The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1904-08-23
the HAWAIIAN FUTURE.

published in last Sundays Advertiser,
! OF the tour OF Queen Emma twenty
| nine years ago around the Island OF
Oahu. under the leadership Of John "A.
| Cummins. is a graphic and accurate
piece OF writing. 1t describes sue
cession OF pageants that, as Mr.. Cum
minis says, can never be reproduced.
The grand procession from point to
point. with it's rich and rare decora-
lions, the lels, in which the brightest
colors were artistically grouped, the
prancing horses gorgeously caprisoned.
the bonfires in the mountains, the
luaus. in which all native delicacies
were included and with which foreign
contributions were combined, the dar-
ing surf-riding and bold and graceful
water exercises, the hulas that drove
away lethargy and sleep, and, pervad-
ing all, the lavish hospitality and per-
sonal loyalty with which the island and
the people literally glowed-all these
formed a picture that could only have
been rivalled in its attractive features.
during the Middle Ages, and yet was
impressed with Hawaiian individuality.
Civilization eliminates these scenes,
which are only feebly initiated even
at international expositions. While
they should be remembered and are of
historical interest, particularly to the
few who actually participated in them,
would the world, or even the Hawaiian
Islands themselves, be benefited II
they could be revived? 1t is easy to
understand the blended pleasure and
regret, the solicitous melancholy not
ably among women, that the narrative
would inspire in native people in the
rude process of transformation into a
modern and Americanized community.
1t is not without subtle appeal to the
imagination and the sentiment of the
Anglo-Saxon. The picture. however, is
not merely exceptional but incomplete.
1t realizes only one unique and unfre-
quent Hawaiian possibility 1t does
not represent Hawaiian conditions. 1t
fails to expose the sacrifices that pow
erty made to loyalty and display. 1t Is
filed with that external gaudness
which, in undeveloped and paternalized
commemorative, are the substitutes for
internal training and individual re-
sources. 1t presents only the blaze, the
perfumes, the consciousness. that are
the occasional alternates to a hard
struggle for existence, under the ex-
hausting demands of absolutism.
Now the natives of Hawaii have be-
fore them a future, replete with endur-
ing possibilities of comfort and happi-
ness. They are in the throes of
transitional period, and they will either
become extinct or they will emerge into
the full and scarcely Swallowed light of
American citizenship. Thrown chiefly
upon their own developing power, but
aided by free institutions and by the
conscious possession of rights that are
common to all and unassailable they
have before them the opportunity for
independence and for the application of
the individual manhood and woman
hood that need no artificial stimulants
or accessories. They live under plan
of education that originated in strug-
gle and industry and that recognizes
no claim to advancement beyond indi-
vidual merit. They are surrounded
and penetrated by conveniences and
opportunities that could not exist I'M
der a local autocracy. In the COM
petitions and prizes of life, they are
equals among equals, and, while uni
formity of progress is as undesirable as
1t is impossible, they can steadily APP
proach an average standard that has
elevated the wage-earners of a conti-
nent far beyond the middle class, even
of the last century. They are within
the scope of high religious and moral
training. They are comprised by
progressive civilization, where enter
prise, refined pleasures and honorable
achievements derive their inspiration
from the heart and the brain, and not
from the philanthropy of a monarch or
a chief.
This is the result of missionary labor
and endurance, but in the broader field
of politics and government. The time
may soon come when the most dissatis-
fed and unappreciative native of 1904
will realize and adopt the deep senti-
ment of Tennyson.
Better fifty years of Europe
e