It is quite

telling to what proportions it may grow. evident that not over twenty-five per cent. of the industries are yet developed, and, for aught we may know, not one tenth. Both companies pay larger

dividends than three fourths of the railroads in

America, and if taken upon a profit-sharing basis are far more valuable.

The inter-island commerce, like all business of the islands, has something about it very attractive. People residing along the wild, rocky shores of Kona look forward to "steamer-day" with the greatest pleasure. The ship from Honolulu, which is the center of their little world, brings letters from friends, papers, and visitors. The natives are great patrons of the interisland vessels, and scarce a ship leaves any port that does not have from a dozen to twoscore dark-skinned passengers on board, who crowd the steerage.

The sailors of the inter-island vessels are almost exclusively Hawaiians. They are faithful, brave, and skilful. No white men could man boats and take them safely through such raging surf as sometimes rolls along the bays of the Hawaiian Islands. A storm must be fearful, indeed, if the Kanaka sailor does not brave it in his open boat. Many of the landings have to be made at midnight, but the night is never so dark that the sharp eyes of the native sailors can not penetrate it and see the beacon-lights on the docks or along the shore. When their boats are cap

sized by the heaving waves, the sailors have been known to seize the passengers and swim ashore with them. But accidents are rare, and travel among the islands may be considered as safe as between New York and Chicago. The beautiful scenery and many curious and interesting incidents make it well worth one's while to take the voyage.

CHAPTER XXXIII

RAILROADS AND UNINHABITED ISLANDS

ALMOST every large plantation on the Hawaiian Islands has a plantation railroad. These roads extend over the plantation, all converging to the mill, and sometimes several plantations are connected by a single railroad. The rails are small and the track "portable." The road can be changed without much expense, and often the track is laid, the road used until the crop is planted, then the track taken up, the ground plowed, and cane planted where the road had been.

The rails are slight, and the "cross-ties" are often made of iron in sections, so that when they are laid down flat on the ground, and bolted together, the road is complete. The plantation car and train is used in many ways. The manager often rides in his special. flat car over the field; the road carries the hands to work in the morning, brings them home in the evening, brings cane to the mills, and carries steam-plows to the fields; it carries machinery, and in a hundred other ways makes itself indispensable.

Tho small and light, the engines draw tremendous

loads. A plantation, with its many switches and cars, has the appearance of a railroad junction. When the mills are in operation, there can be found no more animated scene. Great trains of cars, loaded with cane from the fields, are continually seen crowding toward the mills, and from them the cane in a mighty stream is taken to the carrier, and fed into the great crushers which extract the juice.

On September 4, 1889, the whistle of the locomotive was heard for the first time on the Hawaiian Islands among the hills that environ Honolulu, signaling the initial trip of the first passenger train over the Oahu Railroad. If there was any man who deserved to be proud on that day it was B. F. Dillingham, the man whose foresight and genius had first projected the road, and whose perseverance had enabled him to surmount almost innumerable difficulties and realize his ideal.

Mr. Dillingham is the Jay Gould of Hawaii. Perhaps he was the first man to conceive the plan of a railroad on the islands. He was thought to be visionary at first, and it was doubted if a railroad on those small islands would ever pay, unless a bridge could be built from one to the other, a plan long since abandoned as impracticable. Mr. Dillingham was born in West Brewster, Mass., September 4, 1844. At the age of fourteen, he shipped before the mast on the vessel Southern Cross for a voyage around the Horn to

San Francisco, which he reached in 1859, and returned the same way. Mr. Dillingham continued in the Southern Cross until June 6, 1863, when she was captured by the rebel cruiser Florida. He was taken in irons aboard a French vessel and carried to Brazil, from which place he was sent to Pernambuco, and from there Mr. Dillingham worked his way on the English brig William Dodge to New York city.

He was soon after made second mate on a merchantman, and finally secured a place on a vessel plying between San Francisco and Honolulu. While in Honolulu in 1865 he had the misfortune to have his leg broken, which compelled him to remain in the city after the ship left. On his recovery he entered into the employ of Mr. Henry Dimond as a clerk, in which capacity he served for three years.

By the end of that time he was a citizen of Honolulu and thoroughly identified with the interests of the islands. The keen, sagacious business men of the city soon learned that Mr. Dillingham possessed judgment and business sagacity far above the average men of his time. He served various persons in various capacities, and was trusted by all who knew him. Perhaps no man with a successful enterprise ever had greater difficulties to overcome than Mr. Dillingham. A railroad was supposed to be impracticable on an island so small as Oahu, being little more than one hundred miles in circumference. The Oahu Railroad,