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acceptance of every new human hydra-head. Through the medium of their favorite front-page, readers had absorbed cruel and unusual punishment at the hands of Ignatius Donnelly, who ran for vice-president and published a book resurrecting the lost continent of Atlantis from the sea; Anthony Comstock, who disapproved of Little Egypt and was well on his way to destroying 160 tons of obscene literature; and Dr. Mary Walker, who served as a physician during the Civil War and frightened a Medal of Honor out of Congress with her daily attire of frocked coat and striped trousers.
    Yet, despite their resistance to bizarre individualists, even the oldest and most calloused Constant Readers blinked on the morning of November 5, 1893, when they picked up their twenty-four-page Sunday Tribune and read the exclusive lead story on page one.
    The column-long story, which spilled over into the next column, was headlined “To Be Prince of Trinidad.” The subheadline explained: “He Is Baron Harden-Hickey.” Beneath that, in slightly smaller type, one more bit of exposition: “His Ambition Is To Found A Nation On A Little Island In The Sea.”
    The opening paragraph of the news story, which would have been considered somewhat lackadaisical by latter-day Tribune editors and stockholders, stated:
    “If the plans of Baron James A. Harden-Hickey are carried out there will be a brand new nation brought into existence on the face of the earth next spring. That sounds like a remarkable undertaking, but Baron Harden-Hickey is confident that it can be carried through successfully and as easily as many other remarkable and apparently impossible achievements. He does not propose to overthrow any established government or split any twain. He is not going to encroach upon anybody’s territory or interfere with anybody’s rights. He has found a place where nobody lives, which, he says, nobody owns, and which is not claimed among the possessions of any existing nation. The place is the Island of Trinidad, situated in the South Atlantic Ocean, in latitude 20 degrees 30 minutes south and longitude 29 degrees 22 minutes west. It is 700 miles from the coast of Brazil, which is the point of land nearest to it. It contains about sixty square miles of territory. There Baron Harden-Hickey proposes to found an independent state, the head of which shall be sovereign and treat on equal terms with the mighty rulers of the earth.”
    Five paragraphs later, the Tribune took time out to remind its subscribers that this was an authentic scoop. “A Tribune reporter found Baron Harden-Hickey at his home last evening, and asked him about his extraordinary undertaking. Baron Harden-Hickey expressed surprise that the Tribune should have learned of his scheme, but added good-naturedly, I know that great newspapers have wonderful means of getting information. I used to be a newspaperman myself. As for my plans, they are not yet mature, but I will tell you as much about them as I can.’”
    What Harden-Hickey did not tell the Tribune , in the twelve quotes that followed, and what the Tribune did not tell its readers, was that Harden-Hickey planned not only to found a new island-nation, but also to crown himself King James I of that nation.
    In subsequent months most of New York, as well as the rest of America, became more fully acquainted with Baron Harden-Hickey ‘s project. At first, much to the consternation of his wife, a Standard Oil and iron heiress, Harden-Hickey worked out of his residence at 18 West Fifty-second Street in Manhattan. Later he established the more formal Chancellerie de la Principaute de Trinidad in a brownstone house at 217 West Thirty-sixth Street. While he toured the country to arrange for serfs he left an old Parisian friend and onetime wine merchant, Count de la Boissière, behind as his Secretaire d’Etat pour les Affaires Étrangères.
    In San Francisco, Harden-Hickey purchased a schooner to transport colonists to Trinidad and to ferry