Hope and New Zealand. On this trip, Omai, a Tahitian, was taken on board the Adventure and sailed with Cook back to Britain.

Cook’s third voyage (1776-1780) was for the purposes of returning Omai to his home in the Society Islands and seeking a northern passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The Resolution was refitted for her second voyage and the Discovery, under Captain Clerke, was added to the expedition. At the end of Cook’s last voyage, nearly all the important islands in Polynesia had been found.

The Pacific made a particular impression on the British imagination. The revelation of the Polynesian culture, entirely cut off from any exterior force of civilization, touched a chord with Cook’s compatriots.

Britain’s new fascination with the Polynesians was fueled by the arrival in London of a Polynesian – Omai. Joseph Banks, botanist on Cook’s ship the Endeavour, dressed Omai in tailor-made suits, the portraitist Joshua Reynolds painted him.

King George III himself eventually requested a meeting. Omai cheerfully shook hands when the meeting took place, saying `How do, King Tosh,’ to the King’s reported delight. (Hiney; NY Times)

Cook’s Pacific finds later led to questions for the Evangelicals. Why did British Christianity, with the means at hand, lack a missionary history? When had there last been a serious missionary movement among Christians anywhere?

The empire was in place to trade. In 1793 an India Bill went before parliament which renewed the royal license of the East India Company. There was a call for an amendment allowing Christian missions and native schools to be opened in India, but the bid was resisted.

It was in this climate that the London Missionary Society was formed. A meeting was called; on the first day, 200 Evangelicals gathered at the Castle and Falcon, paid the guinea membership, and proceeded to elect from among themselves thirty-four regional directors to meet once a year, and a London-based board of twelve to meet monthly. (Hiney; NY Times)

On August 9, 1796, a service was held for the inaugural mission at Surrey Chapel. Just four of the chosen thirty were ordained ministers. All four were in their late twenties: it was vital that they should be young and healthy.

The other, non-ordained missionaries had been chosen for their skills as much as their conviction; among them were six carpenters, two bricklayers, two tailors, two shoemakers, a gardener, a surgeon and a harness maker.

They sailed at six the next morning, on August 10, 1796. Nearly seven months later they anchored off the island of Tahiti, after a voyage via Gibraltar and Cape Horn. Seventeen missionaries were to disembark here, including all those who were married.

The first known Christian missionaries in Polynesia came from the London Missionary Society, an ecumenical Protestant organization; they landed in Tahiti, the Marquesas, then Tongatapu in Tonga. (PCC)

The missionaries soon saw an unforeseen problem. Since Cook’s voyages, other ships of exploration and whaling (Russian, French, British and American) had paid visits to the islands. Rum and firearms were now a part of life, as were disagreements and occasional violence between crews and islanders. Over the years, more London missionaries were sent.

One London Missionary Society member was William Ellis. Born in England, William and Mary Mercy Ellis went to Tahiti in 1817 as part of a new group of highly educated workers. They brought with them the first press and set it up in Moorea. They soon moved to Huahine, where William Ellis helped draft the code of laws. (Boston University)

Then the mission sent them to Hawai‘i. “The time for her departure at length came, and on the 31st of December, 1822, accompanied by her four children, she embarked, with her husband, on board the Active, for the Sandwich Islands.”

“The voyage to the Sandwich Islands, about three thousand miles distant, was safe, and not unpleasant, and by the tender mercy of their heavenly Father, they reached Oahu on the 5th of February, 1823.”

“Here Mrs. Ellis received on landing, a cordial welcome from many of the chief women of the settlement, and from the esteemed American Missionaries, of whose plain but hospitable and comfortable dwelling, she became for several weeks an inmate, and received every attention and kindness as a beloved sister in the Lord.”

“All the affection professed in the invitations they had so kindly forwarded, was practically manifested; and every hope of tenderness and sympathy which they excited, was fully realized. Mrs. Ellis found that the prospects of greater usefulness …”

“In Huahine the influence of the Missionaries could bear on a comparatively small number, but here the town of Honolulu contained not fewer than 8,000, while the population of the island amounted to 20,000, and the influence of the Missionaries was brought to bear indirectly upon 150,000 or 180,000 persons.” (Mary Mercy Ellis Memoirs)

Ellis and the others who joined him from the London Missionary Society (including Tahitians who came with them) worked well with the American Protestant missionaries who arrived in Hawaii in 1820.

In 1823, Ellis and three of the American missionaries, Asa Thurston, Artemas Bishop and Joseph Goodrich, toured the Island of Hawaii to learn more of the country and people, with a view to establishing mission stations there. They were the first white men to accomplish this, being also the first white men to visit the volcano of Kilauea. (Thurston)

Ellis remained in the Islands for eighteen months, but returned to England, due to illness of Mary (she died in 1835.) Ellis later remarried and continued mission work in the Madagascar. Ellis died in 1872.)

British mission activity started in the South Seas, with the first overseas mission to Tahiti in 1796. British missionary work expanded into North America and South Africa. Early mission activities also centered in areas of eastern and southern Europe including Russia, Greece and Malta.

During the 19th century, the main fields of mission activity for the London Missionary Society were China, South East Asia, India, the Pacific, Madagascar, Central Africa, Southern Africa, Australia and the Caribbean (including British Guiana, now Guyana.) (Guide to Council for World Mission) (Lots of information here is from Hiney; NY Times and Mary Mercy Ellis Memoirs.)

Because of the positive role of the London Missionary Society in assisting the Hawaiian mission, any descendant of a person sent by the London Missionary Society who served the Sandwich Island Mission in Hawaii is eligible to be an Enrolled Member in the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society.

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February 3, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Charles Coffin Harris

Charles Coffin Harris was born on June 9, 1822 in the township of Newington, a small suburb of the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, eldest son of William Coffin and Mary (Johnson) Harris.

Coffin was educated in his father’s school until he was fifteen, when he then entered Harvard College in 1837 – he graduated from Harvard in 1841. Upon leaving college he returned to Portsmouth, and engaged for a time in the occupation of teaching, at the same time commencing the study of law. He married his cousin, Harriet M Harris.

“On the discovery of gold in California, and the breaking out in the East of what was termed the ‘gold fever,’ he deemed it a good opportunity, like many another of our New England men, to ‘’break away’ from his New England life and seek his fortune and his fame on the Pacific shores, and accordingly embarked for California, and arrived, in the youth and vigor of his manhood, at San Francisco, early in May, 1850.”

“Of course, there had been no planting as yet in California, and the price of vegetables brought from the Hawaiian Islands was so enormous, that Mr. Harris was induced to embark in an enterprise to procure them from the islands, and having procured a vessel which had brought many of his townsmen to San Francisco, he embarked with his two brothers, Thomas and Abel, who were both sea-faring men, in this enterprise, and arrived at Honolulu in August, 1850. (Granite Monthly, April 1882)

“He arrived at the Islands still a young man – during the formation period of our history, and entering our then infant country as a practitioner, and occasionally our Legislature as a representative – he contributed to the growth of the superstructure of jurisprudence which exists to-day in this Kingdom.” (Judd)

In September of that year (1850) the two young princes, – Alexander Liholilho, who was afterwards King Kamehameha IV, and Lot Kamehameha, who was afterwards King Kamehameha V, – arrived home from their American and European tour.”

“He immediately became intimate with them, and this intimacy, perhaps, determined his fate. This intimacy was somewhat interrupted in the case of Prince Liholiho, during the first year of his reign, though resumed during the last years.”

“But in the case of Kamehameha V it continued uninterrupted to his death. His first public employment was that of police magistrate of Honolulu in the year 1851. He was elected representative for one of the districts of the Island of Hawaii in 1852.”

“His wife with their infant son arrived from Boston, January 1, 1852, and from that time his residence there may be regarded as permanent.” (Granite Monthly, April 1882)

“He continued to practice law with marked success. In 1862, a law was passed, creating the office of attorney-general of the kingdom, and to which office he was appointed on the 26th of August, 1862 by Kamehameha IV.”

“This king died 30th of November, 1863, and was succeeded by his brother, Kamehameha V, and Mr. Harris was immediately appointed minister of the interior, ad interim.”

“He was a member of the Privy Council of state, and continued to hold the office of attorney-general until the 22d of December, 1865.”

“In March, 1867, he received the appointment of minister at Washington, and having returned here in 1868, he resumed the duties of Minister of Finance, in which office he continued until December 20, 1869, when he was appointed minister for foreign affairs, which office he resigned on the 10th of September, 1872.”

“At the death of Lunalilo without heirs, Prince Kalākaua was elected king by the legislature on the 12th of February, 1874, and Mr. Harris was appointed at once first associate justice of the supreme court, and on the resignation of Chief Justice Allen on the 1st of February, 1877, Mr. Harris was appointed chief justice of the supreme court and chancellor of the kingdom.” (Granite Monthly, April 1882)

“Harris is six feet high, bony and rather slender, middle-aged; has long, ungainly arms; stands so straight that he leans back a little; has small side whiskers; from my distance his eyes seemed blue, and his teeth looked too regular and too white for an honest man …”

“… he has a long head the wrong way – that is, up and down; and a bogus Roman nose and a great, long, cadaverous undertaker’s countenance”. (Twain)

“(B)y the death of Chief Justice Harris, the interests of the Hawaiian Kingdom have sustained a great loss”. (Hawaii Bar) “It may be truly said that no important measure of this Government, for years, has been taken without consultation with him. The Government leaned upon him as upon a sure stay and support. There is indeed nobody to fill his place.”

“With a love for this country where he had spent the greater part of his life, equal to that which he bore to America, the land of his birth, he had for its prosperity a brooding anxiety, which rendered every public act, and its results a matter of intense personal interest to him.” (Castle)

“He was a strong man – strong in having a tenacity and force of will which never lost sight of its objects, and was untiring in their accomplishment; strong in a mind stored with the facts and details in this country for over thirty years, with a retentive rnemory which never failed him; strong in power to discern the weakness or tricks of others. No one ever deceived him.” (Hartwell)

“Throughout Harris’s lifetime in the islands, the possibility of the kingdom being annexed by a foreign power was a constant concern. France, Great Britain, Russia, and Japan were all at one time or another viewed as threats to the continued sovereignty of the monarchs.”

“It was the United States of America, however, that loomed largest among the world powers in the affairs of the little country. Sometimes the pressure for annexation by the United States came from within the islands themselves, where some plantation owners viewed annexation as a way of opening up American markets to their sugar crop.”

“Sometimes the pressure came from within the United States, from those who viewed the islands as strategic to economic and military expansion into the Pacific.” (Harris)

During the reign of Kamehameha V, “Believing that a convention was the most legal way to make the necessary revisions to the constitution, Harris advised the king to issue a proclamation calling a convention together. This caused considerable upheaval within the islands, and when an election was held to select delegates to the convention, the majority of voters demonstrated some unhappiness with the course the king had chosen.”

“Of the elected delegates to the convention, the majority belonged or were sympathetic to the rival missionary party. The other delegates to the convention, however, were made up of the upper house of the legislature, which more generally favored the king and his program of constitutional reform.”

“Voting rights quickly became the primary topic of discussion at the convention, for it was on this issue that the true power to control the future of the kingdom would turn. Some were convinced that if the convention failed to adopt a new constitution, the monarchy would collapse.”

“Others, particularly the annexationists, were hoping for just such a result so that a revolution could be initiated, deposing the king and inviting the United States to take over the islands. Neither side was willing to compromise, and the convention deadlocked.”

“With such ominous consequences a possibility, the king, in an effort to preserve the monarchy and the independence of the islands, proclaimed that the constitution of 1852 was abrogated and announced that he would grant the kingdom a new constitution. The convention dissolved and for a short time the Hawaiian kingdom was an absolute autocracy.”

“Within a few days, the cabinet, using Harris’s draft constitution as a basis, completed a new constitution, which Kamehameha V swore to uphold. Some within the government thought the new constitution would be met with violence.”

“However, it was not only accepted, it survived in effect for 23 years, longer than any other constitution under the Hawaiian monarchs, and received favorable reaction outside the islands.” (Harris)

His first wife died in March 1870; on May 1, 1879 he married Ella Fessenden Tiffany, daughter of his predecessor Elisha Hunt Allen.

“A great shock was experienced by the community last Saturday (July 2, 1881) when the news gradually crept round the city that the Chief Justice had died suddenly at his residence at Waikiki.” (Hawaiian Gazette, July 6, 1881)

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January 30, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Whaley

“Getting the stuff into port was a good deal like the true, sportsman shooting domestic chickens when he had been brought up to go after game. The sport was left for the men who handled it here, men on the interisland steamers and men around the plantations, for there is where it was sold.”

“The Chinese had to have it, and twenty years ago managers of the sugar estates would end down to the city to get it for them. One time, a good many years ago, the story is told of an official who came in contact with opium in two ways. …”

“In one way he came against opium dealers as an administrative officer. And he would cinch a fellow tight enough if it suited him. Another way he came against opium handlers was in the role of purchaser. He played the game both ways and waxed rich.”

‘”There was a lot of money in it in the old days. … and there was fun and excitement in dodging the officers.’” (Unidentified former opium smuggler) (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 19, 1909)

“There was a ring in San Francisco in those days with connecting links in the Sound cities and Victoria. The old Driard House was headquarters for the party in Victoria and Will Whaley was the acknowledged head of that branch.”

“It was only forty miles across the water to the United States and sixty miles would bring the men who did the rough work to a safe harbor on the Yankee side.”

“Chinese constituted the most profitable contraband because the price, in those days, warranted the risk. Fifty dollars a head to land them on the beach during the night, and the money in hand before leaving hospitable British soil, and it was an easy matter to run twenty or even thirty across in a night and get back safely.”

“The same men who engaged in handling the Chinese were in the business of shipping opium. Whaley had his own schooner, the Halcyon, a ‘long low rakish craft’ built to sail with the wind or beat against it, and she could make steamer time if the wind was at all fair. She came to these waters on several occasions and was suspected of having opium as her cargo.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 19, 1909)

“(William A) Whaley managed to keep out of harm’s way but was continuously under suspicion.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, December 19, 1909)

“(L)inked with that of the famous yacht Halcyon, (he) was formerly a custom house employee, and hence knew all the ‘ropes’ in the workings of the force, but this very knowledge has made him fight shy of San Francisco and seek other fields for his gigantic deals in contraband opium.” (Californian, 1893)

“Halcyon, is one of the trimmest little vessels that ever spread a sail, and she is said to be the fastest thing in the Pacific. She has certainly shown a clean pair of heels to every vessel sent out to try to catch her.”

“Her movements are so rapid that she seems a phantom ship. If reports be true, she is worth her weight in gold to her owners.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 13, 1891)

“Halcyon (was) built by Matthew Turner at Benicia the latter part of 1886 for Harry Tevis. The boat was one of the handsomest in the harbor, and her fittings were luxurious. She is 74-feet long, 21-feet 2-inches broad and 8-feet 5-inches deep, so her cabins were ample for the parties who used to go for cruises on her.”

“Tevis tired of the boat and sold her to persons who soon resold her, and she sailed … for Victoria, B. C, in charge of Captain Alfred Metcalf, while Alfred V Wilson appeared as owner.”

“For a few months the Halcyon dropped out of sight, and then stories about a vessel of her description that had met incoming
China steamers and taken on board large quantities of opium began to fly about.”

“It was asserted that the Halcyon picked up the opium after it had been thrown overboard from the steamer in tubs, and landed it in Drakes Bay, Halfmoon Bay and over at Sausalito. One thing is certain when the Halcyon was making her mysterious trips Hongkong opium could be bought in Chinatown for less money …”

“It soon became generally known that the yacht was owned by AW Whaley and EW McLean, two members of the famous Boyd-Ciprico gang. The pair saved money and opened an opium factory in Victoria and another in Vancouver, BC. For a time they directed all their attention to the smuggling of the stuff turned out by their Chinese workmen into the United States, and succeeded.”

“Several times she was ‘nearly caught,’ but matters were always so arranged that the Custom House men were ‘a day behind the fair.’ The next time she was heard from she was in Hongkong, where Whaley bought two tons of opium.”

“She was next from off Honolulu, and a few months later appeared in Victoria, B. C, without an ounce of opium on board. Most of the opium had been landed on the Hawaiian Islands and the remainder came to San Francisco. Since then the Halcyon has made a number of trips which have proved successful.”

“In consequence, Whaley is living in Honolulu and entertaining the Marshal of the kingdom, the Minister of State and other officials, besides the consuls, at costly banquets”. (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, July 25, 1892)

“The ‘gang’ of which Whaley, Ferdinand D Ciprico and ‘Champagne Billy’ Boyd were leaders flourished from about 1888 to 1892, when Ciprico was sent to San Quentin. Boyd committed suicide while under arrest at Alcatraz. Whaley escaped to foreign lands and lived luxuriously on the proceeds of his operations, an exile from America.” (Hawaiian Star, August 28, 1907)

“Opium began to pour into the island villages, and the price dropped from $75 per pound to $23. With the identity of the mysterious schooner once settled, the Hawaiian Customs authorities concluded that the source of the opium influx had something to do with the Halcyon and ordered an armed expedition out to bring her into port.”

“A dozen seizures of the drug were made in various places, and it was so thick that the Hawaiian papers credited the Halcyon with importing 450 tons of it. This is somewhat extravagant, as the Halcyon only measures sixty-three tons, and could not possibly carry over one hundred.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, May 29, 1891)

“If Whaley be a smuggler, and there is little doubt that he is, he is certainly one of the most romantic figures in the gallery of customs-breakers. He is a handsome man of good figure apparently about thirty-five years old, and possessed of a dashing manner that well becomes the title given him around town as ‘King of the Smugglers.’”

“WA Whaley has duped all his associates in the smuggling business, and has fled to Yokohama. The sum he is said to have made away with is about $75,000, which shows, if true, that there is no honor among smugglers or thieves.”

“Whaley … claimed to have boundless influence with certain high officials in the islands, but he did not go so far as to name them. He claimed that a Chinaman in Honolulu made over $1,000,000 while he was in the business.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, November 2, 1892)

“Whaley was noted in Hongkong for his extravagant mode of living, but his luck turned against him and the usual result followed. He lost all his money and finally went to Manila, where he eked out a precarious existence.”

“A few months ago the physicians told him that the end was near. Without money or friends he was dying far from his native country. It was cheaper for the government to send him to America than keep him as a public charge and he was sent to San Francisco on the Thomas as an indigent citizen. He died at sea July 28th.” (Hawaiian Star, August 28, 1907)

“The passing of William A. Whaley on board the United States army transport Thomas, who died a pauper while on the homeward voyage from the Philippines recalled to the old officials in the customs house service one of the strongest bands of depredators against the customs revenue that has ever existed on this coast.” (Hawaiian Star, August 28, 1907)

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January 26, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Chinese Baseball

Baseball is based on the English game of rounders. Rounders become popular in the United States in the early 19th century, where the game was called “townball”, “base” or “baseball”.

In 1845, Alexander Cartwright organized the New York Knickerbockers team with a constitution and bylaws, and suggested that they could arrange more games and the sport would be more widely-played if it had a single set of agreed-upon rules.

Cartwright went on to teach people in Hawai‘i how to play the game; he also was part of Honolulu’s first Volunteer Fire Brigade, and became Fire Chief.

Cartwright was the executor of Queen Emma’s Last Will & Testament, as well as executor of the estate of King Kalākaua. Alexander Cartwright died at the age of 72 in Honolulu on July 12th, 1892. A large, pink granite monument in Oʻahu Cemetery marks the final resting-place of Alexander Joy Cartwright, Jr.

Japan had already adopted the sport during the Meiji era (1870s), when Japan was adopting western customs to establish a more modern national identity. Baseball, to the Japanese, incorporated both western and eastern cultural elements. Baseball had Japanese values of harmony, determination and discipline while also reflecting Western characteristics. (Pang)

The recorded history of Japanese American involvement in baseball in Hawai‘i dates back to 1899, the year Reverend Takie Okumura of the Makiki Christian Church formed a team made up primarily of boys who boarded at his Okumura Home.

He named the team Excelsior, and they captured the youth league championship in 1905. (Chinen) Other ethnic teams formed, including the Chinese.

“Although Chinese baseball players are mighty scarce in this country, over in Honolulu there is a team composed exclusively of Chinese and they play good baseball. The team is called the Chinese Alohas.”

“In a recent game with the players representing the Hawaiian Hotel, the Chinese team won by the score of 9 to 8. The line-up of the Chinese team is as follows:”

“F You, catcher; Chang Yen, pitcher; N. Sheng, first base; Ah Yap, second base; Yuan Chew, third base; Hoi Sing, shortstop: Ho Tong, right field: Ah Sam, center field; Hung Nyam, left field.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, April 17, 1907)

“During the period between 1910 and 1925, (Chinese) baseball teams … ruled supreme in the territory. The aggregations were so successful that they new worlds to conquer.”

“Starting in 1912 and through 1916, Chinese diamond squads annually invaded the mainland, returning each time with impressive records.” (Franks)

“Honolulu had become a hotbed of Chinese American community baseball. In the early 1900s, the Chinese Athletic Club (CAC) team and the Chinese Alohas called on the services of some of the best ballplayers in the city.”

“In 1912, the CAC, with the financial help of Chinatown merchants and haole boosters anxious to promote Honolulu on the mainland, assembled an ‘all-Chinese’ team that journeyed across the Pacific and engaged in over 100 games against college, community, semiprofessional, and professional teams.”

In June 1912, a Chinese in Hawai‘i organized an amateur league with teams such as the Wah Mun, CAU, CYA, Kukuis and Man Lun. (Franks)

A September 1912 game had thousands watching a game between Wah Mun (representing the ‘Chinese revolutionary faction’) against their rival Man Lun team (representing the Chinese Emperor Reform Association, which backed the continued dynastic rule of China.) There were fears of a riot; but there was none.

However, a fight flared in a later CAU – Man Lun game. Apparently, a Filipino Hawaiian fan was trying to compliment a Chinese Hawaiian player using a Chinese phrase. In reality, he uttered an insult. “For his compliment, the Filipino got a beating by from the Chinaman. The police let it go at that.” (Franks)

About this time there had been growing tensions in China and the revolutionary movement grew stronger and stronger, culminating in the October 10, 1911 Wuhan (Wuchang) Uprising which succeeded in overthrowing the Qing (Manchu) dynasty and establishing the Republic of China.

That date is now celebrated annually as the Republic of China’s national day, also known as the “Double Ten Day,” when the Qing Dynasty finally fell. Sun Yat-sen (the Father of Modern China – and who learned the game of baseball when he lived in Hawai‘i in 1883,) who had been on the American mainland, returned to China at the invitation of the successful revolutionaries to be sworn in as China’s first president in 1912.

Sun’s presidency lasted only 45 days. His most powerful rival was Yuan Shikai (Shih-kai,) who had built a strong base of power in northern China in his role as a top Qing military leader. When Yuan began to flex his muscles, Sun decided it would be politically prudent to abdicate in his favor. Sun turned his attention to forming the Guomindang (Nationalist Party.) (Asia Society)

The Republic of China governed mainland China until 1949; in that year, during the Chinese Civil War, the communists captured Beijing and later Nanjing. The communist-party-led People’s Republic of China was proclaimed on October 1, 1949.

Back to baseball … in 1915, “arrangements have been completed for the famous All-Chinese baseball team of Honolulu, which was so successful against the leading American College clubs on its tour of the United States last year, to come to Shanghai and take part in the series for the open baseball championship of the Far East.”

They needed to raise $5,000 for expenses. Chinese President Yuan Shih-kai sent a letter of support, “stating the president’s hearty approval of the effort to popularize baseball in China as a suitable outdoor sport for Chinese youth …”

“… and the president also sent his check for $500 as a personal contribution towards the expenses of bringing out the All-Chinese baseball team from Honolulu, which he believes will do much to stimulate interest in the game among Chinese.” (Star Bulletin, April 8, 1915)

Furthermore, “Under the patronage of the Chinese government and with the personal assistance of Wu Tang-fang, former Chinese minister to the United States, a baseball team of American-born Chinese is on its way to Shanghai on the steamer Mongolia, by way of the Philippines and Japan.”

“Their expenses in China will be met by the Chinese Government. The team will tour the (principal) cities of the interior to introduce American athletics for the physical improvement of the youth of China.” (Columbus Weekly Advocate, April 15, 1915)

“Sixteen games were played in all during the trip to the Philippines and China, and of these 12 were won, three lost and one tied.”

“In Peking the president of China gave us a reception, and talked to us for about five minutes. We received special permission
to visit the old royal residence, and altogether were treated as distinguished guests.” (Star-Bulletin, June 22, 1915)

In Hawai‘i in 1920, an All-Chinese team knocked off a visiting University of Chicago team; they tied University of California, and later in 1922, Honolulu’s All-Chinese team beat a visiting Stanford team. (Franks)

“For several decades thereafter Hawaiian Chinese organized their own leagues, while supporting a team called the Chinese Tigers that competed in the Hawaii Baseball League.” (Jorae; Zhao)

Chinese Americans used baseball as a means of developing and maintaining sense of community. Through baseball, they cross cultural boundaries to play with and against varied racial and ethnic identities. Some American ballplayers of Chinese ancestry have competed effectively at the highest levels of professional baseball. (Jorae; Zhao)

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January 25, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Reading, ‘Riting & ‘Rithmetic

Sir William Curtis (born January 25, 1752,) son of a British baker, became Member of Parliament for the City of London in 1790, holding the seat for 28 years. He was also Lord Mayor of London 1795-6.

Among many other products, the family made ships’ biscuits. After inheriting the business, expanding it and making a whole pile of money, satirists came to call him Sir Billy Biscuit. Sir Billy was nearly illiterate. (BBC)

The famous expression – “the three Rs—reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic”- is credited to Curtis.

He proposed it as a toast at a dinner given by the Board of Education in the days when folks were pleading for increased educational advantages for the poor. It was received with great applause and drunk amid much merriment.

But, though recognized as a jest at the time, it was afterwards taken up in earnest by Curtis’s detractors, who have handed his name down to posterity as a blundering ignoramus. (Walsh, 1893)

He chose the phrase simply as a joke. (Walsh, 1893) However, for decades, the definition of literacy was limited to the acquisition of reading, writing and arithmetic, usually referred to as the 3Rs. (UNESCO)

“(T)he three R’s,’reading, ’riting, ’rithmetic,’… belong to universal culture. They are the foundation of all education. We are speaking of the superstructure.” (Christian Union, September 4, 1878)

Curtis was not just an unexpected forward thinking, yet jokester, toaster; part of his wealth came from operations linked to the quip about his sea biscuit name …

Curtis was one of the principal financiers for the ‘Butterworth Squadron,’ a British commercial fleet of three vessels, the Butterworth, the Jackal, and the Prince Lee Boo.

These ships sailed for the Pacific Ocean from London via Cape Horn in late 1791 on a sealing and whaling expedition, following the Nootka Sound Convention, opening the Pacific Northwest Coast to British traders.

The Butterworth squadron first wintered at the Hawaiian Islands in February 1793, when control of the Islands was divided between Kamehameha who controlled Hawai‘i and much of Maui, and Kahekili who controlled the islands west of Maui including O‘ahu and Kauai.

They traded in weapons with both Kamehameha and Kahekili, but strongly favored the latter. The ship’s captain entered into a contract with Kahekili giving him title to the island of O‘ahu together with four islands to windward in return for weapons and military assistance, suppressing a revolt on Kauai.

It was during this period of alliance with Kahekili that the Butterworth squadron became the first European vessels that entered the inner Honolulu Harbor. (The contract to title to the Islands would have ended upon Kahekili’s death in 1794.) (Payne)

The first European entry of Honolulu Harbor is credited to Captain Brown of the British schooner Jackal, accompanied by Captain Gordon in the sloop tender Prince Lee Boo.

They called the harbor “Fair Haven” which may be a rough translation of the Hawaiian name Honolulu (it was also sometimes called Brown’s Harbor.)

Sir Billy Biscuit was a generous and hospitable man and in later years he became known as the “Father of the City”. When he died on January 18, 1829 every shop in Ramsgate closed in his honour and an immense crowd followed his funeral cortege. He’d had quite an effect on the place. (BBC)

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