Under Hawaiian skies, a narrative of the romance, adventure and history of the Hawaiian Islands, a complete historical account, by Albert Pierce Taylor.

CHAPTER XXXVI

HAWAII'S TWO SWEETEST MELODIES
"ALOHA OE"-"ALOHA TO HAWAII"
O MELODY in all the world has such a sympathetic,
heart-throbbing, yearning, plaintive appeal as that which
reaches the ear of the traveler in Hawaii, from the
guitar and the ukulele; and the rich, sonorous ear-haunting notes
sung by the native Hawaiians fill the soul. Chief among all
these languorous, sweet songs are "Aloha Oe," composed by the
late Queen Liliuokalani, and "A Song to Hawaii," or "Aloha
to Hawaii," as it is sometimes called, composed by Joseph D.
Redding, a former president of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco, who has never yet set foot upon the shores of Hawaii.
Whether "Aloha Oe" is played and sung as a steamer from
abroad approaches the Honolulu dock, as a welcome to homeward-boundl islanders or strangers about to taste the joys of the
"Rainbow Isles," or whether it is played as a steamer is leaving,
when all aboard are bedecked with floral wreaths, or leis as the
Hawaiians call them, as a sympathetic "au revoir," or whether
at the funeral of a royal personage when it is sung in a sobbingly
plaintive way, or whether it is heard in distant lands by islanders
far away from home, when it causes tears to well into one's
eyes, the queen's composition commands unusual attention. Its
notes cause hearts to throb, minds to reflect, speech to cease
until it is finished.
And it is true of "Joe" Redding's beautiful song dedicated to
Hawaii, for both are melodies that will never (lie among the Hawaiians, songs that will ever live as memories of the lays when
Hawaii was a monarchy and had its little opera bouffe royal
court, a miniature St. James in a colorful mid-sea setting, for
they are reminiscent of the days of queens and kings, of prin