| Show t the king of trinidad new york lately entertained a king unaware his majesty james 1 I prince of trinidad a big white haired elderly man with a large good humored irish face deeply tanned by a tropical sun james I 1 or king harden hickey as he Is more popularly known by the few people who know about him at all Is officially ally recognized by the united states and tho the south american republics bis his consul to this country he fitted out a yacht and sailed about the world v ith his wife during one of their cruises they Is listed in the directories but his kingdom la Is not mentioned in the atlases or because there are probably not a thousand people in the orid world who know anything about it it Is not even marked on some maps but take a big modern chart of the south atlantic measure off miles due east from rio de janeiro and you will see a small spot charted as trinidad that Is the smallest independent government on earth with its own laws its own flag and its own ruler it has ships that ply steadily to south american ports its population is nearly a thousand and it lives constantly under the rule of james I 1 whom the casual visitor there sees smoking a cigar which is probably a product of his ills own kingdom he comes conies to new york sometimes on a R visit but always incognito as harden hickey esq king hickey the first vas was not born to the royal purple he began life as an humble irishman but when a mere boy he got into trouble with the british government like many my another of his compatriots and snipped over to france he learned to speak french like a frenchman and many of his intimate friends never suspected that he was a foreigner hickey finally drifted into journalism he became a familiar figure on the boulevards and was known as monsieur le lebaron baron how he be acquired that title is not known but he made good use of it finally he became editor of a sporting sheet called Til boulet suddenly for un unknown knon reasons suspended publication and its editor baron harden hard en hickey dis appealed his ills big handsome figure way was missed from the boulevards but where he went to was not known for several years 11 then it was discovered that the aaion had gone to america that he had made quite a R society hit there and had married the daughter of a multimillionaire multi mill tim ti m millionaire lillon alre of new york this made a rich man mail of the baron and he ni vas its able to gratify a taste for travel struck tho the uninhabited island of trinidad off brazil which should not bo confounded with the british colony of the same name no government had ever considered it worth while to hoist its flag there harden hickey hichey conceived the idea of seizing it himself and establishing a kingdom of his own he ile landed and raised the coun present flag a yellow triangle on a red field A year later there appeared in brazil a frenchman who claimed to bo be the minister from the court of james 1 I prince of trinidad brazil officially recognized him and other south american governments also acknowledged james I 1 of trinidad net nett there appeared in new now an agent of the trinidad government who issued a prospectus in which people were invited to invest st in shares in the government at a share and to settle lu tho the country it yas was represented that as sas all these investors would be finst settlers in trinidad they would naturally be the nobility of the new kingdom 0 and therefore they must bo be people of good social standing and must show references the state rese reserved ried the right to buy back the shams after one year settlers viere ft ere tn to swear allegiance to prince james as their lawful eiga to recognize his word as law and must give gile him the royal prerogative tive of monopolizing the trade in guano turtles and hurled burled treasure this last commodity aas as supposed to havi havo been deposited there by pirates in III the tile early part of the nineteenth century evidently this prospectus brought 0 results for king hickey now has some fifty alite white subjects he and hia his nobility have laid out coffee and tobacco plantations that give them good ln in comei they have imported about five hundred chinese and indian coolies as contract laborers in fact they have one small steamer which makes regular trips to china and india bringing 0 new now workers to swell the population king hickey has the power of life and death over these brown subjects of his but ho he never uses it the capital of king hickey is called james city and he and his courtiers live chete E every very fortnight a steamer leaves for and arrives from rio de janiero with ith mail brazil officially recognizes the trinidadian mall mail service it has been a big source of income to the yng for ho lie has had printed thousands of dollars worth of post age stamps which aich he has sold to stamp collectors in the united states and europe the ste steamer amer which is also king hickey hickeys s navy keeps the kingdom in pretty close touch with the outside world the regular steamer carries carriea the products of bf the 4 island to rio de janeiro whence they are shipped shinned to 0 the he united states or europe in re turn urn it brings back machinery farm ing implements and other articles which ch the TrInIdad ians cannot pro duce the 0 blas nobles or of the court ot of prince james have no worries their busl busi ness interests interests are looked after in rio de janeiro and new now york by con su s for the united states has ot filially fici ally received the consul of trini effs dad there would probably s be a trinidadian legation in hIngton if that were not too expensive P luxury for prince james |
