A pre-War favorite of such light-hearted Manhattan newshawks as Frank Ward O'Malley was Jacques Lebaudy, son of a French sugar tycoon, who in 1903 hatched a scheme for irrigating the Sahara Desert, proclaimed himself "Jacques I, Emperor of the Sahara," fitted out an expedition to conquer his new province. Routed, he sailed for the U. S., established himself in Westbury, L. I., furnished copy on dull days by such stunts as uniforming and drilling an army of messenger boys and farmhands. In 1919 his "Empress" shot him dead.
Last week U. S. citizens were...
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