A Tale for the Nursery.

Beyond the green Pacific shore,
Westward, 2,000 miles, or more,
Dwelt a lady-monarch, with griefs galore—
The queen of the Cannibal Islands.

Some people describe her as “fair,” and yet,
It must be admitted, with much regret,
She’s unmistakably a brunette,
This queen of the Cannibal Islands.

Her lot was pleasant, they say, until
Her subjects kicked ‘gainst the royal will,
And smashed the throne and christened her “Lil,”
Ex-queen of the Cannibal Islands.

But a valiant knight from far away
Declared himself in the game to stay,
And he vowed he’d see that she had her say,
This queen of the Cannibal Islands.

Alas! This knight, though his “dander riz,”
Had to yield when some intimate friends of his
Said “you’d better stay home and attend to biz;
Shake this queen of the Cannibal Islands.”

The talk of restoring her “didn’t go,”
And it really looks, to those who know,
Like a permanent case of “in statu quo”
For the queen of the Cannibal Islands.

She doesn’t deserve much thought or time,
This product strange of a tropic clime,
But she’s just the theme for a nursery rhyme,
Is the queen of the Cannibal Islands.

[This was printed in Washington DC and later reprinted in Honolulu in the Hawaiian Gazette on 2/13/1894, p. 1)

(Evening Star, 1/22/1894, p. 4)

The Evening Star, Volume 84, Number 20,788, Page 4. January 22, 1894.