“TWO-GUN” MOKUMAIA, HAWAIIAN GUARD, DEAD

Toured U. S. and Europe as Cowboy and Crack Shot With Buffalo Bill’s Show.

“Two-Gun” Mokumaia, a picturesque character of Honolulu, is dead. He was widely known in Hawaii, and during the last few years, as foreman of the Capitol grounds, he made friends with hundreds of tourist visitors. In his youth Mokumaia, says the San Francisco Chronicle, was a paniolo (cowboy) and became so proficient as a horseman, roper and crack shot that he joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, touring the United States and Europe as a Hawaiian cowboy.

Mokumaia’s chief fame came from the soap box meetings he conducted on a prominent downtown corner during the lunch hour for some weeks preceding elections. Although a stanch Republican himself, Mokumaia welcomed all candidates to his meetings, and his soap box was a recognized institution in political campaigns.

With his appointment to the Capitol grounds position, Mokumaia kept the capitol grounds as it was when it was the palace of the monarchy. Mokumaia arranged fro the building’s guides to wear imitation feather caps, as in former times. He also arranged for the intricate weaving of huge feather kahiliis, or standards, for the former throne room and for the governor’s house.

With a “two-gallon” cowboy hat, often topper with a lei, a huge walking stick of koa wood and a bright hibiscus in his button hole, Mokumaia, a heavy 6-footer, was a striking figure wherever he went.

(Evening Star, 10/15/1929, p. 49)