The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-04-10
AMERICAN GIRL
 SOUTH SEA ISLE REICNING QUEEN
Former New York Stenogra. pher Operates Industries
 Worth $50O,O0O.

plGI OpCI IdGcS 4Iluu0OA AO0
 Worth $50O,000.
 - Ten years ago she was an expert above the frenzied financiers who throng the Curb. And a tiny hall bedroom was home to her. She was Miss Emma Gertrude Given then.
 Today she is mistress of an island in the Sulu Sea, down south from Manila She is the only white resident on the island, competent manager of a fleet of pearling schooners, director of the cutting and saving of the val uable timber with which her domain is laden. Her bank account. they say must be pushing close to the $500,00a mark. She is the Queen of Balabac
 All the better-or all the worse, ,ac- cording to your views of romance there is at present no King of Bala- bac.
 Here is a girl-a New York girl, at that-who really rules a rock and tree and earth and sunlight island. If Hans Christian Andersen were alive
  der if he had not miraculously, run across one of the princesses about whose tribqlaHons and adventures he wrote so much
 This is how it came about, Miss Given was a stenographer in New York. Her brot.,er, Robert, was in Government service in Manila, and later became connected with Singa- pore trading firm, roaming the South Seas in their interest.
 He came across Balabac Island, a dot on the reef dotted surface of the Sulu Sea. Balabac was some five miles long and, maybe, two miles wide In the interior it was hi1ly, ready made for coffee growing. Along the gently sloping beach it was plant ed haphazard with groves of cocoa palms, loaded with nuts for the mak- ing of copral And in the waters about it there were pearls.
 Balabac Island looked good to Rob- ert Given. He bought the greater part of it. Then he sent for his sister threw up his position with the Singa pore traders, and the pair of them went to Balabac in a 20O-ton schooner they had bought.
 Business grew and prospered with them. Four years ago palms had been perfected for opening up the pearl fisheries and a market had been ob- tained for the hardwood timber. Then Robert Given died.
 Emma Gertrude Given, the only white person in Balabac, and the only white woman in many hundreds of Y Il. I,- L. a dropped it. Ever since she has been managing her business and ruling her people, which comprise one tribe of restless Moros, a number of Chinese and various motley lFflipinos.
 Eight years ago. when she first went to Balabac, her present subjects were living in suited houses that seemed to be wading into the salt maSsheS, or stood along the edge of the estuary on tall bamboo poles. Their clothes were only the bodily adornments Nature gave them. Y Today they live in bamboo wattled, pandanus palm thatched huts, set back from the beach, and their dress, while not elaborate, is much more no- ticeable than it used to be. Overalls and shirt are the proper thing in Ball. abac now.
 And there are schools in Balabac, too. Two hours of each day the Prin- cess gives to the, children. She can- not teach them the Bible, for they are fervent followers of Mohammed, lit- tie arithmetic and a little writing. They make very good pupils, so their ruler says.
 The Queen of Balabac is the owner and manager now of 12 large pearling schooners. They are motor driven and manned by Japanese divers, whom she has found the most successful and honest undersea workers. Her in- come from pearl shell alone is very considerable. And there are pearls, too, and once in every tree months she sends a trusted agent to the city of Jolo, on the island of Jolo, to make marketing arrangements with the French pearl buyers there. The Queen of Balabac lives in style There was an electrical expert from ssthe States who had gone fantee- which means native. From Manila he drifted to Balabac. The fair ruler had him install her electric light plant There fare incandescents in all the rooms of her palace and miniature ice plant is set well back from the house in a group of pepper trees Without these touches of modernity, the Queen says. she would feel quite lost. The power for them is derived from an overshot wheel built in the bed of a mountain torrent.
 o, yes, the palace. It is perched on the slope of cleared hillside, just above where Broadway Inlet merges into the sea. It is constructed of coral blocks with burnt sea shells for .rnor- tar. Towering tropical shrubbery all but buries 1t.
 The Queen of Ba1abac says she is not lonely. Work fills her days up. Also she is philosophical, as royalty needs to be. One can mold ones en- vironment, she says, to such an ex- tent that it is possible to imagine one feels the presence of companions even though all friends be many miles away. For that reason, she insists. she does not mind her se1f-imposed exile from New York. A
 EREMCH