Hawaii not as advertised: the missionary family that owns the island and cannot say so, a leper colony at Molokai, a sheriff, a surfer, a Chinese storekeeper. London went to Hawaii in 1907 and again in 1915, and the title story so offended the descendants of the missionary families that the local papers denounced him. He wrote what he saw, including the leprosy, which he refused to make either heroic or disgusting.