At the meeting of the Board of Supervisors [Papa Lunakiai] on Tuesday night, a letter signed by voters of the 4th and 5th Districts was read, pertaining to retaining once again Peter Kalani as the bandmaster of the Hawaiian Band, instead of Baker [Robert Hoapili Baker], who was appointed as bandmaster to take his place. Continue reading
Solemn Scenes at the Royal Bedside.
The Succession and the Political Situation.
Sketches of the Dead Sovereign and of the Heirs to the Throne.
Kalakaua I., King of the Hawaiian Islands, is dead. He expired at 2:33 o’clock yesterday afternoon in his room at the Palace Hotel, where for three days he had lain unconscious on his bed. Surrounding him at the moment of his death were Col. Macfarlane, the King’s Chamberlain; Col. Hoapili Baker, His Majesty’s Equerry-in-waiting; Hawaiian Consul McKinley, Admiral Brown, U. S. N. Rev. J. Sanders Reed, Rev. F. H. Church and a number of personal friends of the King. Immediately after the death, Admiral Brown notified the Secretary of the Navy of that fact, Mayor Sanderson was also notified, and he called a meeting of the Supervisors for 9 o’clock this morning to consider proper action in the matter. The remains were embalmed and this afternoon they will be removed to the mortuary chapel of Trinity Church, where they will be guarded by a detail of United States soldiers.
At the Deathbed.
The Scenes in the Chamber of the Dying Monarch.
It was a pitiful and most impressive scene. The dying monarch lay gasping upon his bed, his emaciated body heaving convulsively with each of his labored respirations. At the bedside stood two ministers of the Gospel, physicians of the body had given way when they had come to the sad conclusion that Kalakaua was beyond mortal aid. Seated at the head of the bed, clasping the left hand of his King was Col. Baker, Kalakaua’s Aid-de-camp, whose strong frame was bent with sorrow, and who with great difficulty kept back the flood of tears which trembled in his eyes. Bending over from the right side was Col. Macfarlane, Chamberlain of the King. The suspense of the last few days had almost prostrated him, and his face bore traces of weeping. Crouched upon the floor against the wall near the bedside were the King’s valet Kahikina, an Hawaiian youth, and Kalua, a young girl from the Gilbert islands, who had been a most devoted servant to Kalakaua. They formed part of his suite on his arrival here.
Only a light coverlet of rich brown design covered the body of the King. In his struggles to throw off the firm reaper who was gradually pressing more heavily upon him, Kalakaua had thrust his arms out upon the bed. During the forenoon his faithful servant Kalua, in an endeavor to make the King as comfortable as possible, had placed beneath his chin a wide soft scarf of blue silk. There it remained until the death, seeming as it rose and fell upon the bright red undershirt to be symbolical of the wavering between this and the great beyond of the spirit of the stricken King.
Kalakaua was possessed of great vitality, and to the last he resisted the destroyer with a persistence which excited the wonder of the medical men, who knew that the King’s time had come. Though for three days past he had been unconscious and life had apparently been kept in him merely by the stimulants applied internally through natural channels or hypodermically, his constitution seemed determined to keep the spirit with the trembling body. Even after the physicians had relinquished all hope and, knowing that he must die, had ceased to apply stimulants, he continued to struggle on.
During the morning Drs. Woods, Watts, Sanger and Taylor were in attendance.
They consulted and announced that in their opinion the King would not live more than a few hours. He had then been unconscious for nearly forty hours, with the exception of one brief moment in the early morning, when he recognized Admiral Brown and spoke to Colonel Baker saying:
“Well, I am a very sick man.” Continue reading
Outside the little circle of immediate friends and attendants upon the late King Kalakaua who were admitted into the sick chamber it is not known that for the ten days prior to the monarch’s death an Edison phonograph stood near the bedside. Many who saw the instrument daily never suspected its character or use, and during the excitable days preceeding the King’s death, during which every nerve was taxed to its greatest tension, the innocent-looking little machine reposed in its shaded corner unnoticed and unobserved by all except the King’s chamberlain and his secretary. Continue reading
The heads of the nation are planning on a great celebration on the 28th of November, that being La Kuokoa. Therefore, there will be a parade on that day; a speech by Robert Hoapili Baker [R. Hoapili Beka] at Kaumakapili for independence day, the one that we are questioning as to whether he has a brain that can compose a speech for that day by himself; and a banquet for the benefit of Kaumakapili Church after the activities at the church are through. This is something new that we see, that the heads of the nation themselves are doing this, and not the makaainana. Perhaps it was seen that the makaainana were neglectful in observing this day because of their lack of trust in the ministers of the government.
(Ko Hawaii Pae Aina, 11/14, 1885, p. 2)
Ko Hawaii Pae Aina, Buke VIII, Helu 46, Aoao 2. Novemaba 14, 1885.
We do not accept the responsibility for the blame for ideas published under this heading, but it falls on those who write them.
O Aloha Aina Newspaper,
Please include these words in your delicate body, that being this, there is talk from someone calling himself Laakea. This is what we have to say, the two of us who redid the Ahuula of Kahalelaukoa Hoapili Baker [Kahalelaukoa Hoapili Peka], denying what he said is true. You asked if I had seen an Ahuula belonging to Kamakahelei upon the coffin of the alii Hoapili Baker on the day of his funeral, and if what I saw was the Ahuula that Oliwa quickly made on the coffin.
Put in our hands was an old Ahuula that was damaged in some places. We unfurled it and plucked off once again the feathers, hearing at that time that the Ahuula belonged to Kamakahelei, the grandmother of Kahalelaukoa. When the time came to rework the feathers to the new net [? upena aiaha], this job was given to Oliwa, but strange enough, when it was thought that he was going to do it, Oliwa refused, saying that he was not taught the craft of the Ahuula. At this time, we told the one to whom the feathers belong that the two of us would blindly attempt to rework them like how we saw it was done when we took them off, and this is what we did until this Ahuula was completed. There was not a single feather from the first to the last that Oliwa did. You speak of the lei, and we two agree that it was just him that worked at it until his death [?? E i mai oe no ka lei ae maua ia oe, nana wale no ia i hana a hiki i kona make ana.]
So you, Wahamana, are correct in saying that this Ahuula is from Kamakahelei. As for you Laakea, we did not see you there when the two of us were putting together the Ahuula, but there were many who did witness it, and we say to you, you are wrong for making assumptions.
Sincerely,
KAHOOIO,
KANOE KAAUMOANA,
Honolulu, March 14, 1902.
(Aloha Aina, 3/15/1902, p. 5)
Ke Aloha Aina, Buke VIII, HElu 11, Aoao 5. Maraki 15, 1902.
nupepa 