Mrs. S.
has trained nearly seventy since she has been here. If there were
nothing else they see family life in a pure and happy form, which
must in itself be a moral training, and by dint of untiring
watchfulness they are kept aloof from the corrupt native
associations. Indeed they are not allowed to have any intercourse
with natives, for, according to one of the missionaries who has
spent many years on the islands: "None know or can conceive without
personal observation the nameless taint that pervades the whole
garrulous talk and gregarious life of all heathen peoples, and above
which our poor Hawaiian friends have not yet risen." Of this
universal impurity of speech every one speaks in the strongest
terms, and careful white parents not only seclude their children in
early years from unrestrained intercourse with the natives, but
prevent them from acquiring the Hawaiian tongue. In this respect
the training of native girls involves a degree of patient
watchfulness which must at times press heavily on those who
undertake it, as the carefulness of years might fail of its result,
if it were intermitted for one afternoon.
I.L.B.
LETTER XXI.
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