The holoku is still the almost universal dress of the native women. The missionary who had this sartorial inspiration was a true artist, for no other garment could give the touch of stateliness and dignity to the almost invariably full Hawaiian figure that in American attire might well be awkward and ungainly.
The native girl of pure Hawaiian blood is generally large-boned, but slender—even to daintiness when there is a mixture of some other blood—with flashing eyes and a profusion of long, black hair, almost always with threads of grey before the twentieth year is reached. Her teeth are even and white and she laughs a great deal, particularly when she tells you that father or mother has joined the Mormons—not father and mother—a procedure which is becoming more and more common, and which for some reason not yet made apparent, always affords the other members of the family much amusement.
Employers say generally that Hawaiian girls, while amiable and amenable, have not the energy and push necessary to make them thoroughly efficient. There is a general impression that they are irresponsible, and that good fishing weather, a family luau or a fancied offense are each one by itself or collectively sufficient reason for discontinuing business relations. An examination, however, which was made of the time books in three distinct occupations—a cannery, a laundry and a wholesale house, showed an almost clean record for married women and girls alike, so far as absences were concerned. With the exception of a day here and there—far less than the average of absences elsewhere—the four months covered showed steady work. The girls are prompt, employers say, in coming to work in the morning, but are apt to dawdle before settling down to their occupation both in the morning and after the lunch period.
In a number of instances, it was found that work had been given up and employment changed because pay envelopes had been short several hours’ time, in spite of the fact that in every case the mistake had been corrected when called to the foreman’s attention.
None of the women or girls spoken with had any complaints to make concerning their work. Although limping painfully after a week of standing from seven in the morning until seven or eight o’clock at night—often their first experience with any sort of occupation—they stoutly maintained that they were not tired.
Managers of both canneries and laundries say that they have no difficulty in securing Hawaiian girls. An advertisement for help always brings more applicants than there are positions, except during the few heaviest weeks of the canning season.
One tender-hearted proprietor said he never advertised because he couldn’t bear to disappoint the girls; but always secured new workers through those he already employed. Boardinghouse keepers tell of girls who waited on the table and did chambermaid’s work during the summer to pay for their books at Normal school.
Among the most ubiquitous and characteristic of the native workers—the lei-makers and vendors—one finds few young girls. Perhaps this is because of the problem peculiar to the Hawaiian girl in Honolulu, which is created for the most part by her inheritance. The echo of the old Hawaiian traditions of hospitality, or perhaps a phase of that same hospitality which now finds expression in welcoming the stranger to her native land, tends to give the less carefully trained native girl an unreserve that, combined with a genuinely sweet and friendly nature, too often causes her to fall an easy victim to men who regard her as legitimate prey. The large transient element and especially the numbers of soldiers quartered on the island, make it actually unsafe for a girl to go about her business unmolested unless she is possessed of unusual force of character.
But in spite of this, and in spite too of the fact that the problem of subsistence has not yet become acute for the Hawaiians in Honolulu, a large number of the native women and girls, with the awakening of new desires—whether for more wearing apparel, more amusement, more education, or more opportunity—are becoming serious workers.
There is no question but that a large factor in the reason for Hawaiian girls entering the wage-earning field will be found in the fact that numbers of them are the illegitimate daughters of white men who have made no provision for either them or their mothers. Unmarried mothers are almost, without exception, taken care of with their babies by their own families, and it is difficult to make them think seriously of the future of the fatherless little one, since they are themselves still so close to the promiscuity in sex relations of the early Hawaiian days. This type of girl, however, is by no means to be considered representative of that portion of the race which has had opportunity and careful training; and the mother of numerous illegitimate children is likely to be most careful of her daughter’s upbringing and conduct.