QUEEN OF AMERICA.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 309, 17 September 1908, Page 7

QUEEN OF AMERICA.

TO BE CROWNED WITHIN THREE YEARS. No more romantic story was ever told to an eager newspaper man than that related to a “Lloyd’s News ” representative when he made his way to the Savoy Hotel and interviewed the advertiser of the following announcement, which appeared in the “ agony ” column of a London paper : — “ The Royalists of the United States of America, organised for the purpose of securing real liberty and to crowu Helen of New York Queen. We desire the aid of Royalists of the world who can place our cause before their re-, spective Sovereigns and secure their prac iical —Louis A. Gourdain, Suite 704, Savoy Hotel.” Mr Gourdain is a tall, dark, clean-shaven American, with black piercing eyes. “We badly want a change over in America,” he said. “You think we’re a free country, but we’re not. Why, the Russian, who’s supposed to be so downtrodden, wouldn’t stand the state of things in the States for twenty-four hours, and you English wouldn’t stand them for sixty seconds. “ Give you a definite instance ? Well, see here: I was up in your Hyde Park the other evening, and heard a man talking socialism in connection with what he called Hunger. Marchers. Why, that man wouldn’t be allowed to speak in such a strain for a minute in so-called free America. “ Then look at our justice I There’s the Thaw case still dragging on. Over here you’d have hanged or liberated Thaw in a few weeks. And our financial state is all rotten, with the feeling of insecurity that a constant change of ruler brings. We neither rule ourselves nor have an autocrat to rule us. We’re just between the two. “ It was in 1903 that some of us decided that a monarchy was what our country wanted. So, in a quiet way we began pushing our ideas, till to-day, with a total following of nearly 3,000,000 people, spread over all the States, we feel the time is ripe to go ahead. “ Seven of us came over in the Lusitania on June 23. My colleagues are now in different countries on the Continent, and I am trying to organise British opinion. It is naturally impossible to say what steps I am taking to secure the sympathy of King Edward, but that is what I am aiming at. “ Now you want to know about Helen, of New York. Well, we thought it would rouse less antagonism if we set a lady on the throne, so this lady was selected, I may not give you her full name, as publicity would be premature, but I may say that she is a handsome, intellectual, young, single woman, of queenly bearing. As regards her marriage, which will be necessary to secure an heir to the throne, that will be left to her ; but, of course, we would rather she married a European prince than an American street-sweeper. “ She will be assisted in her rule by a House of Lords and a House of Commons like your own, and there will be a nobility, the State ‘ bosses.’ who to-day practically elect the governors and mayors; becoming dukes and earls. You may take it from me that Helen can trace her descent from European Royalties, and that she will properly fill her high position. Only under a monarchy can all -the different races that make up the American people be welded into a nation. “ The movement is being run |h)y practical men—l myself am a successful organiser—and as we are not visionaries we do not expect to attain our ends without bloodshed. “ Within three years this lady will be crowned Queen Helen of the United States of America at Washington after one of the most terrible civil wars the world has ever seen.”