The Savannah morning news., 1903-11-08
MEN OF TODAY WHO
DREAM OF GETTING
VAST TERRITORIES


man of wealth. has been annoying the
officials of both Spain and France by
his attempts to establi for himself
an empire on the east coast of Africa.
The territory over which he has pro-
claimed~himself emperor is claimed
partly by France and partly by Spain,
and is the eastern part of the Desert
of Sahara, with a coast line of which
Cape Blanco is nearly the center.
They say in Paris that the Emperor"
is crazy, but his idea of establishing
an Atlantic port and opening up a
route for trade with the interior is en-
inently practical. If a French gun
boat makes the Emperor" abdicate,
his plans may yet be carried out by
one of the two nations which are now
after his imperial scalp.
While the French and the Spanish
are after the Emperor of Sahara" the
Brazilians and Bolivians are contend
ing as to which nation shall succeed
TO the power of Rodriguez Aries,
president of Acre"
The republic which Aries and his
! band of rubber gatherers founded
near the head-waters of the Amazon.
was much before the public when its
/ existence first was made known to the
QulStQG NOIlu. II was CldlnGQ
| once by both Bolivia and Brazil. So
far however, neither nation has taken
i possession.
A "modus vivendi" was agreed upon
/, which expired last month, and has
been extended for three months
| longer. Then the matter is to be ar
| bitrated by the two claimant nations.
and President Aries and his hand
made nation will cease to exist Off
cially.
1t would be interesting to know
what progress Joseph O'Donoghue is
making with his Empire of the
| West" Mr.. ODonoghue announced
some time ago that he was about to
| establish an empire on four islands in
the Pacific and issued an invitation
| for all Irishmen to come and be his
| subjects. He named the islands,
| which he declared were not owned by
| any nation, Ulster, Munster, Leinster
| and Connaught and declared that he
| proposed to establish on them an ideal
| a new center and home for the entire
| Irish race.
He himself, of course, was to be the
| first king'-King Joseph land his
| prospectus was certainly very entic-
| ing. At last accounts however. King
| Joseph was still in want of a suffi-
| cient number of subjects to make his
| Irish Eden a fiourishing proposition.
| Henry p. Toller. who recently sold
| his seat on the New York Stock Elk
| change and retired from his Wall
| street business with the announced In
| tention of devoting the rest of his life
| to getting possession of the north end
| of Manhattan Island. adds himself to
| the long list of claimants who declare
| themselves the rightful owners of i'm
| mense properties which have been In
- fr,,,
Mr.. Toller says that that part of
little old New York" known as Her
! lem, was granted by patent in 1865 to
| certain settlers whose heirs at law are
now the rightful owners of the vast
| property. He has succeeded in finding
| 5000 of the descendants of these set
| tiers besides himself. and will now en-
ter suit to regain for them the land
| which, he claims. was never legally
The property claimed is of enormous
value and, if recovered. would make
! all the claimants rich.
Another famous case Of Claimants"
| in New York is that of the so-called
"Anneke Jahns heirs" The descend
ants OF this old Knickerbocker. who
once owned the land on which Trinity
| Church now stands and much more be-
| sides in what is now the Lower Broad
way section of Manhattan. have been
| trying to get possession of the proper
/ ty for a long time. They a1lege that
their ancestor never legally alienated
| it. Every now and then there is a
meeting of the "heirs," but the present
holders of the property refuse to view
! their claims seriously. Much money.
| however, has been spent in trying to
prove the claim and much labor and
research devoted to it, and the heirs"
| have by no means given up the fight.
Some years ago the suit of Myra
| Clark Gains, who claimed that she was
legally entitled by descent to a con-
| siderable portion of the land on which
| the city of New Orleans is built. was
settled by a compromise which gave
| a large fortune to the claimant She
was an old woman. almost ready to
die. when the suit which had been GO
ing on for two or three generations,
was finally settled by what was, prac-
tjcally, victory for the claimant.
Another ancient claim which is pc
rennial is the Jennings case" which
is supposed TO have furnished Dickens
with his "Jarndice VS.. Jarndice." in
Bleak House. and which has taken up
more time of the English courts than
any other case ever brought before
them.
The Jennings millions have been
claimed by number of Americans
who, so far, have failed to make their
claims good in law. The latest claim
ant is a Canadian, David Jennings Of
Montreal, who saws that he has obtain