St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1896-03-27

people, and these lana, tnOuRn sinai
in acreage, composed nearly all the
very best soil on the islands. They
were the taro patches and rice fields,
some of which are today worth five
hundred dollars per acre, while there
are vast tracts of lava.strewn noun.
tain land not worth one dollar for
FIVE hundred acres.
Among the many American emf
grants to the islands were shrewd
business men. who procured long
leases on sugar lands and bought
large tracts from the king. British
influence was brought to bear upon
King Kalakaua. He was told to be
"a real king and have great army
and navy" Public improvements
were neglected, roads became almost
impossible, while the king secured
large loan from England, and squan-
dered vast sums of the revenue in
loans and on Hula dancing girls.
Kalakaua was not bad man. He
was a weak, vain man, and easily in
fuenced by bad surroundings. He
was constantly in need of money,
though his annuity was greater than
the salary Of the President Of the
United States. He found himself
hampered by the constitution which
limited his power, and declared his
intention OF giving the people another
oouet.t,,+;o, u-hich x1,oc a., ,eol;tu 9,
return to absolute monarchy.
Great excitement prevailed, and a
revolution was threatened by the
people whose liberties were endan-
gered. until. bowling to the popular
will, Kalakaua permitted the consti-
tuition to stand.
1t is said that at this time the kings
sister, Princess Liliuokalani, was in
England, guest Of Queen Victoria,
studying royal life. She was very in
dignaut at her brother yielding to
the wishes of the American Hawaii
ans, and on her return to Honolulu a
revolution was precipitated by some
of her friends to depose tie king and
place her on the throne. The Amer
lean settlers on the islands went to
the rescue of the king, and the rebel
lion was put down.
King Kalakaua died January 90
1891, and was succeeded by his sis
ter, Liliuok alani, as queen. The queen
was thoroughly English in education
and sympathy. From the first she
displayed intense hatred for the
American missionaries. Left alone
she might have made an excellent
monarch, for those who know her
say she possesses many good quail
tiles even her political enemies deny
the ISLANDERS against her personal
character. But the queen was ill-ad.
vised. Her race prejudices were
reused by interested persons. The
American missionary was held up in
the light of a moral pirate, who had
left his conscience at Cape Horn, and
come to rob and plumber the natives
as the Spaniards had done in America,
and all under the guise Of religion.
In various ways she kept her sub
jects alarmed by threats to deprive
them of their constitutional liberties
Though her salary and income from
crown lands exceeded the salary of
the president of the United States by
nearly twenty thousand dollars, she
was not satisfied. She was advised
to be queen in splendor as we'll as
name. A crowd of evil designing
friends were constantly about her
advising her to do what they should
have known would be her ruin.
There were nearly two thousand
Americans and over one thousand
Germans, as well as many English, at
this time living on the islands, who
did not believe in the divine rights of
kings. Many Of these haG, by thrift
and honest toll, accumulated property
amounting to millions. With them
it was business proposition. Should
they, in order to maintain tradition
born in the dark days of barbarism,
and Graded in ignorance and super
stition, yield up the hard earnings of
their lifetimes?
Among the other schemes to re-
plenish the depleted treasury of the
queen was what is known as the
lottery. The originator Of this was
Thomas E. Evans, whose wife was a
maid OF honor to the queen, and who
had held some Offices under the kings.
After the Louisiana Lottery had
been driven out of the United States,
its hackers and supporters began to
look about for some place convenient
to America where the gigantic swinde
might be resuscitated. The Hawaiian
Islands were regarded as the most
convenient place. Mr.. Evans went
to Chicago, where he met the CAPT
talists willing to engage in the enter.
prise. An arrangement was made
whereby the Chicago capitalists, pro-
viuing the franchise was granted
were to pay the Hawaiian govern
ment the sum of five hundred thou
sand dollars per annum for the term
OF twenty-five years. At the time the
lottery bill was being agitated in the
legislature, another bill, fully as
odious to all decency and morals,
known as the Opium Bill" was
brought up.
The queens cabinet was composed
of men who inspired confidence in the
minds of the people, but they did not
prove sufficient to check their head
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