Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1891-02-19
A CRAFTY KING.
INSIDE FACTS OF THE DJAI.
LIFE OF KALAKAUA.

His Great Ambition to Restore the
Government of His Fathers in
Hawaii-The Famous Board of
Genealogy.
The late King David Kalakaua was au
all or high chief of the Hawaiian
islands. His ancestors, once powerful in
their own districts, had been completely
overshadowed by Kamehameha and his
followers, and he inherited little beyond
the pride of birth and capacity for ami
NAL enjoyment for which his family had
been noted for ages, according to Ha-
waiian tradition. 1t never once entered
into his head that one day he should be
called upon to rule the kingdom created
by the genius or Kamehameha, and CON
solidated by the patriotism and talents
OF his descendants. If such dream had
ever been presented to Kalakauas brain
1t might have modified his character and
awakened his ambition at an earlier
period. But as it was he simply lived
to enjoy life in an undignified way until
his own and his wife's patrimony had
been dissipated. Even when the light
ming of purchased legislature struck
him and he began to rule the kingdom
"by the grace of God, " his credit did
not rapidly improve, and he was driven
to great many ingenious shifts to graf
ify his appetites and keep up appear
ances.
To the day of his death, during every
vicissitude of chance and fortune, David
Kalakaua was Hawaiian chief, living
afa,,a Il IL a. Al. Il I
people as was possible under the fierce
puritanism of the missionary fathers and
their descendants. After ascending the
throne he took special pains to appear as
a refined and patriotic ruler. His for
eign travel, which gave him a fair shine
of outside polish, was undertaken in a
measure to this end, and to inform him
self of the methods of foreign rulers that
he might make comforts generally to the
surface requirements of his exalted sta
tion, while secretly indulging his tastes
according to the usages of his fathers.
The ancient Hawaiian chiefs were
priests as well as kings: Their will was
absolute in all things. They had the
power of divlnation, could read omens
and forecast the future far more accur-
ately than was common among profes.
sional soothsayers and prophets, for the
reason that they had the power of life
and death, of war and peace, of misery
and prosperity, in their own hands.
When prophet is able to verify his pre-
diction he has an immense advantage
over one who has to take chances on its
fulfillment. Hence it happened that the
aliis of the olden time, when they sacri-
feed and read the omens, seldom re-
ceived lying message from the gods.
The common people stood in awe of
them. To cross their shadow was death
touch their sacred persons was death by
torture. The life of kanaka was the
most hopeless and miserable slavery.
The common people were living under n
system of kdpu or taboo which rendered
existence daily and nightly terror for
fear of its breach. They had no proper
ty and no rights, not even the right of
existence. Life was at the discretion of
the chief who was nearly always crafty,
cruel and sensual.
The family from which Kalakaua was
descended was noted among the Hawai-
ians for the possession, in an exaggerated
form, of the vices and cruelties of the
tribal nobility. If Kalakaua inherited
these faults, theopportunity was wanting
for their exercise. IRapU was thing of
the past. Slavery had been abolished
The common people were endowed with
lands. Forced service was no longer eX-
acted by the Chiefs and the King, the
supreme ruler, was no more sacred than
his servant in the eye of the law; while
the old gods had been abandoned and a
new theology imposed upon the people
by the superior intelligence OF foreigners
who had come to stay.
David Kaakaua secretly surrounded
himself with kd1tatnaS, or prophets, who
taught him the traditions of oldcn times,
and established what might be styled
school for prophets. He entered into
this study with great earncstness, and
soon became one of the most potent and
proficient among them. He was specially
absorbed by the idea that he was destined
to restore the ancient ways, and yet
while secretly practicing heathcn rites
and encouraging debasing superstition,
he was posing in tho eyes of the world
as a civilized ruler and shining exam
pie of the influence of Christianity.
From the Christian sacrament at the altar
in the Episcopal Cathedral to the heather
ceremonial in the privacy of the palace
was said not to be an unusual change of
scene in the dual life Of this remarkable
man.
As far as possible kapn was enforced,
and as instances of his power as II haleatna
became noised abroad the kanakas began
to fear him. In this way his influence
of the malign kind gradually extended.
One of his first public measures to carry
out his policy was to establish what he
styled the Board OF Genealogy Of Hawai-
ian Chiefs, presided over by his favorite
sister in law, who was heart and soul in
sympathy with him in his reactionary
plans, which she hoped would rid them
of the foreigners. The officers of this
society were natives, and mostly females,
for it is remai kable fact that the
Hawaiian women fell most readily into
his plans and methods. s..-
The Board of Gencalogy was supported
by public money, but it never accom-
plishcd anything noteworthy cxcepta sup
posed identification OF q chiefs bones by
the aid of a divining pig, which appears to
have been q sacred animal of superior in
telligcncc and held in high esteem by the
king and his superstitious associates.
Indeed, black pig figured prominently
in this school of divination, and probably
was entitled to quite as much respect as
the human beings who used it for such
purpose.
The Board of Gencalogy was followed
by the founding Of mystic order, called