The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1884-04-12
ANEcDoTE OF A QUEEN.
A Story CoDcerning Queen DowageE
Emma or the Hawaiian Islands.
Gns HnIl -

"A SsVEL &VBGEEAAH& 44CEA~ DVW 8&OE
Emma or the Hawaiian Islands.
tCor. San Francisco CALI
The arrival in this city the other day
of that "Queen of Tahiti" who was no
queen Of Tahiti at all, reminds me of q
story the Queen-dowager Emma of the
Hawaiian islands told me of her ex-
perience the first time she visited San
Francisco. Emma" as she is famil-
iarly but always respectfully spoken OF
by her people, is ree-quarters white"
as the expression goes, being the
daughter of an English father and a
"half white (Hawaiian and English)
mother. She is therefore not darker
than decidedly brunette Caucasian.
In her suite OF females were a number
of half-white and pure-blooded Hawaii
ans. One of the latter was strapping
big girl, with the independent swagger
and upright carriage peculiar to Sand
wich Island women of all classes, and
this woman nearly everybody here who
saw the party insisted upon was the
queen. She was Big and very dark,
which satisfied the popular idea con-
cerning Emma better than the
queens own proper description Petite
in person and comparatively light in
complexion. "Lalani' that was the
big girls name--received the homage
of clerks, shop people, chambermaids,
walters, bell-boys, and the uninformed
public generally with such evidences of
royal condescension as she thought
the occasion demanded, being en-
couraged in maintaining the common
delusion by the queen, who thus es-
capped in and out of the hotels and
stores, ETC., unnoticed and incon-
veniencel. The party was in a fashion
able dry-goods house one day, when, as
usual, the crowd was thickest around
Lalani, and thinnest about Emma
The former, seeing some particularly
rich and dazzlingly bright silk and
velvet, ordered a liberal supply for a
dress, to be sent to her hotel.
"And when shall send the bill, your
maiesty?" inquired the ever cautious
though obsequious salesman.
"Oh, never mind about that; Lalani
will pay the cash now,' replied LaIani
herself, and then, attracting the queens
attention by speaking in native to her,
added in English Here Lalani, see
what my bill is and pay it, please"
To have rebuked the hussy there
would have made scene, but that con-
sideration aside, the splendid assurance
of the girl, and the SIGHT of the half
grinning. half -atfrighted faces of the
other women in the suite, drove out OF
her mind whatever indignation the
queen may have felt. Stepping to the
salesman, she inquired, "How much
please?"
The queen rather choked at the
answer, "One hundred and fifteen dol
lars, please" but swallowing her
amazement the best she could, pro-
ceeded to settle the bill in good god
coin, while the triumphant and only
sligh ~ trembling real Lalani regarded
the success of her joke in apparently
queenly indifferen ce to such trifies as
dry goods bills.
In telling this story Queen Emms
concluded: "I never even rebuked the
girl, who I afterward learned, played
the joke on dare from the other girls
I thought I owed that much to her fol
the share of the public attention in
tended for me which she relieved mt
| If 4"