formation scene! Less than a fortnight before I had left Chicago, a city stark and frozen, locked in ice, and here was a land of perpetual verdure and a fadeless summer.

With the Americans and Europeans were crowds of natives; the women wearing the holoku-a decidedly rational garment, vastly becoming, and invented for them by the wives of the missionaries. It consisted

of a full, flowing skirt attached to a yoke, and the preference seemed to be for muslin, or stiff flowered silk. Each woman wore a garland of flowers, and they were talking volubly and laughing like children. At that crisis neither the white residents nor the natives had taken the revolution seriously. They had grown accustomed to little political upheavals like this, and they believed that this, like others that had preceded it, would blow over, and there would be an interval of peace until the next time.

As events progressed, however, the public temper changed; there were in store for both days of anxiety, of carking care, of personal and national peril, and both the foreign residents and the natives were to be seriously affected by the phases through which they were destined to pass. They became subdued and apprehensive; both lost their cheerfulness and their sanguine faith in the future; suspicion became rife, feuds were engendered, and men who had been as brothers were divided and hopelessly alienated.

1893.]

A LIVING FAIRYLAND.

77

But, as I have said, this was a later phase of political development. There was among her adherents at that time some regret that Liliuokalani had been dethroned. Many of the natives were amiably indifferent, and the ex-Queen had not then wholly alienated the white population by the savagery that subsequently sought to satisfy itself with mediæval beheading and modern dynamite. But this was only the beginning.

The ordeal of the customs was simplified for me, through the thoughtfulness of Dr. S―, and, this formality complied with, we drove down to the hotel.

I had never seen anything that seemed to me half so wonderful as the beauty of that island capital and the wide, clean, sunny streets; the chimneyless houses standing in gardens crowded with palms, and mango trees, and feathery algarobas; the hedges of flaming hibiscus, and the long pendent garlands of rose-coloured bougainvillea. What a contrast it all was to my recent dwelling-place! It seemed a living fairyland, and I exclaimed, "I know that I shall never be as happy again in this life as I am at this moment!"

WE

CHAPTER IV.

A FIRST IMPRESSION.

E drove up the winding avenue into the grounds of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. It was an inviting place, standing in an extensive and well-kept park. There was a central building, with wings on either side, and verandahs above and below. The back rooms were preferred because they commanded a view of the mountains, were much more retired, and were much cooler.

The house was quite full, and there was some trouble in finding a place for me. Miss Adeline Knapp, the clever correspondent of the San Francisco Call, had preceded me to Honolulu by some days. It was very difficult for me to get up and down stairs, although I could have managed it if forced to do so. My sister journalist, however, came generously to the rescue. She had the best and most desirable room in the house, one on the first floor, looking out upon the Punchbowl — an extinct crater at the back of the city and shut off from the main verandahs by a private passage; it had also its own little secluded verandah, which could be converted into a cosy

78

1893.]

THE ROYAL HOTEL.

79

Besides all

and delightful open-air drawing-room. this, it was screened with vines, shady, cool, with the bath just across the passage outside. She at once insisted upon vacating this desirable snuggery, taking a far less comfortable apartment on the upper floor, pretending that she was more than compensated by the view. I was not deceived in the least, and knew that I was profiting by her selfsacrifice. She not only did this, but helped me to get settled, unpacked my trunks, shook out my crumpled gowns and hung them in the wardrobe, and did not leave me until she had done all that she could find to do.

The Royal Hawaiian Hotel was built early in the reign of King Kalakaua and is still the chief hotel in Honolulu. It was inconveniently arranged, but had been furnished with a good water supply and the electric light. The verandahs were broad and airy, and liberally furnished with chairs and wicker lounges. At one end was a lanai. an apartment open on three sides, with curtains of matting which could be lowered when it rained. It was connected with the drawing-room, and was prettily furnished with wicker chairs and tables, and hung with Japanese lanterns. But there was too profuse decoration, and whenever I looked at the array of gimcracks it seemed as if a vessel loaded with Japanese fans and umbrellas and banners must have exploded there, and its cargo attached itself in some mysterious way

to the walls and ceiling. I had once heard an authority on household decorative art solemnly expostulate against what he called "producing a spotty effect." Had he seen that collection of fans and banners he would have beheld the spotty effect in its most malignant and exaggerated form.

The drawing-room was cheerful and comfortable, but people seldom sat there, except when receiving calls, preferring the verandahs outside. One valuable and conspicuous work of art was a fine bust in marble of the late King Victor Emmanuel. I wondered much how it came to be there of all places in the world, and learned that it had been presented to King Kalakaua when he visited Italy during his tour around the world; he gave it to his Mormon Premier, the notorious Gibson, and he or his heirs. presented it to the hotel. The dining-room was a big bare place with Chinese servants flitting silently about, and candour compels one to say that the cooking of itself would have been enough to incite revolution. That evening at dinner I thought the American who sat opposite me excessively rude when he called the Chinese boy and told him to take away the beef that had been set before him, adding sternly, “And bring me some more without any of that umbrella juice on it." In the course of time I learned to loathe the inky liquid myself, and almost everything else, except the delicate broiled mullet, the strawberries, and honey-sweet bananas.