Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen (15 page)

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were all too much fatigued to think of going out again that evening. Entertainment after entertainment followed in an endless variety, and on too grand a scale to think of enumerating them all, or even of mentioning the many ways in which the royal family of England showed its hospitality towards us. Amongst those who attended me personally, besides the Duke of Edinburgh, I must not forget to notice attentions from Prince Louis of Battenberg and the Grand Duke Sergius of Russia. One evening, after a grand reception, a ball was given at the palace, to which all royalty went to pay their respects to the first gentleman of England, the Prince of Wales, and his amiable wife.

Queen Kapiolani and I were conducted to seats on the dais, where the Princess of Wales, Princess Louise of Lome, and other members of Her Majesty's household, were seated. It was an excellent point from which to see the dancing, which soon began. While watching the dance, I happened to glance down to the farther end of the hall, and saw the Marquis of Lome bend his arm cordially about that of my husband, Governor Dominis, and pace to and fro with him about the hall, the two gentlemen seemingly much interested in each other as they engaged in prolonged and pleasant conversation. The entertainment went gayly on until a late hour, and as · usual the first movement to retire was made on the part of the royal family; after which the guests began to take leave of each other, and we returned to our hotel.

There was one day set apart during the Jubilee for a Masonic Celebration; and from the grand crowd of visitors assembled in London to do honor to the occasion, invitations were sent to all members of that fraternity. The response was general, and at eleven o'clock of the day appointed the visiting brethren met at Prince Albert Hall. The arrangements were carried to such perfection that each person was conducted without the least confusion to a seat which had been assigned to him. My husband, Governor Dominis, wearing the regalia to which his rank as a Mason of the thirty-third degree entitled him, upon reaching the entrance indicated by the terms of the invitation he had received, found an usher in attendance to escort him to his place. After exchanging the signs and tokens of mutual recognition, he passed into the hall, and his guide conducted him through the vast assembly of the brotherhood. He had not the least idea as to what part of the chamber he was assigned, but followed in the footsteps of the gentleman in whose care he had been intrusted.

Soon they passed in front of the dais, or raised platform, commanding a view of the whole audience. On this was seated the Grand Master of the assembled representatives of the Freemasonry of the world, none other than H. R. H., the Prince Royal, Albert Edward of Wales. As Governor Dominis passed in front of the Grand Master, still ignorant of his own position, Masonic salutations were exchanged; and much to his surprise my husband found himself conducted up to the platform, where on the right of the Prince of Wales the third seat had been assigned to him. His astonishment was succeeded by emotions of pride. Governor Dominis was always a most unassuming man; not at all eager to put himself forward, never presuming in the least to encroach on the rights or privileges of others. But when he found himself thus placed in one of the highest and most honorable of positions, it was undoubtedly enough to make his bosom glow. But he valued the honor as a Mason more than as a man; for it was the recognition of his place in an organization whose bond of union was that of brotherly love, and whose ancient and noble rites these high-born or royally connected persons from every part of the globe had assembled to celebrate.

In that great assembly over which the royal prince presided, and into whose upturned faces my husband had the joy of looking, were more than ten thousand men of the different degrees of the order. Prayer was offered by one of the grand chaplains; and the princely Grand Master then rose and initiated the ceremonies by giving out the national anthem,"God Save the Queen," which was sung by all present with an ardor and fervor seldom excelled. United in their bond of affection and brotherly kindness, their hearts were also filled with the spirit of the Jubilee which had allowed them to meet in this grand assembly. It was an occasion to fill all present with a sense of its grandeur and importance; and when my husband returned to me his feelings and sentiments were too profound for expression, too lasting to allow him ever to forget. The usual forms and ceremonies of a Masonic gathering, known and understood only by those of the fraternity itself, had been, I was told, most impressively rendered, and gave great satisfaction to all.

My husband was always a most conscientious Mason, and fulfilled to the letter his duties as a friend and a brother to his order. Many a charitable deed towards the poor of the fraternity was done by him of which no one ever spoke, because no one knew anything about them at the time. Large sums of money have been contributed by him for the purpose of extricating brethren of the Masonic order from financial or other difficulties. These amounts were rarely returned to him; perhaps he had not expected that they would be paid. At any rate, nothing was said of them; but when his papers fell into my hands for examination at his death, they were disclosed to me, and I recognized what a great amount of good had been done, and what a true and faithful Free Mason Governor Dominis had been his life long. At this time the parties he had assisted had left Hawaii, and possibly had retained no thought of him or their obligation; yet a good action is never lost, and his many and beautiful deeds of generosity are precious to my remembrance, and remain a source of consolation to me to this day.

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one of the days when we were free of other engagements, the party of Queen Kapiolani took carriages, and drove out to the residence of Lady Aberdeen, where Mr. Gladstone was staying for a few days. We were received most cordially by himself and his good wife out under the trees on the ground. The weather was favorable, it was a lovely afternoon for social pleasure, and everything was done to make us feel at home in the society of the"Grand Old Man." As I remember his appearance, he was a tall, large-framed man, with broad, high forehead, dark, piercing eyes, and a nose which was the most prominent feature of a striking and intellectual face, —certainly a countenance and a presence, once seen, not easily to be forgotten. When he spoke, there was serious thoughtfulness in his remarks, and words of world-wide significance seemed as ready with him as those of common import are with any other. There were a number of visitors claiming the honor of an interview; he listened patiently to any one's questions, but directed his replies to all those by whom he was surrounded. Mrs. Gladstone was a tall, stylish woman of rather advanced years, of dignified mien and intelligent countenance; she stood by her husband's side during most of the time while he was conversing with his visitors, and from her attentive manner one could not but receive the thought that in the eventful life of the great statesman she must-have been a valuable counsellor and a sympathetic confidant.

One Sunday soon after this interview, Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Armstrong called at our hotel, and took Governor Dominis and myself, attended by Colonel Boyd, on a little outing in their good company. Mrs. Newman, and her daughter, now Mrs. John Fowler, were also with us. Arriving at the railroad station, we entered the train, by which we were conveyed some distance out of town to a pleasant place called Richmond, situated on the banks of"the river Thames.

There we were conducted to a house exhibited to us as the type of an English inn. I was much interested in the edifice; for I had always read from my earliest days glorious descriptions of English inns, where the pleasures of the chase culminated, and to whose doors the trophies of the hunters were brought. But on entering this house there was a little bit of disappointment, or at least wonder, as I surveyed its contracted quarters. The rooms were low-studded and of small size, so that probably no more than fifteen persons could have found accommodations therein. I could have almost reached the ceiling, had I stretched forth my arm and pointed it upward. Then, where were the banquet halls? Surely the inns of which the English novelists had told me must have been on a grander scale than this one to which I was conducted!

From the inn we went on board a steamer, which the forethought of Mr. Armstrong had secured for our comfort, and started out on an excursion which was to introduce a novel experience; for, after steaming up the river a short distance, we came to a lock; to pass it there were in waiting many other water-craft of all kinds, steamers and tow-boats, little vessels propelled by sails, or even small boats by oars and poles. When the gates of the lock were opened, that, and that only, was the moment when these could pass through; so there was such a scrambling in the water about us, such a jostling, such a pushing ahead to see who would get within the lock first, or, more important, that their boat should not be left in the outer waters when the gates closed. It was a lively contest, and often it appeared as though some of the craft would be hopelessly swamped; but the affair passed without accident, for indeed, with all their rivalry, everybody was good-natured, and the occupants of the boats took the matter very cheerfully when passed by a competitor.

But there was one phase of the exhibition which excited my attention, not to say surprise and wonder. This was the indifference of the men in the smaller boats, who lounged in the stern, cigar in mouth, book or paper in hand, while the poor girls with poles exerted their strength to the utmost to shove their boats along into the waters of the lock. Men smoking or reading while the women were doing all the work! Taking their ease, while from those called the weaker sex came the exertions necessary to get the boat into her place amongst the crowd of others. It was not a pleasant picture, nor did it speak of gallantry. I had never seen anything like it.

We all finally got through the gates of the lock, and steamed up the river until we came to a landing, where our attention was attracted by a very pretty sight; this was a house-boat, very nice in appearance, with an upper and a lower veranda, the upper being trimmed with curtains of a red material edged with white. Through the convenient folding-doors, which were opened above, we caught view of a large apartment, which I took to be the reception-room, and the lower room, also thrown open, was probably the dining-room. As we watched this neat home upon the water, there appeared a small skiff rowed by a man, but on the seat in the stern was another occupant, — a pretty little lady clad entirely in one prevailing color. On her head she wore a red hat; the parasol she held over it was red; she wore also red gloves and red shoes; but her fair face and golden hair made a contrast most lovely and striking with the tints of her costume and surroundings; and as she turned to look at us, the laughing blue eyes, which peeped out from under her rosy ensemble, made her indeed the picture of a charming Witch of the Thames. We watched her until she reached her house-boat, and disappeared from our gaze.

On landing, our party wended its way to another of the English inns. It had attracted our admiration from the water as it nestled prettily under the trees by which it was surrounded. On arriving we found a charming place. The long and well-kept walks of gravel and pebbles encouraging us to stray into its grounds;
and one by one we followed this inclination, while Mrs. Newman and some others, impressed with the same desire, climbed a neighboring hill. It was not a very difficult one, nor at all high; but it was a conspicuous object, because covered with tempting verdure and dotted with flowers, chiefly of the species of the rhododendron, whose vari-colored blossoms stretched out, all over the hillsides, in charming profusion.

But the wanderers were soon called to return, and the party reunited, because an omnibus had driven up by which we were to be taken to Clifton House, an estate owned by the Duke of Westminster. A short drive brought us to its doors, where we were welcomed, and shown through the apartments. This was nearer to my ideal of an English country-house; for here were lofty ceilings, and a spacious banquet hall, opening out on a lawn of richest and most luxuriant green. Looking out over this verdant foreground could be seen far away in the distance the blue line of the River Thames, winding in and out through the forest trees which rose along its border. The view was most beautiful, and I could well believe that in the past it had been the lordly estate of the Duke of Buckingham. With the aid of a lifelike portrait of a noble lady, which from its place on the walls of the manor looked silently down, I could picture to myself the days in which she had been the charming hostess of the reception-room in which we stood. I could see her doing the honors of this beautiful residence, and making guests welcome to her handsome estate, receiving the grand lords and lovely ladies who met there after the fatigues and excitements of the chase. The element of sport, and the thirst for pleasure, largely influenced the customs of that former epoch in English country life; and yet, with all their gayety, they were able to provide for the sustenance and happiness of a large number of retainers or tenantry without enormous expense. For these, their people, lived under their lords and mistresses with loving submission and loyal devotion, understanding the duties of their station in life, and therewith content; they looked to them for their maintenance and kind consideration, and asked for no more. The relation between master and retainer was one of love on both sides, of pure affection for a trusted and faithful vassal, of devotion and desire to please from the man to the master.

But at the present day all this has gone, the changes introduced by an entirely different civilization have made the former life impossible; the laws of trade, the demands of mercantile life, the advancement of commerce, of which London is the grand centre, have effected a revolution, which has entirely overthrown the relationship existing at other times between the country gentleman and his retainers. Now the lord of the manor rises early, and hurries away to the city, where important matters at the bank, or the shipping-office, or the lawyer's desk, are waiting for him; the places on his old-time estate, which long ago were filled with trusty retainers, are desolate, and often large halls stand permanently vacant. Walls are bare of ornament or picture because there is no one to keep up the establishment. Is England better and happier for the extinction of a style of life read of in history but not to-day existing? At least, by such souvenirs as this manor house, are pictures brought back to one's mind of a past, that had much in it of sufficient worth to awaken emotions of sadness that it has gone forever.

We again boarded the little steamer which had awaited our return to her decks; and when we were comfortably settled, she steamed away up the river. On the picturesque banks of the Thames we saw, as we passed, many pretty pictures of modern life. The water, too, was alive with moving craft, pleasure-boats and toiling steamers, while at several points were stationed bands of music, the strains of which came softly over the waters to our ears. All these sights and sounds added to the pleasure of our outing; and yet most of the actors in this vivid pageant were, doubtless, only intent on the business of making a livelihood. We went about as far as the depth of the water allowed the steamer to ascend, and then turning, steamed back to the landing. I must not forget to notice that our enjoyment and understanding of the places we passed was increased by the presence of two entertaining young men of leisure invited as guests. They were strangers to us, but contributed much to our pleasure and information. One was a Mr. Skinner, but the name of his associate has for the moment escaped my memory. Disembarking from our steamer, we entered the cars, and were soon again at our hotel, and with the added happiness of having stored away the memory of a most delightful day on the celebrated River Thames, as well as of Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong's charming hospitality.