him, to pay taxes, to pay grocers' bills,
to depend for protection upon a policeman, was intolerable. He lived
in a world of his own imagining. And one day, in order to make his
imaginings real, and to escape from his father-in-law's unromantic world
of Standard Oil and Florida hotels, in a proclamation to the powers
he announced himself as King James the First of the Principality of
Trinidad.

The proclamation failed to create a world crisis. Several of the powers
recognized his principality and his title; but, as a rule, people
laughed, wondered, and forgot. That the daughter of John Flagler was
to rule the new principality gave it a "news interest," and for a few
Sundays in the supplements she was hailed as the "American Queen."

When upon the subject of the new kingdom Flagler himself was
interviewed, he showed an open mind.

"My son-in-law is a very determined man," he said; "he will carry out
any scheme in which he is interested. Had he consulted me about this,
I would have been glad to have aided him with money or advice. My
son-in-law is an extremely well-read, refined, well-bred man. He does
not court publicity. While he was staying in my house he spent nearly
all the time in the library translating an Indian book on Buddhism. My
daughter has no ambition to be a queen or anything else than what she
is--an American girl. But my son-in-law means to carry on this Trinidad
scheme, and--he will."

From his father-in-law, at least, Harden-Hickey could not complain that
he had met with lack of sympathy.

The rest of America was amused; and after less than nine days,
indifferent. But Harden-Hickey, though unobtrusively, none the less
earnestly continued to play the part of king. His friend De la Boissiere
he appointed his Minister of Foreign Affairs, and established in a
Chancellery at 217 West Thirty-sixth Street, New York, and from there
was issued a sort of circular, or prospectus, written by the king, and
signed by "Le Grand Chancelier, Secretaire d'Etat pour les Affaires
Etrangeres, M. le Comte de la Boissiere."

The document, written in French, announced that the new state would
be governed by a military dictatorship, that the royal standard was a
yellow triangle on a red ground, and that the arms of the principality
were "d'Or chape de Gueules." It pointed out naively that those who
first settled on the island would be naturally the oldest inhabitants,
and hence would form the aristocracy. But only those