The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1876-07-08

The one hundredth anniversary of the Declara-
3tiOn' Of American independence was celebrated
in this city with a spirit, a thoroughness in all its
details, and a success from first to last, that could
not be otherwise than extremely gratifying to
ali who took part therein-and that includes
about everybody, in and around the city. The
ball was set in motion some two weeks only
beforehand, but the various committees to whom
was entrusted the work of preparation for the
festival, performed their duties with zeal, prompt
ness ana intelligence, and hence the satisfactory
result. One feature of the celebration is note
worthy-the entire population, of all nationalities,
alike entered heartily into the spirit of the coca
sion and it was this prominent fact which marks
the late anniversary as the greatest holiday that
Honolulu has ever yet experienced. We will
begin our record of the Centennial in Honolulu
with an account of
The Martha Washington Tea Party.
The society of Honolulu enjoys a deserved reputa-
ton for enlarged culture and refinement. Our
industrial interests may be seriously depressed, our
politics may be muddled, and our craftsmanship at
fault. yet whenever the ladies of this city have taken
in hand the getting up of a reunion for pleasant and
profitable enjoyment, they have invariably achieved
a social success ; and in this instance, the celebra-
ton of the American Centennial by a Martha
washington ia IaElyS tnSy SuEpdsSeu themselves.
This festive occasion on the evening of the 3rd
instant, was the browning blossom and very fruitage
of a social order that has been nnrtured and trained
under the most wholesome discipline. The tone, the
taste, and precise quality of our society we're admi-
rably illustrated on the evening of the 3rd instant at
the Hawaiian Hotel. The Halls, corridors and bal
comics of our national hospice afforded the fitting
scenes and accessories for Hawaii's participant il
l,strat lion cf tho uraot American inbilaa
Americans here ought to be proud of what they
saw. Could they hope to find in the whole range of
their continent, and even in its most advanced GEN.
tres of culture, a more tasteful and animated pre-
sentation of the event and era which they were happy
to commemorate, than was set in radiant array
before their eyes in these poor Pacific islesH
Could they have hoped to have had anywhere a more
vivid reproduction of the republican court of General
and Lady Washington at the beginning of Americas
political century, and held in her chief city than was
beheld here at its close in the chief city of the Pacific?
They who have studied the social phases of the period
of the great American revolution, must have felt
when presented in our spacious Hotel parlor to the
Lady of the occasion that they saw before them
faithfully presented in feature, bearing and costume,
the original of a familiar portrait of the chief star of
the i~llustrious republican court, and that in our Lady
Consul Scott, they beheld the Lady Martha Washing
ton of early days. And certainly the admirable
costume of the General Washington by her side, was
well calculated to maintain the illusion. However the
great Father Of American independence, was not
merely personated here, but was actually represented,
By one of the blood of the great Washington, in the
person Of q bright and happy young bride brought to
our isles by Delehanty of the " Lackaranaa.'
whose courage and address we sill remember in con-
nection with the loss of our fayorite &c Costa RicG."
The ensemble of our Centennial mimic republican
court presented a beautiful tableau and a truthful
representation of the Past. But the present was
also most admirably blended with the past. There
were two Courts represented, a republican and a
royal one. Their Majesties of Hawaii mingled de-
~lightedly with the ladies, and sages, and heroes Of
the American revolutionary period. And the perfect
reciprocity and harmonious association of the Cont
nent with the Archipelago were most happily illus
trated when Queen Kapiolani and " Martha Washing
ton" sat together side by side.
But the e~xcellency of this Hawaiian Centennial
scene, was not alone in its faithful reproduction of
an i~Ilustrious era, but in n charm and beauty of
Hawaii's own the product of the culture established
on her shores, and of her climatic smiles. In the
festive portion of the occasion to which we turn our
attention, after the courtly scene of the parlor as
this social event vas distinctively a tea party, we
behold 4 most pleasing array of beauty and taste.
Ranged along the sides of the spacious and lofty ban
quoting hall were two dozen tables, covered with
comestibles of the olden time and presided
over by one dozen DANES, assisted by two dozen
m~ailens, arrayel in costumes of the eighteenth