, 1884-04-22
A LIVE QUEEN.
She Passes Through Cheyenne
Yesterday Morning
And Condescends to Indulge in
Hotel Fare.
Who She is and What She Looks
Like.

Yesterday mornings train from the
East brought with it to this city a reign
ing sovereign of royal blood whose house
and family have Il name in history, Poma-
re V, Queen .of Tahiti and also of the
Society Islands. 1t was quite early when
the train arrived in the city but not 50
early but that the reporter of THE LEAD
Err was on hand to see what there was to
be seen and to hear whatever there was to
be heard. The Queen was accompanied
by four attendants, the most important
one being the principal officer of Tahiti,
or as he would be called here in the
United States, a secretary of state. Po-
mare is a woman evidently about AZ or
45 years of age, rather dark complexioned,
quite tall, with straight, jet black hair,
rather small, black, piercing eyes and has
a nose of considerable prominence and
length. Her hands are quite large
and the finger very long. She
was richly but not gorgeously dressed;
wore nothing whatever which would indi-
cate her rank and title, and on the whole
appeared like a quiet, ~unassuming, sensi-
bic lady. One thing. however, the re-
porter discovered and that is that queens
as well as everybody else get hungry some
times. Queen Pomare did not get out of
the car but ordered her breakfast brought
to her where she was, and she did ample
justice to the occasion as she had a right
to do. The Queen speaks English but
not very tluently and does not care to say
much even to her W attendants. She
says she is pleased with this country and
wonders if she will have to ride a whole
lifetime across the continent. She thinks
the American people the greatest in the
world but that her own people are the
best. One thing with which America
abounds she is MORALLY afraid of and
that is the reporters. 1t is said that
before she sailed from Spain (thc last
place of her %sojourn before coming to
Ameriea) she hesitated about coming here
on that account. With due Difference to
her, however, the reporter would like to
meekly suggest that were it not that some
thing must be looked up to make an item
or W out of occasionally, it probably
would not take more than a squadron or
two of cavalary, with a hundred or two of
wild Zulus thrown in, to insure her entire
and safe protection against the inquisitive
reporters or the bandboxy dudes. Queen
Pomare belongs to a royal family of the
Georgian group of the Society Islands
that has reigned in that far away South
sea archipelago for nearly a century.
These islands were first peopled by Euro
peans about 1777, and subsequently have
become quite populous for their size. In
1876 the population of the islands was
IS, 500, but since that time it has increas
cd to such an extent that Pomare hatters
herself that she now has $4,000 subjects.
These islands while practically independ-
ent, pay tribute to a weak and vacillating
French protectorate which is of little or
no account to anybody. Over Il portion
Of the smaller islands of the Society group
the degenerate sons of CASTLE and Andu-
lasla pretend to reserve some authority,
and Spain is fain to believe that she. M in
former days, holds sway. In 1868 Eng
land manifested some intention of absorb
ing these islands, but Pomare vent to that
country and entered into negotiations with
he English government, the result of
which was that the reigning sovereign was
made more secure in the possession of the
Tahitian throne than ever before and the
islands were left unmolested. Tahiti is
the largest island of the group and has an
area of $50 square miles. A town on this
island by the same name has u population
of 800 and is the capital of the kingdom.
The Queen has been absent for some
time IN a visit to the principal countries
of Europe and is now on her way home.
She goes to San Francisco and will sail
thence to the Sandwich Islands on her
homeward bound trip.
Pomare is the third r~eigning sovereign
that has passed through Cheyenne within
the past ten years, the first being King
Kalaukua of the Sandwich Islands. Two
years later Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil,
also passed through the Magic City.