Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-12-01
,FOR LOVE OF HER MOTHER.
The SeH-Sasrifce of Kaomouna, the
Hawaiian Flower Girl.

49,
The usual Honolulu crowd was
down at the dock when the steamship
Australia, seven days from San Fran
cisco, pulled alongside the pier on a
brilliant, balmy afternoon in January,
1895. American women, trim, groomed,
wholesome to look upon, in summer
afternoon costumes, such as happy
feminine exiles in the subtropics con-
trive so prettily and effectively; few
English and few German women of
society, arrayed also for the steamer
day (which is a Honolulu function),
but lacking in the elusive distinction
and that indefnable "1ast touch that
characterized the appearance of the
American women-these leaned back
dangerously in their carriages and
phaetons, under the shade of parasols,
listening to the lazy, complimentary
talk of the duck-clad, lei-enwreathed
young business men who combined
duty with pleasure in thus waiting for
the great steamer to laboriously slip
into her measured berth beside the
pier. The usual groups of silent, ex-
pectant-eyed Kanaka men stood in the
shade of the pier sheds, humble in
attitude, chary of words, and yet not
sulky-your ordinary Kanaka man is
the sweetest-natured human animal in
all this surly world. Some of the
men wore shoulder leis (wreaths of
aowers) over their labor -grimed hick-
ory shirts. All of the Kanaka women
there were perhaps fifty in all at the
dock) also wore leis in cross belt wise
over their flowing white mother hub
bards. In truth, the flower wreaths
were everywhere. Staid, middle
aged merchants among the whites
wore them about their helmets and
straw hats, and all of the white women
in carriages had belts of Hawaiian
exotics.
All of the Kanaka women were in
their bare feet. They stood about in
little groups, as silent as the men of
their race. There was no envy in the
glances they directed toward the
female occupants of the carriages, even
if there may have been some wonder
ment over the lavishness of the Ameri-
can and European women's costumes.
few of the Kanaka women carried
tiny brown babies-silent also. Posi-
lively, Kanaka babies do not cry. No
mother of children will ever believe
this until she has lived somewhere in
Hawaii.
The Kanaka women, young and old,
hn h,11,I
The young women were of varying
degrees of prettiness, even of beauty
the countenance of no Kanaka
young woman is actually homely. The
figure of no Kanaka young woman is
ever anything but genuinely excellent
the forms of most of them are
simply beautiful.
One of these Kanaka women at the
dock on this brilliant January after
noon was as beautiful in face and form
as an empress-in way of primitive
ness, of course. She was clad like
the rest of the women of her race.
Yet she was stately, even in her bare
feet-which were small and perfectly
formed. She was fully five feet ten
inches in height, and the white silk
cord with which, unlike the other
Kanaka women, she drew her white
dress about her waist, emphasized the
splendid, heroic proportions of her
figure. Her glistening, raven-black
hair hung straight down below her
waist. Her features were of the
aquiline, classic mold, her skin dark
olive, with film of rose under her
great black eyes. Kaomouna, who
had been one of King David Kala-
kaua's flower girls, was woman such
as many young student, day-dream-
ing in the quarter Latin, would have
given worlds to see-famous painters
did see her, and portray her.
Kaomouna, surprisingly beautiful,
seemed quite unconscious of her
beauty on this brilliant January after
noon. The young shipping clerks,
hurrying to and fro on the dock, with
their pencils behind their ears,
stopped suddenly when they caught
sight of her, and then stolc off be-
hind bales of goods, in order that
they might observe her carefully, un-
observed themselves. The women in
the carriages who had not been long
down from the States or from Europe,
saw Kaomouna, and asked the women
of longer Honolulu residence. "Who
is that glorious creature?" Kaomouna,
with very sad face, spoke only an
occasional word to one of the Kanaka
women. Her voice was deep con
tralto, like the harmonious monotone
of palms and the sea, heard from 9
distance.
Tho Australia was made fast tn thf