Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1899 — HAWAII’S SOCIAL LIFE. [ARTICLE]

HAWAII’S SOCIAL LIFE.

There la No Aristocracy or Color Line at Honolulu. I do not know that anywhere there is a civilized community whose social life ie more natural and unconventional, without loss of refinement, than that existing in the Hawaiian islands. There is no aristocracy, nor any “four hundred.” There is no social color line, and no definite social lines of any nature. There may be said to be loosely defined social sets, but there are no lines between them; they merge into each other. Education, refinement, polish—these have more to do with social position than any other circumstances. Wealth has its weight, but has hardly come to be regarded as a social circumstance, although it is a strong ally where the more important qualifications existFamily is an important consideration. There is no color prejudice affecting the Hawaiian, the Chinese, ortho Japanese; or if there is, it is discoverable only in marital considerations. None of these races, if otherwise socially acceptable, are barred by color. The Hawaiians; and part Hawaiians in particular, are specially in demand socially. A charm of Hawaiian society is its cosmopolitan quality. Every large social gathering has representatives from the great world races—Polynesian, Anglo-Saxon, Celt, Scandinavian, Frank, Mongolian. A large part of the opposition, to annexation among Hawaiians was due to anxiety lest they would be socially prejudiced by its consummation. Conscious that both the monarchy and the republic fostered their social advancement, they were afraid that, as a part of the great eager American nation, they would be gradually ignored until their position should have become intolerable.—President Sanford B. Dole, in Harper’s Weekly.