Severance, Sheriff of Hawaii.
Unlike many other places, Hilo is more fascinating on closer
acquaintance, so fascinating that it is hard to write about it in
plain prose. Two narrow roads lead up from the sea to one as
narrow, running parallel with it. Further up the hill another runs
in the same direction. There are no conveyances, and outside the
village these narrow roads dwindle into bridle-paths, with just room
for one horse to pass another. The houses in which Mr. Coan, Mr.
Lyman, Dr. Wetmore (formerly of the Mission), and one or two others
live, have just enough suggestion of New England about them to
remind one of the dominant influence on these islands, but the
climate has idealized them, and clothed them with poetry and
antiquity.
Of the three churches, the most prominent is the Roman Catholic
Church, a white frame building with two great towers; Mr. Coan's
native church with a spire comes next; and then the neat little
foreign church, also with a spire. The Romish Church is a rather
noisy neighbour, for its bells ring at unnatural hours, and doleful
strains of a band which cannot play either in time or tune proceed
from it. The court-house, a large buff painted frame-building with
two deep verandahs, standing on a well-kept lawn planted with exotic
trees, is the most imposing building in Hilo.
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