The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-10-18
"ENPEROR" LEBAUDY
DUMB TO REPORTERS
jacques the First" Would Say
Only "Bon Jour" to Partisan
Scribes.
Special Foreign Service.

the effect of his effort that he expanded
it, first into a short poem, then into
long one, and finally worked the thing
up into an epic. In the last few days
newspaper writer's here have been do
ing their best to make another Bon
Jour" cover corresponding amount of
ground-tbis Gallo equivalent for
good day. being the single, solitary
utterance that the representatives of
the press have been able to get out of
the man who could, if he would, talk
more interestingly than any other man
in London at present.
Probably the profound silence which
NJ. Jacques Lebaudy, who calls himself
emperor of the Sahara, has preserved
since he crept into the fashionable Sa-
Voy hotel few nights ago will lead to
no international complications, but
English newspaper readers and par
ticularly the men whose business it is
to supply them with news are sore" on
the journalists of Paris. For it is just
because so much fun was poked at M.
Lebaudy in the French capital after
he had talked for publication about his
terribly serious imperial schemes that
Jacques the First" determined that no
word should lead to his being ridiculed
while he was on his empire" business
In London.
OF course, the story of this serious
little Frenchman, who inherited $780,
000000 from his father, and his dream
of founding a dynasty in the desert of
Sahara, is familiar enough. 1t will be
remembered that Lebaudy sailed down
to the African coast in his private
yacht early last May, and after taking
a look at the coast of his future "em-
pire" landed five mariners-who subse-
quently were taken prisoners by saw
age tribes-and then sailed for France
again. Returning to Paris, he pro-
claimed his intention of founding in the
Sahara a capital city, which he pro-
posed to call Troya-composed of col
lapsible houses with celluloid windows
and then it was that the press of
Paris went for the self-styled emperor
and made him the laughing stock of the
whole world.
The little Frenchman, however, in
stead of being discouraged, has gone
straight ahead with his schemes for
his Sahara commonwealth, so when a
telegram from Paris the other day an
nounced that Jacques the First" was
about to visit London for the purpose
of buying agricultural implements and
portable houses to be shipped to At
RIGA, the metropolis was naturally Curl
Gus to see what he would have to say
for himself. Then came the definite
announcement that a little, clean
peared at the Savoy, had remarked, II
am Lebaudy-give me room" and had
been accommodated and promptly the
entire newspaper fraternity swooped
down upon the hotel, prepared to ex-
tract from the empire builder every
morsel of information of which he
might be possessed.
And that little, hurried uninforming
bon Jour, Monsieur!" was the only
result. The newspaper men found that
they were by no means the only folk
who were anxious to interview the
Emperor of the Sahara" for the Sa-
Voy staff was being kept at its wits
end in stalling off agents whose pock-
cts bulged with models of the latest
machinery and the porter stationed at
the courtyard entrance came near haV-
ing fight with the representative of
a collapSible house company who had
brought a model of his building on
five-horse truck. But, though literally
hundreds of cards were sent up to
suite No. $3.50, where Jacques the
First was lodged, not one person would
he see, nor one message would he send.
Hundreds of letters and packets con-
tanning samples were also pouring in,
most of them addressed to His I'm
perial Majesty, the Emperor of the Sa-
hara," but whether they even were be-
ing opened no one could find out. And
so the newspaper men had to go away
finally and ask their readers in print
next morning If this really could be
the" Lebaudy, and not some impostor
who was trying to fool London into be-
lieVing that it had a real emperor
within its gates.
1t was on the second day of M. Lee
baudy's stay that the celebrated in
terview' with him took place. BY this
time the huge crowd at the Savoy en-
trance-which now comprised, besides
the newspaper men, several photog-
raphers, whole host of drummers,
and the inventor of a new tent es-
pecially adapted for Saharan uSe-dis-
covered that Jacques lie Premier" was
leaving the hotel every once in
while in some mysterious fashion,
probably for the purpose of doing the
business which he had come to London
to transact. 1t was soon afterward
that smart young reporter saw M.
Lebaudy pop into the Savoy by one
of the rear entrances, and so he
camped there, waiting for the mil
honaire to emerge. This, M. Lebaudy
did, soon after. Dressed in a light
fawn suit, tight fitting trousers, brown
felt hat and patent leather boots, the
little Frenchman marched away in the
direction of the embankment, and in
his wake followed the intrepid news
paper man. But the result of his en-
terprise has been told already. NJ
Lebaudy uttered his Bon Jour- with
all a Frenchman's suaVity, and even
raised his hat to the newspaper man.
but he tarried not to answer a single
question.
Yesterday, however, the fog of mys-
terry surrounding Lebaudy began to
clear when his majesty appeared at
prominent housefurnishing establish
ment and ordered 100 beds But as he
desired them to be delivered at a point
on the African coast where there is no
port, and wished the firm to take all
responsibility in getting them ashore,
the tradesman hesitated and asked
time to find out whether the law had
anything to say about such cases.
The Sahara's emperor now has
been at the Savoy five whole DAYS. but
the "siege" of the swagger hosiery
shows no signs of letting up At last
accounts, NJ. Lebaudy had taken a new
precaution against persistent callers
by marshaling, on each side of the
door leading to his apartments, a row
of walters seated In cane chairs. with
kpecific instructions to allow no one
to pass them. However, JACQUES IL
lust escaped capture yesterday In
spite of all his precautions, his pursuer
being a resourceful contractor for
corned beef to filibustering expeditions