Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-28

W n..--r-'- 49,. 80
0NCE that most Christian of heathens. prince
I among philosophers, the friend of Emperors
and Prime Ministers, a Roman country gentle
man. simple farmer IN outward life, a man OF the
world for all time, the poet Horace sung song,
which might read It's well for Kings and other
potentates to rise cautiously, because the higher
they the sorer it feels when they come down.
And this reminds of King ia Ja from the West
Coast of Africa, who never heard of Horace; and
indeed ia ia himself was but hazy name to me
when padded abreast OF his palace IN the Island
of St. Vincent, of the most beautiful of the
British West Indies. Here is perpetual summer
soft breeze at all times temperng the heat OF the
sun rays, grand volcanic mountains clothed with
1uxuriant tropical vegetation rising from the sea
to attitudes almost Alpine. Here grow sugar,
orange banana here life is easy and man sur
rounded by everything calculated to make a King
forget any throne.
But King ia ia was not happy. At home he
commanded twenty-five thousand warriors the
finest army in the world, said he-but then that
was before the Rough Riders conquered Cuba. At
that time the standing army of the United States
exactly the that OF King ia ia; and
this induced His MaJest to comparison of forces
in which he demonstrated to his own satisfaction
that his African Empire, being equal in fighting
forces necessarily correspond in other respects
1t not my place to correct royalty. ia ia
King in Africa. He wore gauze undershirt
and white linen trousers bare feet and very gorgeous
oriental slippers. His Chief Lord High Chamber
lain was bright eyed woolly headed black boy
who showed me to the reception room with as much
ceremony though into the presence OF relgnlng
sovereign of the Old World.
King ia ia had turned his army against that of
Queen Victoria and at the end of the war, instead
of putting him into prison with irons on his hands
and feet as we treated Jefferson Davis the British
Queen made him a present of palace in this West
Indian paradise gave him plenty of pocket money,
sent him wife, and in addition allowed him all the
personal liberty compatible with permanent resi-
dence in St. Vincent.
He introduced to his wife-a handsome Afr-
can damse dressed in low neck white stuff which
made think of lamb chop with cuff round
the handle He offered whisky in a pewter
mug When | declined it he offended until /
told him that my medicine man forbade me such
things. This surprised hirn-he said was the first
white man he had met who didn't ask for
whisky Then he offered me some sort of fruit
syrup and water, which of course l accepted in
order to prove to him that l had no objection to
Booker Washington
Then the King made reasonable overtures
He expanded upon his power in Africa, upon the
value of his alliance; he urged to bring down
an American of and carry him away and
then found the Empire of ia ia. Queen ia ia, if 1
am judge of features, did not encourage the En-
pire of Ia ia scheme In ST. Vincent she was i'm
portant wife in ia ia she might become one
of hundred or
ia ia fine Negro in his way and maybe l
was wrong in not quoting this conversation earlier
and thus anticipating by few years the founding
of great Colonial Empire. However, ia ia
might have been disappointed, had the Stars and
Stripes waved his African capita-we
might have deceived him; he might have become
another Aguinado. Besides, l discovered that his
opinion of the United States navy tinctured by
his belief that had padded down from New York,