steamship service between Honolulu and Japan until the immigrant ships began going back and forth. A fact to be learned only after getting old is that one misses most in old age the things that he had been accustomed to in his boyhood."
"Is it true about the women too?" Seikichi ventured to ask, for Yone seemed to like frank talk and despised a fawning attitude.
"Yes, that is so too. I came from Japan when I was twenty and have been here forty years. I left the old country after knowing Japanese women. I was precocious. In any nationality there are strong and weak points, and many times these opposite traits counterbalance each other. But I feel that Japanese women are the best wives that can be obtained on earth. They are trained to serve their husbands and parents. I am old and can talk without mixing sex and passion in my talk. Anyone, be it man or woman, if service is the motive of his or her action, that service will be returned in kind. Therefore, the trained, cultured woman of old Japan is perhaps the most contented woman in the world. I ought to know.
"My first wife was a native of the upper class in Kauai. She was beautiful in face and physique. We were happy in our own way, living childishly from day to day. She sang when we were happy, quarrelled when anything got in her way, and cried like a spoiled child. She had no inhibition. She certainly was a child of nature and there is a lot of fun in this type of companion when one is young and with no responsibility. I have heard many accusations that I married her for her land. That is a dirty lie. It is true she had money and land, but that was just coincidental.
"There is a basis for that kind of talk, however, for that is the way many stranded white sailors from whaling schooners settled down to become huge land owners. On the island of Kauai you can count a dozen men on your fingers who are in this category. I pity the Kanaka wives of these unscrupulous men. For these men are the ones that are keeping mistresses more attractive than their legitimate mates, and these are the ones that are despoiling natives of their lands under one pretext or another. For a bottle of wine, a few acres of land, the only property of the native, has been known to have been signed away. On technicalities of Anglo-Saxon law, quite different than the ancient tribal and konohiki laws, lands were expropriated by those in power. My wife brought me parcels of land, but I can honestly say that whatever I have today, I made myself in business.
"My present wife, as you may know, is Portuguese and she is an excellent wife; a good mother for my children. The Portuguese seem to have no racial discrimination as you will soon find out if you live in Hawaii. They are a very hardworking, decent lot except for the good-for-nothings that have come from the Azores and Madeira Islands. They were penal colonies for the Protuguese kingdom. The only flaw in my marriage is the fact that I cannot get used to the religion. You know they are very good church-goers, although I cannot see anything good that comes from their attending churches except that they clear their conscience of sins committed during the preceding week. There is not the inside urge that makes them religious and seek the priest for consolation. They go just because they are used to going. I am dragged along sometimes but I cannot see anything in their teachings. I will stick to my own Namu Amida Butsu."
Bit by bit, Yone told his life history to Seikichi Arata as he massaged and rubbed every day. After living nearly four years among the illiterate common laborers, the talk of this old man was not only novel but also enlightening, for in him the cosmopolitanism of Hawaii found voice. Not only was this a voice, but the plain expression of one who was practicing and living its doctrine of equality and miscegenation. His outlook on life was bigger; he grasped its essentials and tolerated its existence, but was individualistic enough not to be overwhelmed by it. His longing was still to spend his dying days on the pine tree lined shores of Japan's Inland Sea. To the core, he was still proud of his heritage and refused to trade with the Hackfelds, one of the largest of the wholesale houses of Honolulu, because the concern was German in capital. Yone could not forgive the German participation in the Tripartite Alliance that high-jacked the Liaotung Peninsula from Japan. The peninsula had legally been ceded to Japan by the Manchu government of China as spoils of war. He would not talk to the Hackfeld salesmen, even when they happened to be Japanese. On the other hand, he patronized Theo. H. Davies and Company. It was English and England was allied to Japan.
To the recently arrived Japanese immigrants, this old timer seemed very native and at the same time very feudalistically Japanese. He was hard to approach because their ideas were so far apart. Practically all the laborers came with the idea of making a couple of hundred dollars and then returning to the home country. Yone had been there forty years and considered this land his home and the home of his children. Being materially successful, he was the victim of any number of promotional schemes, and his store was also the place where all sorts of sob stories were taken, in order to get donations for one cause or another. His gruffness to the rank and file was in a sense a defensive mechanism. He did not relish the idea of being considered "soft" for after all he was a hard-boiled businessman.
"Arata, what are your plans for the future? Are you returning to Makaweli to grow sugar cane?"
"I have no desire to remain a farmer or a millhand. I want to go into retail store work. I can see the greatest future in merchandise retailing if done right in the plantations. Can you offer any suggestions as to how to start?"
"My way is the harder way, and I must recommend to you that the hard way is the shortest way. You must learn the taste of the people you deal with. You must learn to utilize the capital you possess in the most effective manner. The best way is to go about peddling among the camps. Carry articles that will incite the urge to spend among the luxury hungry workers. Except for downright misers, all human beings love beauty and would like to use or wear something attractive. Carry different scented soaps, tooth brushes, powder, mirrors, pocket-knives etc., that you can carry in the back of a horse cart. Spread your wares at night at some friend's house and the people will come to you merely to inspect the goods out of curiosity because they have nothing else to do. You will be surprised at what your sales will amount to. Transactions will necessarily be in cash. Your expense will be the original cost of the horse and buggy, and the maintenance cost will consist of the capital to invest in the merchandise and some little present for the housekeeper where you spread your wares. You can have seven or eight camps to which you can go twice a month. If you have a mind to do it, I can stock you with the appropriate goods to start this business, and I shall give you the most favored rates, for I want to see you succeed."
For two years Arata followed Yone's advice and worked hard at retailing among the camps at night. Varieties of stock increased and soon he was carrying goods equivalent to those that lined the shelves of a small country store. It was a very good apprenticeship for him, for he had never had any business experience. He learned to mix with strangers, to make friends, to become above all a good listener to trivial talk and gossip. He learned quickly how important the last accomplishment was in winning boosters and friends. For many illiterates he wrote letters to their homes in Japan. He became a confidant to many in this way. In return, he bore them news of the world: news that he had gleaned through reading papers at Yone's. He still continued to read to the old man and to keep up with the world's movements himself. In time, country people bored with ennui at eventide came to look forward to the biweekly rounds of Arata. Business naturally improved with such a frame of mind among the customers.
One day Yone called him in the office and said, "Arata, it is about time you opened a store yourself. There is a limit to the amount of peddling you can do. The first part of your training is now over. Enter the next one as a storekeeper. Do you have in mind some locality where you would want to locate permanently? You must always bear in mind the competition, the type of customers, and the extent of patronage you are capable of getting."
"Thank you for your unfailing interest in me. By following your advice, I have not only earned quite a bit of money in the last two years, but I have learned a great deal of the world and the secrets of business success. For the latter knowledge I have had to go through a heart-aching failure or two before acquiring the knack of how to get along with the rank and file who are my prospective customers. About the place of business, I used to live at Makaweli and in that district I have a host of friends. Stores are not as numerous there as on this eastern end. I shall perhaps start there."
In this manner the Arata store had its beginning. It's birth was timed to occur on the sixth anniversary of Seikichi's