WEALTHY ECCENTRIC.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1962, 8 April 1919, Page 4

WEALTHY ECCENTRIC.

“EMPEROR OF SAHARA.’ 1 END OF AN EXTRAORDINARY CAREER. The following story was recently told in the London News: —M. Jacques Lehaudy, the millionaire mine and land owner, once self-styled Emperor of the Sahara,” was shot and killed at his home by his wife, Marie Lebaudy.Lebaudy was the son of Jules Lebaudy, the French Sugar King. He and two brothers inherited about -0 millions between them, and Jacques came into prominence about the beginning of the century with his fantastic project to found an Empire in the Sahara. His kingdom was (o be a kind of No Man’s Land near Morocco, with a coastline of 140 miles, and extending some miles inland. Colonel Gouraud, a well-known American, who introduced the Pullman car and the gramaphone to Europe, was to lie Lebamly’s Gov-ernor-General, and when the pair stayed at the Savoy Hotel in London something like Court etiquette was maintained. Lebamly's imperial standard was three golden bees and a crown on a blue ground, and there was great dismay in the Savoy suite when it was reported that the royal Hag had been stolen. Subsequently, however, a chambermaid found that it had slipped down behind the bed of the Governor-General. When the Emperor approached his realm in a yacht laden with stores, rifles, machine-guns, and gramaphones, he found the Moors far from sympathetic. His little army of followers was ordered ashore to capture “Troja,” which was to lie his capital, hut some of his men were (alum prisoners, and the Emperor tied liack to Europe. •He diil not forgive his native country for ridiculing his projects. Two years later he sent an ultimatum through the post to France in which, after styling himself “His .Majesty Jacques L, independent Sovereign,” he referred to France as occupying hut a minor position on the planet, and to the French people as bandits and plunderers. When he was in England in 190.4 Lebamly's Governor-General described him as “bigger (ban Napoleon, about tile size of Lord Roberts, with the look of Custer in his youth, and much (he same kind of man as St aiiley.” la recent year-. Lehaudy has been living in America, mostly in New York hotels, where he spent his lime ! in dictating letters (o typists and discussing his investments nml the various legal disputes which wero always arising concerning them. In .1.915 his wife complained of his eccentricities, nnd at her instance (he authorities stepped in, and Lehaudy was taken to a sanatorium.