BARON FRANZ PORZIG. Frontispiece. 
 
A RIDE ON A CYCLONE 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM .ftOSEA BALLOU 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 H. CLAY COULTAUS. 
 
 CHICAGO, NEW YORK, AND SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 BELFORD, CLARKE & COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 LONDON, H. J. DRANE, LOVELL S COURT, PATERNOSTER ROW 
 
r 1889. 
 " All bights ~ Reserved. ^ . 
 
TO MY MOTHER. 
 
 I LL FIND THEE, LOVE. 
 
 Some time when all this world has passed 
 
 Through its long day of life and light, 
 Though spirits kindred all are massed 
 
 Beyond approach of storm and night ; 
 Though e en invisible thy soul, 
 
 Far from the eyes of mortal screened, 
 Somehow I ll find thee in thy goal, 
 
 Though deeps of space have intervened. 
 
 Or if, in other orbs than ours, 
 
 New, wondrous shapes replace our mould, 
 And thought knows not of days and hours, 
 
 Nor age, disease, nor heat, nor cold ; 
 Though in some body, new and strange, 
 
 All inconceivable to man, 
 I ll find thee, love, whate er thy range, 
 
 Of worlds, or forms, or Nature s plan. 
 
 WM. HOSEA BALLOU. 
 
 M12007 
 
A RIDE ON A CYCLONE. 
 
 i. 
 
 " Hello ! help ! What in the name of 
 wonder does this mean ? Sam, I say ! 
 Come here, you black varmint !" 
 
 The shouts and cries of the man had 
 an immediate effect. A scuttle was 
 heard to raise near at hand and a fright 
 ened negro, followed by several cham 
 bermaids, passed through the opening. 
 
 " Come here you, Sam, and explain 
 
 7 
 
8 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 this mystery. How did I get into this 
 strange predicament ? How ?" 
 
 " Now you hole on, sah ! I s not Sam. 
 I s Jonas, I is. What you doing on 
 Mars s roof? That s what 1 want to 
 know. I ll call the purlice, I will." 
 
 The man half arose in his b^d and 
 looked around in a bewildered way. 
 " You black varmint ! what do you 
 mean by saying you are not Sam and 
 that you will call the police ? Well, by 
 Jove ! you are not Sam. Go and call 
 my man, will you ? That s a good 
 fellow." 
 
 " I ll jess call Mars John, I will, and 
 we ll trow yer off de roof, we will." 
 
"Now you hole on, sah ! I\s not Sam. I s Jonas, I is. What 
 you doing on Mars s roof ? That s what I want to know. I ll call 
 the purlice, I will." Page 8. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. g 
 
 The excited black turned to carry 
 out his threat, when a gray head and 
 stern face appeared above the scuttle ; 
 then a tall, dignified gentleman emerged 
 and surveyed the scene in amazement. 
 He advanced a little, looking at the bed, 
 or rather mattress, and the face of the 
 man under the clothing, growing more 
 and more indignant. 
 
 " My name is John de Land," he said, 
 as if the announcement ought to be 
 sufficient to cause the culprit to take 
 to his heels in a panic. " What species 
 of vagabondage is this? A man in 
 bed on my roof in the broad light 
 of the morning ! Explain yourself, 
 
IO A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 if you can, sir, before I call the 
 
 police." 
 
 " I m not on your roof, you old 
 hypocrite ! I am in my own bed, on 
 my own roof, if anybody s. My name 
 is Franz Porzig, baron. May I in 
 quire what you and these gaping 
 servants are doing here, and why my 
 valet, Sam, let you in before I am 
 up?" 
 
 The situation was interesting, and 
 when the baron gave his name, so well 
 known in financial circles as the head 
 of an immense cattle syndicate in the 
 West, the old gentleman appeared 
 amused. "My dear Baron," he re- 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 1 1 
 
 marked, " rise a little and look around, 
 and repeat, if you can, that you are 
 on your own roof. So many house;; 
 join that you may have moved your 
 bed during the restlessness of a hot 
 night." 
 
 The baron arose again and gazed 
 about him, more and more dazed. The 
 sun scorched his eyes and he was be 
 wildered by the vast network of wires, 
 brownstone mansions, and spires visible 
 far around him on all sides. He rub 
 bed his eyes, beat his head, gave it up 
 and reclined again. "Oh, well!" he 
 murmured, " it s a dream ; I ll sleep it 
 out." 
 
12 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 " What do you say?" demanded Mr. 
 de Land, kindly. 
 
 The baron opened his eyes. " It s a 
 dream. Go away, spectres. This is 
 not New Dresden, nor Idaho, nor the 
 Porzig ranch ; there are no cattle visi 
 ble, no horses, no sheep. Go away. I 
 dream." 
 
 " Baron, arouse yourself ! This is the 
 city of New York. You are on the 
 roof of a stranger, though not a stranger 
 to your fame. New Dresden, Idaho, 
 has filled many pages of the morning 
 papers for two days. It was destroyed 
 night before last by the most terrible 
 cyclone ever known. Every inhabitant 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 13 
 
 is supposed to be dead and your name 
 heads the death-list. Every vestige of 
 your buildings, every head of your 
 stock has been wiped out. Arouse, I 
 say, and explain yourself." 
 
 The affrighted baron sprang from his 
 bed like a madman and gazed at de 
 Land, his night-gown blown by the 
 fresh ocean breeze. "Impossible, sir! 
 Impossible ! I went to bed in New 
 Dresden, last night, twenty -five hundred 
 miles from New York. How could I 
 have been transported so far in so 
 short a time? Go away! I am no 
 lunatic." 
 
 " But look around you." 
 
14 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 Porzig s gaze again swept the hori 
 zon and he gasped for breath. " It is 
 New York," he sighed. " I am mad, 
 then, not dreaming." 
 
 " No, my friend, you are neither mad 
 nor dreaming. You are sane, and what 
 is better, by happening to be away from 
 home you alone have escaped the fury 
 of the cyclone. Come ! You have had 
 a jolly night of it somewhere in this 
 vicinity and your companions have 
 played a practical joke on you. Let 
 me give you some clothing and break 
 fast and then we can talk calmly over 
 the situation." 
 
 The party descended, and after For- 
 
The cyclone reaches New York. Page 15. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 1 5 
 
 zig had bathed and donned a suit, which 
 was too long for him, he joined the 
 family at breakfast. He was presented 
 to Mrs. and Miss de Land, each as tall 
 as the father. These stately, magnifi 
 cent women received him with ease and 
 grace. No mention was made nor any 
 hint offered concerning his strange ap 
 pearance in the house. In such a circle 
 his high breeding asserted itself, and he 
 conversed as a man of the world who 
 had been invited there for the pleasure 
 of his company. For the time.being he 
 apparently forgot his predicament and 
 only remembered that he was in the 
 presence of a young woman, who, he 
 
1 6 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 now recalled, was the most famous 
 beauty of the day. When the ladies 
 retired, Mr. de Land produced the 
 morning papers and handed them to 
 Porzig. The Baron glanced at them, 
 his face showing signs of increasing 
 horror. Mr. de Land, who was watch 
 ing him narrowly, suddenly sprang for 
 ward and snatched the papers from his 
 hand. 
 
 " Porzig !" he commanded, " look at 
 me ! Rouse yourself ! Some of your 
 hairs are turning white. Daughter!" 
 he shouted, " come here !" 
 
 Miss de Land entered with stately 
 grace, and at a signal from her father 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 1 7 
 
 seated herself beside the unfortunate 
 baron. She began to converse with 
 him gently. The soothing, magnetic 
 tones of her voice gradually roused him 
 until his intense black hairs no longer 
 whitened with terror. The magnetism 
 of the woman soothed the wild tumult 
 in his brain, but still Miss de Land 
 noticed that he seemed absolutely un 
 nerved by reason of emotions and sen 
 sations, as yet unknown to her, which 
 were convulsing his being. She natu 
 rally surmised that he was crazed with 
 liquor, which, to all appearance, he must 
 have been indulging in for some time 
 past. 
 
1 8 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 " Baron/ she said sweetly, " do you 
 ever take advice, and would you 
 take it from a lady so young as my 
 self?" 
 
 " Mademoiselle de Land," he replied, 
 with a shiver which ran from his head 
 to his feet, " there are times when 
 advice cannot save the ship beating 
 upon the rocks, and doomed to swift 
 destruction. Even in that predicament 
 it would be sweet to die listening to 
 anything so fascinating a woman as 
 yourself might say. Believe me, how 
 ever, it is not what will be said by you 
 to which I can listen, but that subtle 
 quality of your voice which will relieve 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 19 
 
 me of the miseries into which I am 
 plunged miseries such as no man ever 
 before endured. Only speak and 1 can 
 be calm." 
 
 " Baron, however few my years, I 
 have found that the will can hold con 
 temptuously at bay any emotions, sen 
 sations, and trials possible in human 
 experience. Try to look on what has 
 passed with contempt. That is the 
 only course for us who live in these 
 modern times, when the veils which 
 hide so many mysteries have been 
 torn away, showing what is behind 
 them." 
 
 " Mademoiselle," he replied, rousing 
 
20 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 himself, " such advice sounds strangely, 
 coming from an American to a Prus 
 sian, at least a Prussian by birth and 
 instincts, though I am a citizen of this 
 country by long residence here. My 
 native empire has done most to lift 
 those veils of which you speak, and we 
 Prussians have never been accused of a 
 lack of fortitude. Remember that 
 Goethe forecast evolution long before 
 the time of Darwin. Still your advice 
 is good. But, Mademoiselle, how can a 
 man who went to sleep in New Dresden 
 and awoke thirty-six hours afterward in 
 New York, over twenty-five hundred 
 miles away, look with contempt on the 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 2 1 
 
 mystery, the destruction of property 
 and terrible loss of life which make up 
 the situation I am now called upon to 
 face?" 
 
 " Baron !" exclaimed both father and 
 daughter, " don t entertain such pre 
 posterous fancies." 
 
 " My friends," said the baron earn 
 estly, with an effort regaining his ac 
 customed composure, "here are the 
 dailies showing that my New Dresden 
 property worth a million is wiped out 
 and myself killed. I have millions re 
 maining, every dollar of which I will 
 give to you if you can show that I slept 
 in New York last night, that I did not 
 
22 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 retire in New Dresden the night be 
 fore." 
 
 The father and daughter stared. 
 
 " Baron," said Miss de Land, beginning 
 to laugh, " pardon me if I say that you 
 must have had an enjoyable night of it 
 somewhere, or a week of it, perhaps, 
 with your boon companions. Come, 
 now, do not dwell on such absurd fan 
 cies, lest your imagination drive you 
 mad." 
 
 " Either what I say is true, or else I 
 am mad now. I have no boon compan 
 ions. I drink wine only at my meals, 
 and then sparingly." 
 
 " Then," said Mr. de Land, with a 
 
Baron," said Miss de Land beginning to laugh, "pardon me." 
 
 Page 22. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 23 
 
 peculiar warning glance at his daughter, 
 " we must investigate the case, and ascer 
 tain where you really did pass the night. 
 I propose now that you become our 
 guest until we can get a wardrobe for 
 you. I will send for my tailor, if you 
 wish, and meantime look over the hotel 
 lists." 
 
 The baron acquiesced in the plan 
 with profuse thanks. Mr. de Land sent 
 out a messenger, who soon returned 
 with a file of the Daily Hotel Reporter 
 containing every arrival at the hotels of 
 New York. A careful scrutiny of two 
 weeks of arrivals failed to show the 
 name of Baron Franz Porzig. 
 
24 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 " This is mysterious," remarked Mr. 
 de Land ; perhaps you were the guest 
 of some friends." 
 
 The old terrified look for an instant 
 came into the baron s eyes. The 
 strange events of the past thirty-six 
 hours, which he had believed must be 
 dreams, began to recur to him. " Mr. 
 de Land," he said, with an effort, " you 
 have been kind enough to begin an in 
 vestigation. Can I induce you to con 
 tinue it ? I will give you a list of those 
 associated with me in business in this 
 city, and, in fact, the only people I know 
 in New York. You can interview them, 
 apprise them that I live, and inquire if 
 
She was at the piano playing one of Liszt s Hungarian Rhapso 
 dies. He entered the drawing-room silently and listened." 
 
 Page 25. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 25 
 
 they have seen me in New York for 
 months." 
 
 " I shall take pleasure in accepting 
 the commission, and as the tailor has 
 arrived, I will leave you with him while 
 I go down town." 
 
 The tailor having been disposed of, 
 the baron again sought Miss de Land, 
 as one fascinated with a spell which 
 would not down. She was at the piano 
 playing one of Liszt s Hungarian Rhap 
 sodies. He entered the drawing-room 
 silently and listened. Having finished 
 this, she performed the overture 
 to " Tannhauser," causing tumultuous 
 emotions in the man. Then, as if 
 
26 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 inspired, she played the grand fantasie 
 of " Die Walkure," ending with Schu 
 mann s " Traumerei." During these re 
 citals of the grandest products of his 
 native land, in fact of any land, the 
 man s loftiest emotions brought him 
 entirely back to reason, while the 
 ending calmed him beyond further 
 terror. He advanced timidly to this 
 beautiful creature, more beautiful, it 
 seemed to him, than woman, and 
 took her hand for an instant. 
 
 " Mademoiselle," he said, with all 
 polish and grace, "you have completely 
 restored my reason. I was not aware 
 that any woman living, not of the pro- 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 27 
 
 fession, could play those grand works 
 as you have just done. I am now 
 ready to believe that I came to New 
 York naturally, and I hope your father 
 will produce the proof." 
 
 Her face flushed with gratified pleas 
 ure. " That is the highest compliment 
 a woman ever received," she declared. 
 " How could you ever believe that you 
 went to sleep in New Dresden and . 
 awoke in New York?" 
 
 " It was a singular delusion, was 
 it not? Do you recall any similar 
 instance of so singular an effect on one s 
 mind, as the result of a mere dream ? 
 Certainly I am a strong, healthy man. 
 
28 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 I do not know of any weak minds or 
 constitutions in our family, on either 
 side, as far back as our genealogy goes. 
 There can, then, be no hereditary rea 
 son for such a dream or such an effect 
 Yet I could swear that I went to bed in 
 New Dresden last night or the night 
 before. In this dream I had wonderful 
 experiences. I sailed through the air; 
 I saw the destruction of my ranch and 
 all on it, exactly as depicted in the 
 papers. Can it be that there are occult 
 psychologic forces, which affect some 
 susceptible minds, so that under certain 
 comatose conditions they are endowed 
 with a second sight ? Now I remember, 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 29 
 
 I dreamed everything that is described 
 in the papers, and more, of the effects of 
 the cyclone of which I am supposed to 
 be a victim. If I merely dreamed, 
 where did I have the dream, and 
 how is it that the correspondents 
 describe me as dead? Did they 
 not, like myself, believe I was in 
 my house at the time of its de 
 struction? If I was not there, where 
 have I been of late, and how is it I can 
 not recall being- elsewhere than in New 
 Dresden ? How can I convince myself 
 of an alibi ? There are a thousand 
 questions like these, dear Mademoiselle. 
 If you have really restored my reason, 
 
3O A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 perhaps you can offer a reasonable ex 
 planation." 
 
 " I think, Baron, that as you recover 
 from the effects of the dream, your 
 recent whereabouts will all come back 
 to you. It was indeed a startling, 
 terrible dream, and the shock was such 
 that it will require time for your mind 
 to assume its normal state. It is no 
 unusual thing for New Yorkers to sleep 
 on their roofs during hot nights, and 
 you, having retired on some house in 
 the vicinity, naturally moved about 
 under the influence of your dream, 
 finally resting on our house. You 
 should be thankful you did not fall to 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 3 1 
 
 the pavement and meet a horrible 
 death." 
 
 " But what think you of the dream 
 itself, its accurate picture of actual 
 events ?" 
 
 " Such dreams, less startling, perhaps, 
 have been recorded. I read of a man 
 who dreamed of reading- an account of 
 the Franco-Prussian war. He awoke to 
 behold the morning paper with the iden 
 tical head-lines, and an account of the 
 opening of the war, which read exactly 
 as he had dreamed. The servant, it 
 seems, had at an early hour in the morn 
 ing placed the paper on his bed, and 
 by some psychological influence its 
 
32 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 i 
 
 contents were conveyed verbatim to the 
 sleeper underneath it. There is a case 
 also which I read in the North Ameri 
 can Review, of the patient of a celebrated 
 dental surgeon of this city. The pa 
 tient could not speak the French 
 language, although her ancestors were 
 French. When in the operating-chair 
 under the influence of ether, she spoke 
 fluently in French, the language of her 
 ancestors.* Here were psychological 
 influences at work through hereditary 
 channels." 
 
 *See North American Review for November, 1887, 
 article entitled "Are the Lower Animals Approach 
 ing Man ?" by William Hosea Ballou, 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 33 
 
 " Those are indeed remarkable inci 
 dents," said the baron, humbly, "yet 
 not so rc:narkable as mine, in which I 
 dreamed all the extraordinary details 
 of this slaughter by a cyclone." 
 
 " Had you better not retire, Baron, 
 and get a new and refreshing sleep? 
 You have aged much within a few 
 hours, and sleep may restore your 
 weakened brain-cells." 
 
 " No doubt it would be best," he 
 murmured feebly, not liking to leave 
 her and be alone, " and yet, there is 
 nothing more restful than your pres 
 ence." 
 
 He retired, however, and immediately 
 
34 -A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 slept ; not awaking until the next day 
 at noon. Left alone, Miss de Land 
 arose and stood for a moment thinking 
 of his last words, and then catching 
 sight of herself in a mirror, detected 
 on her face a burning, speaking blush. 
 
"Left alone, Miss de Land arose and stood a moment thinking- 
 of his last words, and then catching sight of herself in the mirror, 
 detected on her face a burning, speaking blush. "-Page 34. 
 
II. 
 
 MR. JOHN DE LAND was not idle. 
 He took the list of names which the 
 baron had given him and went to each 
 one personally with the statement which 
 each one declined to believe, namely, 
 that the Baron Porzig was at his house, 
 under his care, awaiting their arrival to 
 identify himself and discuss the loss 
 by cyclone. All laughed at the ab 
 surdity of the baron being in New 
 
 York and alive. However, they were 
 
 35 
 
36 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 all glad enough to be guests of Mr. 
 John de Land, and accepted without 
 hesitation his invitation to lunch on 
 the following day. Mr. de Land re 
 ported the success of his efforts to 
 his family and the general suspicions 
 that the Porzig in hand might be a 
 fraud. 
 
 " But, father," pleaded the sympa 
 thetic Miss Marie, " so long as his as 
 sociates are coming here to-morrow, let 
 us await the results without casting 
 suspicion on this poor man. We have 
 made him our guest, and we saw his 
 hair turn white ; this alone ought to 
 convince us that this is the genuine 
 
But father ... let us await the result without casting sus 
 picion on this poor man." Paye 30. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 37 
 
 Baron Porzig. His manners, too, are 
 those of a gentleman and a noble 
 man." 
 
 " Well, I have pledged myself to 
 afford him a fair chance and he shall 
 have it. If he prove to be other than 
 the baron, and I strongly suspect that 
 he will, I shall turn him over to the 
 authorities as a madman in need of a 
 ward at Bloomingdale." 
 
 " He is not in the least dangerous, 
 father. Even if he were a fraud and 
 nothing shall convince me of that he 
 would still be a proper subject for our 
 most humane treatment. I believe him 
 to be neither a fraud nor a madman, 
 
38 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 and you know I will believe nothing I 
 hear against any one until I have heard 
 both sides of the question. If the 
 person were a friend of mine I should 
 not care even if the undesirable things 
 charged against him were true. My 
 friends may fall into error, but that 
 makes it all the more necessary for me 
 to be true and help them. Once a 
 friend I am a friend forever with one 
 exception. A single disbelief in me, or 
 an act or word against me, and the friend 
 goes out of my life forever. One who 
 is false once will be false again. I 
 believe in being true to those who are 
 true to me, and there must be absolute 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 39 
 
 evidence that the friend has not been 
 true to me before I dismiss the friend 
 ship ; nor will I even then until the 
 friend has had a chance for self-defence. 
 We have taken the baron under our 
 protection, father, on account of the 
 astounding circumstances which have 
 thrown him upon our generosity. 
 We must be true to his interests until 
 he prove untrustworthy, which I do 
 not believe he will." 
 
 " You are a peculiar, proud child, 
 my daughter. I thank you for a lesson 
 in duty ; it explains so much that has 
 been inexplicable heretofore in your 
 life. I suppose if you had a lover and 
 
4O A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 you did not hear from him for years, 
 you would believe him true to you 
 until he himself proved to you that he 
 had been false." 
 
 " I certainly should, father. Above 
 all men, the lover should have a chance 
 for self-defence against rumor, state 
 ments of a malicious press or evil 
 tongues, circumstantial evidence, or 
 whatever seems to weigh against him." 
 
 At this point, the Baron Porzig 
 joined the group. The tailor had suc 
 ceeded in arraying him as magnificently 
 as his highest artistic taste could wish 
 and are not New York men the best 
 dressed bipeds in the world ? 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 41 
 
 In the establishment of Brown & 
 Plympton, with which the said tailor 
 was connected, he found among the 
 large number of suits ready for delivery 
 several which would fit the baron and 
 temporarily relieve his embarrassment. 
 Said tailor was accustomed to ac 
 commodate his replies to customers 
 according to circumstances, and he 
 decided to inconvenience some of them 
 in order to clothe this unfortunate scion 
 of a great and noble house. This was 
 a beautiful trait in his character which 
 was developed whenever the induce 
 ments were sufficiently financial. 
 
 The changed exterior of the baron 
 
42 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 immeasurably improved his appearance, 
 and if there were no other evidence of 
 it he could see it in Miss de Land s 
 eyes. She had an opportunity now to 
 study him intently, and the great mental 
 strain she was beginning to endure on 
 his account was a sufficient reason for 
 so doing. 
 
 Baron Porzig was evidently thirty or 
 thirty-one years of age. He was not so 
 tall as herself, but of medium height, 
 black-eyed and intensely black-haired, 
 with the exception of one tuft on the left 
 front of his forehead, which had turned 
 white in her presence. His hands and 
 feet were small. His whiskers extended 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 43 
 
 from car to ear, parting in the middle 
 of the chin, and were brushed either way 
 after the manner of the Prussians. His 
 mustache was of military size, and his 
 bearing showed his early training in the 
 Prussian military schools. 
 
 The baron was the youngest son of 
 the Porzig family when he had departed 
 from Dresden. He had then no hopes 
 of inheriting a title, but his father had 
 put him at the head of the largest cattle 
 syndicate in America and presented 
 him with a big interest. The elder 
 Porzig, when the company began to 
 succeed beyond all expectations, crossed 
 the ocean, chartered a private car and 
 
44 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 visited his son. Elated at his son s suc 
 cess, he repeated his trips several times 
 before his death, and not only saw the 
 young man grow rich, but succeeded 
 in securing for him the title of Baron. 
 Had he lived to see his boy become 
 endued with enthusiastic republicanism 
 and naturalized as an American citizen, 
 he might, perhaps, have repented his 
 goodness. But the son was independent 
 and cast off his allegiance to Prussia 
 forever. His mother bequeathed to 
 him a fortune larger than he had ac 
 quired, so that the wiping out of his 
 home and stock at New Dresden was 
 merely the destruction of the fruits of 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 45 
 
 his industry. His family had early 
 contracted a high matrimonial alliance 
 for him, but after his father died he 
 declined to be bound to the contract 
 unless the noble lady would cast off her 
 allegiance to Prussia and become an 
 American subject. This her family 
 indignantly declined to permit, and 
 he was free to love or not as he 
 pleased. 
 
 Mr. de Land was the first to 
 speak. 
 
 " I have personally seen your as 
 sociates in the cattle syndicate, Baron, 
 and they have signified their intention 
 of coming here to lunch to-morrow. I 
 
46 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 hope your rest has as immeasurably 
 improved you as has your tailor." 
 
 " Thanks !" replied the baron with an 
 amused smile at the evident sally. u It 
 is \v,onderful what advantages a tailor- 
 made man has over the ordinary citizen. 
 Might I inquire how my associates 
 received your announcement of my 
 presence here?" 
 
 Mr. de Land hesitated. 
 
 " Oh, speak out ! I have endured so 
 much of late that another straw will not 
 hurt." 
 
 " Well, to be frank with you, these 
 gentlemen all affirm that you have not 
 been in this city of late." 
 
^\ 
 
 But ou told them I am here and alive ? "-- Paye 47. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 47 
 
 " Ah ! then I am vindicated. Then it 
 is clear to you that I have not been 
 indulging with boon companions, who 
 have played a practical joke on me 
 and put me to bed on a strange 
 roof ?" 
 
 " Not exactly that, Baron. Knowing 
 that you were in New Dresden on the 
 day of the cyclone, they are loath to 
 believe in fact will not believe that 
 you could possibly be in New York on 
 the next day. In fact they are sure 
 you are dead." 
 
 " But you told them I am here and 
 alive?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
48 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 "And they declined to take your 
 word for it?" 
 
 " Not exactly that." 
 
 "Then what is the matter with them? 
 They must believe that whatever you 
 say is true, and yet they disbelieve that 
 I am here. I cannot understand it. 
 Did you tell them plainly that I am 
 here ? 
 
 " Baron, pardon me if I explain. 
 Your associates would not dare to dis 
 believe any word of mine. I told them 
 the Baron Porzig was under my roof, 
 alive and safe. They do not doubt that 
 you are here, but that the Baron Porzig 
 is here. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 49 
 
 The baron comprehended at last. 
 He seemed staggered for a moment, 
 and then the absurdity of the affair 
 assumed a ludicrous aspect, and he 
 laughed. " What a surprise is in store 
 for them to-morrow !" 
 
 " Baron, again pardon me. You are 
 in a critical position. These men will 
 undoubtedly decline to believe the evi 
 dence of their own senses. They will 
 require the strongest proofs of your 
 identity, whatever may be the resem 
 blance between you as they have 
 known you and you as you are. Pos 
 sess your soul with patience until to 
 morrow, and be prepared to give your 
 
50 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 friends an honest day. Meantime I 
 must leave you with Marie while I 
 attend to some business preparatory to 
 our departure to Newport for the 
 season." 
 
 After the departure of the parent, 
 the baron mused a moment. " Miss de 
 Land," he queried, " do you believe I 
 am I ?" 
 
 The lady laughed heartily. " Cer 
 tainly, Baron, I believe you are you." 
 
 " But," persisted he, " do you believe 
 that I am the Baron Porzig of New 
 Dresden, said to be destroyed by 
 cyclone?" 
 
 " I believe it as absolutely as I believe 
 
Miss de Land," he queried, "do you believe I am 1 "Pbge 50. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 5 1 
 
 I am Marie de Land, not said to be de 
 stroyed by cyclone." 
 
 " Thank you, beautiful lady. I shall 
 remember that mark of confidence as 
 long as I exist, whether in this or other 
 worlds. Your father did not say all 
 that he might have uttered, but in his 
 remarks I recognized the new danger 
 that confronts me the danger that 
 mere flesh and blood, in fac-simile of 
 the Baron Porzig, will not be sufficient 
 to establish my identity." 
 
 " New York business-men are pe 
 culiar in some respects. You must not 
 fear to face them." 
 
 " Perhaps you can enlighten me con- 
 
52 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 earning their peculiarities somewhat 
 after the manner of naturalists in de 
 scribing the characteristics of lower 
 species of animals." 
 
 Again the lady laughed. " Our busi 
 ness men are hardened skeptics. Let us 
 take one and dissect him, as it were. 
 Not long since I heard of a poor and 
 obscure man to whom over five millions 
 had been bequeathed by a relative. Im 
 mediately the fact got into the papers, 
 and the moneyed men of the city began 
 scheming to get possession, or at least 
 control, of his wealth, while the para 
 sites on humanity sent him car-loads 
 of begging letters. Every one had a 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 53 
 
 scheme to offer, and the mails, messen 
 ger-service, and telegraph wires were 
 burdened with communications and 
 advice as to how he might invest his 
 dowry and make other millions. A 
 religious organization naturally got 
 ahead, and wound its fascinations 
 around him, until his fortune passed 
 into its treasury. 
 
 " It may never have occurred to you, 
 but it is a fact, that the actual handling 
 of all wealth is in comparatively few 
 hands. These comprise a few bankers, 
 presidents of trust and insurance com 
 panies, and the Secretary of the Treas 
 ury. There are perhaps not more than 
 
54 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 thirty men who control the wealth of 
 New York, and doubtless not more than 
 one hundred and fifty men who control 
 the wealth of the United States. Most 
 of the lesser insurance companies are the 
 property of a few greater ones, that is, 
 with partially the same directories; and 
 a half-dozen men handle the moneys 
 gathered by all the insurance com 
 panies. Most of the lesser banks are 
 owned, controlled, or backed by a few 
 greater ones, which lead to a few trust 
 companies, where but few men control 
 all the funds gathered by all the banks. 
 All national exchange is on New York, 
 and all moneyed roads lead into a few 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 5 $ 
 
 laps in New York, Boston, and Philadel 
 phia. The Secretary of the Treasury 
 controls all the national funds. He is 
 almost invariably a Wall Street man, 
 and when not, is got into office by the 
 few men who represent the moneyed 
 power of Wall Street. There is one 
 man at the head of our vast telegraph 
 system, who also stands at the head of 
 a vast railway system. A network of 
 savings-banks leads into a network of 
 State banks, which leads into some na 
 tional banks, which lead into one great 
 trust company ; and there you find him 
 at the head, controlling the whole 
 gigantic fund collected by the agents of 
 
56 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 the telegraph, railway, and bank sys 
 tems. Through his trust company he 
 buys and sells stocks and bonds, pro 
 jects colossal railway enterprises, and 
 rules, a king, in the financial world. 
 One railway family of this city has a 
 similar network of railways, banks, and 
 newspapers, and owns three hundred 
 millions in money value, besides control 
 ling twice that sum. Even in this view 
 of the case, New York is a very small 
 money centre compared with London, 
 which has pounds to our pennies, with 
 a larger number of men in control. It 
 is they who in the end will have all our 
 interests in their safes. It is in London 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 57 
 
 where our breweries, railroads, manu 
 factories, iron and coal lands, and enter 
 prises are being sold by subscription, 
 and often bought outright. I have 
 shown how a few men control our 
 wealth. It is they who get control of 
 the savings and hoards of the people, 
 who loan these hoards on security, and 
 for the projection of railways, construc 
 tion of steamships, business blocks, and 
 dwellings, and for enterprises of all de 
 scriptions, such as booms in the West 
 and South, and new manufactories 
 everywhere. Can you wonder that 
 these few money kings are constantly 
 beset by men who have all manner of 
 
58 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 schemes, railways, patents, projects, 
 and enterprises, to put through ? The 
 money king leads a life that is har 
 assed, bored, and pursued. He be 
 comes hardened, and a skeptic. It is 
 money kings you will have to face to 
 morrow ; and not even though the fact 
 that you may be in all respects the 
 absolute alter ego of the Baron Porzig 
 they know and are interested with, will 
 you succeed without complete evidence 
 in establishing your claim to the name 
 you bear. To them you are dead. 
 They insist that you have not been and 
 cannot now be in this city ; that you 
 were in New Dresden at the time of 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 59 
 
 the cyclone, which destroyed all life in 
 that section. I hope you will be rea 
 sonable, tell no preposterous tale, and 
 simply prove that you have been in the 
 city for some days, and came here natu 
 rally on the cars. You can afford to 
 bribe the car porters and hotel clerks to 
 substantiate you." 
 
 " Mademoiselle de Land, pardon me 
 for momentarily ignoring your last re 
 mark to express my astonishment and 
 admiration at the way you depict the 
 New York business-man, and dissect 
 him as Virchow might a rabbit." 
 
 " It is not original with me," she 
 averred, blushingly. " I have heard it 
 
60 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 and seen it in the person of my father, 
 who is one of those who possess some, 
 and control much money." 
 
 "Then he is a remarkably polite man 
 a man of immense equipoise." 
 
 " He is all of that, truly ; but why?" 
 
 " Because he has taken me into his 
 house under suspicious circumstances, 
 clothed me, fed me, worked for me, and 
 permitted me to associate with the most 
 charming and beautiful woman in the 
 world his daughter." 
 
 " Baron, do not relapse into your pre 
 vious state of hysteria, I beg of you." 
 The lady s face did not emphasize her 
 words. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 61 
 
 " Mademoiselle, truth is not flattery. 
 Permit me to say what I feel to be so 
 true, else my sense of gratitude as well 
 as of admiration will stand in my own 
 rebuke." 
 
III. 
 
 AT noon on the following day, the 
 third of the strange appearance of the 
 alleged Baron Porzig of New Dresden, 
 Idaho, in New York, the syndicate op 
 erating the New Dresden cattle inter 
 ests assembled at the palatial residence 
 of John de Land, Esq. The house was 
 located in the new West End district, 
 in which, of late, a majority of the se 
 lect of the New York aristocracy, face 
 tiously, at one time, but now appropri- 
 
 62 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 63 
 
 ately termed the " Four Hundred/ on 
 account of a chance remark of Mr. Lord 
 McAlabaster to a reporter, have re 
 cently become resident. 
 
 The West End district is bounded on 
 the north by I25th Street, on the south 
 by 72nd Street, on the east by the west 
 side of Broadway Boulevard, and on 
 the west by Riverside Drive. This sec 
 tion is paved with a material resem 
 bling asphalt, which yields no sound 
 from passing vehicles and would not 
 explode a torpedo if dropped by some 
 mischief-loving child on the Fourth of 
 July, or a bomb if cast by some de 
 structive anarchist. In brief, it is a 
 
64 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 noiseless pavement, and the ear-drums 
 of the select cannot be vulgarly or an- 
 noyingly vibrated from sounds on the 
 street. The sidewalks are thirty feet 
 wide, each palatial home being re 
 quired to have a single and solid flag 
 stone the length of its entire frontage. 
 The residences of the district are con 
 structed of the most expensive material 
 in the most pleasing and imposing, but 
 varied yet harmonious architectural 
 styles, by a trust comprised of some 
 thirty money kings, who, as Miss de 
 Land has explained, control the wealth 
 of New York, The trust has assidu 
 ously selected the people to whom 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 65 . 
 
 these residences have been sold, declin 
 ing to allow any structures within the 
 sacred and restricted area to be leased 
 or rented. It has declined, absolutely, 
 all offers, however munificent, from He 
 brews, the suddenly made rich and any, 
 to them, undesirable people, who are 
 outside the pale of the " Four Hun 
 dred." The trust also purchased or 
 leased indefinitely the lands bordering 
 the area, that it might prevent the erec 
 tion, in the vicinity, of tenement houses 
 and manufactories, and any near ap 
 proach of tradespeople. From all the 
 streets and by-ways leading from the 
 area where any member of the " Four 
 
66 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 Hundred " might by any possibility de 
 sire to walk or drive, those peculiar 
 structures known as shanties, which 
 once composed the homes of that great, 
 populous and wonderful voting and 
 laboring section termed Shantytown, 
 have been totally obliterated. Where 
 single squares contained three hundred 
 families of Shantytownites, so essential 
 in elections, the ground has been swept 
 clean of them and of goats, horses, 
 sheep, cattle, dogs, cats and hogs which 
 dwelt with men, children and women 
 under single roofs. Of all the vast ex 
 panse covered by the municipality of 
 New York, the West End alone has 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 67 
 
 high water pressure, and no pumps are 
 required to get the desirable Croton 
 liquid (which has cost the inhabitants 
 about $100,000,000 to date, to pacify 
 contractors at a violation of common 
 law and constitutions which forbid 
 competition by municipal and govern 
 mental enterprises with citizens), into 
 upper stories, and consequently tanks 
 are not needed on roofs. The sacred 
 area is also under the dominion of the 
 Park Commissioners, with Park police 
 who appear within its sacred precincts 
 in full dress of costly gray texture, to 
 distinguish them from the vulgar blue 
 suits and big brass buttons of ordinary 
 
68 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 policemen. Mellifluent, incandescent, 
 translucent and transcendent lights are 
 housed in elaborate chandeliers at the 
 street corners to illuminate the fashion 
 able pedestrian all night and throw a 
 phosphorescent glow on the key-holes 
 of the Americanized palaces, and ab 
 sorb the color, in the early morning 
 hours, of any noses abnormally red 
 dened by salt breezes. 
 
 Running through the centre of this 
 section is the magnificent West End 
 Avenue, the glory of modern New 
 York, lying parallel with Riverside 
 Drive, immortalized by the remains of 
 the World s great hero, Grant ; and 
 
,^;^^ r ^. ,* 
 ^J^>1^ ^ ( ^ 
 
 /">. ^ 
 
 Reporters examining the square where the Baron Porzig alighted. 
 
 Page 69. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 69 
 
 parallel with the beautiful Hudson 
 River, so called, an arm of the sea, by 
 the way, at least as far up as Albany, 
 tide-swept, and an exhibition of the 
 power of that extraordinary glacier 
 which hewed out the river passage, 
 carved the fantastic columns of basalt 
 known as the Palisades, and left that 
 wonderful sedimentary deposit called 
 Long Island, where it rested, then suf 
 fused itself in tears. 
 
 It is on West End Avenue that the 
 home of the de Lands stands, on the 
 roof of which the alleged Baron Porzig 
 was found at early morning three days 
 since. It may be recognized by its 
 
/o A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 exterior, its old Dutch gables, made of 
 modern-pressed brick, its wide entrance 
 with an immense stairway of brown- 
 stone, and the colors cf the wood-work 
 visible at the windows, which differ at 
 each story. 
 
 The syndicate party was as select as 
 could possibly be assembled on this 
 continent. There were Messrs. Moran 
 and Blest, the leading bankers of New 
 York and Philadelphia. There was 
 one of the Vanderpools, of the great 
 house of railroadists. General Macy, 
 the leading counsel of the city, was 
 there. Dr. Banks, the most aristocratic 
 surgeon, was present. The de Lands, 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 71 
 
 themselves, were considered leaders of 
 the fashionable " Four Hundred." Mr. 
 John de Land claimed direct descent 
 from Hudson of Half Moon fame, and it 
 is surmised that in the more remote his 
 tory of the family the name was Van 
 Lander, the nomenclature having grad 
 ually changed to de Land. The family 
 were not wealthy from a New York 
 stand-point, having perhaps $50,000,000, 
 invested mostly in real estate. How 
 ever, they retained their social suprem 
 acy, not only on account of the family 
 name and standing, but because of the 
 fact that Miss Marie de Land was 
 the reigning beauty and belle of the 
 
72 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 metropolis. Being in the latter part of 
 June, the fashionable throng had not 
 yet migrated to the resorts. 
 
 Miss Marie was perhaps twenty-four 
 years old. She was, as has been stated, 
 like other members of her family, tall 
 and exceedingly well formed. Some 
 tall people have large feet and hands, 
 and are usually either broad-shouldered 
 and large-waisted, or very slender and 
 spindle shaped. She was an exception, 
 full six feet in height, and as per 
 fectly proportioned as the most exact 
 ing artist could demand in a model. 
 She had very small feet and slender, 
 tapering hands. Her bust was shapely 
 
Miss DE LAND. Puye 72. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 73 
 
 and perfect, such as a modiste could 
 hope to see but once in life. Tall peo 
 ple sometimes have either too large or 
 too small heads, but hers was of me 
 dium size, crowned with light umber 
 hair, too dark for blond, too light for 
 brunette ; old-gold colored, it might be 
 termed. Her eyes were dark brown, 
 darker than the chestnut; a combination 
 of hair and eyes seldom to be seen ex 
 cept in Kentucky and Tennessee, and 
 not very often anywhere ; a combina 
 tion sure to stamp any woman as glori 
 ously beautiful. Such a combination 
 invariably carries with it a superb com 
 plexion. In Miss de Land s case the 
 
74 -A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 qualitative " superb" would be insuffi 
 cient. The soil which produced it was 
 evidently the same which gives to the 
 large varieties of peaches such luscious 
 and tempting skins. 
 
 Miss de Land was not a scalp-hunter. 
 All during her post-debutante experi 
 ence she accumulated a large following 
 of men, but deftly managed them so as 
 to prevent what to her was the dis 
 agreeable reality of rejection. She had 
 avoided collisions and heart-breaks of 
 this kind by refusing all solicitations, 
 all opportunities of every description 
 of ever being with a man out of the 
 hearing of some one of her family or 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 75 
 
 friends. Men recognized these ideal 
 traits, and respected the motives which 
 underlaid them ; and none of them 
 dared to write to her of his love, feeling 
 sure of losing the prize thereby, and all 
 hope of winning it. Her stately, grand 
 demeanor was a protection to her as 
 strong as a network of torpedoes to a 
 harbor. Men were abashed, and the 
 boldest had not touched her arm, or 
 whispered in her ear, or enjoyed a t$te- 
 a-tcte flirtation behind her fan, or em 
 braced her in a dance, or talked silly 
 nothings with her, or been with her 
 alone in a parlor, or walked or ridden 
 alone with her on the street, or 
 
76 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 ventured one of the little improprieties 
 with her, such as cause favored men in 
 society to hold in contempt the mass of 
 girls who permit such intimacies. Bar 
 on Porzig only had been alone with her, 
 and then under the most remarkable 
 and unavoidable circumstances which 
 ever beset a man. Even the most de 
 based men who float in high society, 
 and their name is legion, if they had 
 seldom seen a woman to thoroughly 
 respect, an object of all honor, a girl 
 removed above all her sex, found a ce 
 lestial ideal in this one. 
 
 A servant announced to the baron 
 that the gentlemen had assembled and 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 77 
 
 were awaiting him. As the baron en 
 tered the drawing-room the gentlemen 
 arose, advanced a few steps, and then 
 all except Mr. cle Land stopped sud 
 denly in amrzemcnt and horror. 
 
 " Porzig ! " they exclaimed in terrified 
 tones. 
 
 " All right, my friends. I am flesh 
 and blood." 
 
 " But we have telegrams from you 
 dated the day before the cyclone at 
 New Dresden and letters dated the 
 same day." 
 
 " I am aware of that." 
 
 " But how did you escape ? How 
 did you get here?" 
 
7 8 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 " I do not know. I found myself on 
 Mr. de Land s roof, in my own bed." 
 
 " Impossible!" 
 
 " But the bed is up there now, and 
 you can go and see it." 
 
 " We certainly found him there," 
 said Mr. de Land, leading the way to 
 the scuttle. 
 
 The gentlemen examined the bed 
 with great care. The baron s name 
 was on the blankets and mattress. 
 It certainly appeared to be his own 
 bed. 
 
 After the examination the gentlemen 
 withdrew apart from the baron and 
 held a consultation. When they had 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 79 
 
 once more assembled in the drawing- 
 room, Mr. Vanderpool said as kindly as 
 possible, " We admit, sir, that the resem 
 blance between yourself and the Baron 
 Porzig we know is perfect in all re 
 spects that you are his alter ego. We 
 also note the bed in which you were 
 found, and the name of Porzig written 
 thereon. But we are sane men, and 
 New York business men in addition, 
 which fact should have its peculiar 
 weight with you. We have not yet 
 decided that you are an impostor, al 
 though there are abundant data in the 
 past experience of the world to show 
 that resemblances may be fatal, and 
 
So A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 many men, such as Mr. Jay Gould, Mr. 
 James G. Elaine, General Philip Sher 
 idan, General Benjamin Harrison, and 
 others, are well known to have doubles. 
 Neither have we decided that you are 
 the Baron Porzig. We have simply 
 come to the conclusion that the Baron 
 Porzig we know is, to all intents and 
 purposes, a dead man, and you alone, 
 being the most interested, must prove 
 the contrary. We are willing to give 
 you every opportunity in the world 
 not that we believe or will believe, 
 except on indisputable evidence, that 
 you are the baron, but because it is 
 right and just, and may result in great 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 8 1 
 
 interest as the solution of an extraordi 
 nary phenomenon." 
 
 During this speech the alleged Baron 
 grew livid with rage. His white face 
 gleamed with fury, and his single tuft 
 of snow-white hair raised on end. He 
 acted as if about to unloose the torrents 
 of his wrath when he caught the sym 
 pathetic face of Miss de Land and read 
 in her eyes a warning. He raised his 
 hand to his head an instant, then let 
 it fall on the back of the chair beside 
 him. He did not speak until the blood 
 had returned to his face and the fires 
 of his eyes diminished. Those present 
 watched the extraordinary struggle to 
 
82 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 regain his calm. Every emotion was 
 as visible as if he had verbally ex 
 pressed it. One could but admire the 
 supreme effort by which he regained 
 self-control, and have greater fear of 
 his calm than his storm. He spoke at 
 last: 
 
 " You gentlemen who have associated 
 with me in business and in this enter 
 prise, w r ho have conversed with me 
 time and again in your offices, who 
 have fed at my board and shared the 
 large dividends derived through my 
 liberal management of the ranch, who 
 * are amply protected in this time of loss 
 by my insistence on insuring against 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 83 
 
 disaster by cyclone, who have received 
 my lamented father in your homes 
 with honors and to your social aggran 
 dizement, can use your judgment in 
 the matter of recognition ; but since you 
 have been so kind as to allow to me 
 the privilege of demonstrating that I 
 am myself, and entitled to your distin 
 guished consideration, I beg that you 
 will postpone further hearing until to 
 morrow at this hour, by which time I 
 shall perhaps have collected evidence 
 necessary to my identification." 
 
IV. 
 
 ON the following morning the Baron 
 Porzig was served with a peculiar and 
 startling notice. It came, as was ex 
 plained, from the Mutual Human Life 
 and the Mutual Cyclone Companies, 
 two organizations with an identical 
 directory, in one of which the baron s 
 life was insured, and in the other the 
 New Dresden Cattle Syndicate. Mr. 
 
 Leavitt P. Moran was President of 
 
 8 4 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 85 
 
 both companies. The notice read as 
 follows : 
 
 SIR: The interests of the two in 
 surance companies, under practically 
 one management, are peculiarly in 
 volved in your case, and admittedly at 
 war with each other. If the Baron 
 Porzig be dead, the Mutual Human 
 Life Company must stand a loss to the 
 heirs of $500,000. It is therefore to 
 the interest, of that company that you 
 prove yourself the Baron Porzig. On 
 the other hand, if the Baron Porzig 
 be dead the Mutual Cyclone Company 
 is relieved from an indemnity of more 
 than $1,000,000 of damage done by the 
 
86 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 cyclone to the New Dresden Cattle Syn 
 dicate, as its policy expired on the day 
 of the storm. It is true that under con 
 tract there were three days of grace for 
 the renewal of the policy ; and we admit 
 that a check for such renewal has been 
 received within the stipulated grace. 
 The check, however, was written in this 
 city, and signed by you as the alleged 
 Baron Porzig. But he, being considered 
 dead, both ourselves and the bank 
 must refuse the check unless you can 
 prove an alibi and establish your 
 identity. If the baron be alive, we are 
 relieved in one company from paying 
 his personal life-insurance. If he be 
 
A Ride on a Cyclont. 87 
 
 dead we are relieved from indemnifying 
 the cattle company. We save over a 
 half- million if he be dead. Still, some 
 of the members of the cattle syndicate 
 are in the directory of the two insurance 
 companies, which fact makes it desirable 
 to such men to have you establish the 
 existence of the baron. We have there- 
 . fore decided not to place you in a 
 condition of public arrest. We are, 
 however, under the necessity of placing 
 you under the watch of proper officers, 
 authorized to arrest you if you attempt 
 to leave the residence in which you 
 are domiciled. Further, we have de 
 cided to accept the verdict of the 
 
88 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 syndicate, in which Mr. Moran, who is 
 president of each, will guard the inter 
 est of the insurance companies. If you 
 succeed in establishing your identity 
 before that improvised court to-day, 
 there will be no further prosecution. 
 
 [Signed] BLEST. 
 
 After reading this document the 
 Baron gave it a moment s thought and 
 thrust it into his pocket. He sent his 
 card to Miss de Land, who returned 
 word that she would be pleased to meet 
 him in the drawing-room. When the 
 couple met, Miss de Land noted the 
 same fires of wrath in his eyes, inter 
 mingled with a species of utter contempt 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 89 
 
 for some object which she could only 
 surmise. His expression softened con 
 siderably when she extended her hand 
 and sweetly inquired if he had rested 
 well. 
 
 " I have no difficulty in resting like 
 one in a beautiful dream when under 
 the same roof with you," he re 
 plied. 
 
 She withdrew her hand abruptly, and 
 almost coldly inquired what might be 
 the object of his call, and if she could 
 render to him any assistance. 
 
 " I was thinking," he said, "that if I 
 could only persuade you to play the 
 Traumerei for me, it would prepare 
 
QO A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 me for the ordeal through which I must 
 pass to-day." 
 
 She immediately went to the piano, 
 and after running the scales to prepare 
 her mind for the event, softly began 
 that exquisite composition of Schumann, 
 which stands unrivalled as a balm for 
 the wounded spirit. After the rendi 
 tion she turned and glanced at the man, 
 her face softened by the musical pathos 
 like that of the prayer of some beautiful 
 soul in the invisible world. Out of the 
 man s eyes all wrath and contempt had 
 fled. 
 
 " You are good to the poor prisoner 
 and criminal," he murmured. 
 
A prisoner and a criminal ?" she interrogated in surprise.- Paye i)l. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 91 
 
 "A prisoner and criminal!" she in 
 terrogated in surprise. " What mean 
 you ?" 
 
 " If it is not too much trouble, may I 
 ask ou to read this document?" 
 
 She took the official paper and 
 perused it in amazement. " That is a 
 pretty frank confession ; and what a 
 remarkable exhibition of human selfish 
 ness and personal greed. What will 
 you do about it ?" 
 
 " I do not see that the situation is at 
 all changed by the letter. I shall prove 
 my identity, and shame my own friends 
 and associates." 
 
 " I fear you do not understand the 
 
92 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 make-up of these mutual-insurance com 
 panies," she mused. 
 
 " What is there to understand, save 
 that they have immeasurably insulted a 
 gentleman ?" he demanded. 
 
 " Perhaps if I explain their modus 
 operandi you will be better able to cooe 
 with them. I have often heard father 
 dilate on the advantages of being on the 
 inside ring of a mutual-insurance com 
 pany. Every policy-holder is a stock 
 holder. Every policy-holder, conse 
 quently, has a vote as a share-holder 
 in the company, be the amount of his 
 policy much or little. Let us say that 
 by a control of a majority of these votes 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 93 
 
 A has been elected a director, B presi 
 dent, C vice-president, D treasurer, E 
 secretary, and so on. The officials 
 being established in office, lay pipes, as 
 the politicians say, to continue in office. 
 The president, of course, controls the 
 largest number of votes. There are 
 various ways for him to do so. In a 
 recent lawsuit in this city it was devel 
 oped that the president of a mutual 
 company was paying over five hundred 
 policies of employees in one of his 
 factories, which gave him that number 
 of additional proxies or votes by which 
 he voted himself into power at each 
 annual election. The big policy-holders, 
 
94 <d Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 who wanted a change in the administra 
 tion of the company, were astounded 
 by being outvoted by factory hands who 
 paid the company but several dollars 
 each annually while they paid thousands. 
 They brought suit, and failing to 
 oust the president on the equities of 
 the case, were compelled to pay him 
 a large sum for his proxies, with which 
 to oust him from the company. A 
 new management came in which dared 
 not adopt a similar policy for their 
 self-detention in office. So it secured 
 a verbal condition from each merchant 
 who sought to insure, that he would, 
 immediately on receiving his policy, 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 95 
 
 surrender his proxy for the voting use 
 of the president in power. That is the 
 manner in which all of these mutual- 
 insurance companies are run. As a 
 consequence the president and his clique 
 have the absolute control of the millions 
 accumulated by the company. It is the 
 president who makes immense invest 
 ments in government, railway, water 
 works, gas, and other bonds, and erects 
 the magnificent buildings which every 
 where characterize insurance companies. 
 As a natural consequence, he may 
 purchase securities, etc., ostensibly for 
 sums placed on the books of the com 
 pany and for which there are vouchers, 
 
96 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 but actually at less rates, putting the 
 difference in his pocket for his own 
 enrichment, by connivance with the 
 agents from whom he buys. Do you 
 wonder that the president of the two 
 companies which have written you, 
 and his clique, look with tender solici 
 tude at the large sums represented 
 in you, and the control of which they 
 stand a chance to lose ? But for the in 
 terest in the cattle syndicate which some 
 of the men have who are connected with 
 the insurance companies, all would hot 
 ly contest in the courts what to them can 
 legally be construed as an assumption 
 on your part to being alive. Even that 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 97 
 
 joint connection renders your position 
 exceedingly precarious. You have fall 
 en into the midst of the chief controllers 
 of the wealth of the country, of which 
 my father is one, and you are at their 
 mercy unless you can make a strong 
 case too strong to contest in the courts. 
 They have had control of your fortune 
 and interests while you in the far North 
 west have been unceasingly laboring 
 for them and enriching them, even if 
 you did share the profits. T felt it my 
 duty to warn you, even against my 
 father ; for the men with whom you deal 
 elect presidents of the United States ; 
 dictate their Secretaries of the Treasury 
 
98 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 and Interior, and their financial policies ; 
 regulate the prices of stocks, bonds, and 
 real estate ; and direct the operations of 
 Wall Street, for their own gain." 
 
 During this extraordinary recital the 
 baron positively stared in increasing 
 amazement. 
 
 "Jupiter!" he exclaimed when she 
 had finished, " I can see now how every 
 thing you say is absolutely true, and 
 how little the average individual under 
 stands about the affairs of life in which 
 he takes even a conspicuous part. I do 
 not know which amazes me most the 
 recital or the reciter. Mademoiselle, 
 you are a most wonderful woman ! I 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 99 
 
 cannot conceive how, if even your 
 father gave you such valuable infor 
 mation, you are able to repeat it so 
 logically and perspicuously. Such mo 
 mentous affairs are beyond the compre 
 hension of the mass of people, even 
 when carefully explained. How can 
 the widow, when she places her mite in 
 the savings-bank, appreciate the fact 
 that it becomes a part of the mass of 
 perhaps a half-billion of dollars of such 
 savings, which pass in a lump into the 
 control of a half-dozen men, by which 
 they manipulate the financial operations 
 of the country and become the most 
 potent factors of the invisible iron hand 
 
ioo A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 of power? How can even the ordinary 
 business man understand it who thinks 
 to use the bank for his convenience, 
 when in fact the head of a series of such 
 concerns is using his funds, in common 
 with the great mass of deposits, to pro 
 ject colossal schemes? Again, when I 
 talk with you, I can understand for the 
 first time how there can be such great 
 minds in women as that of Queen Vic 
 toria, one of the mightiest rulers the 
 world has produced. What think you, 
 great and beautiful lady, of my chances 
 of coping with such men as you have 
 described ?" 
 
 " You have courage, indomitable will, 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 101 
 
 and the facts. You have only one 
 enemy, which you control admirably a 
 ferocious wrath at natural wrongs. If 
 you have discretion in equal quantity 
 with self-control, you will go through 
 your ordeal calmly, and convince your 
 accusers. Perhaps you ought to con 
 sult eminent counsel ; but in this city 
 you cannot secure any such ability 
 which is not already in the pay of some 
 one of the interests with which you 
 must cope. Hence you had best cope 
 alone ; and if you will not mind 
 my being present during the trial, 
 perhaps I can influence my father 
 and friends in your behalf, and en- 
 
IO2 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 courage them to make you one of 
 them." 
 
 " You are too good," was all he could 
 say. "Still," he added after a pause, " I 
 can see how escape from jail, an estab 
 lishment of my existence and a return 
 of my possessions would be as much as 
 the wildest fancy could hope for, and 
 an ordinary man like myself desire." 
 
 He arose, took the very tips of her 
 fingers, touched them gently with his 
 lips, and retired. 
 
 " Poor man !" murmured the lady. 
 "Why is it I feel so much interest in 
 him, and how can I save him from the 
 wolves?" 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 103 
 
 Mr. de Land entered the drawing- 
 room. " Daughter, have you seen the 
 baron this morning?" 
 
 " Yes, father." 
 
 "He shows no disposition to escape?" 
 
 She flushed indignantly. "No, in 
 deed, sir. He has been with me, up to 
 a moment ago, for more than an hour." 
 
 " Oh, he is your prisoner. Then I 
 will discharge the officers surrounding 
 the square." 
 
 " Do, please, father." 
 
 "I spoke facetiously, but since you 
 seem to be so terribly in earnest, per 
 mit me to add, that in placing him on 
 parole under your charge, if he be 
 
IO4 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 found guilty, you must turn him over 
 to the officers of the law ; but if inno 
 cent, perhaps you had best make him a 
 prisoner for life. He is a grand noble, 
 and a grander gentleman." 
 
V. 
 
 PRECISELY the same gentlemen assem 
 bled at the appointed hour as had pre 
 viously visited the baron and left him 
 without that recognition of his identity 
 which was now so vital to his future. 
 The greetings were cool, but no one 
 was more calm and collected than the 
 alleged baron himself. After a few 
 moments of general conversation Mr. 
 
 Vanderpool suggested that the impro- 
 
 105 
 
106 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 vised court proceed with its session. 
 Mrs. and Miss de Land being present, 
 Mr. de Land felt it incumbent on him 
 to ask if the presence of ladies was de 
 sirable at the deliberations. There was 
 a unanimous and gallant assent, and the 
 baron observed that doubtless they 
 would be necessary as witnesses. 
 
 " Sir," solemnly remarked Mr. Moran, 
 confronting the baron and not so much 
 as giving him a name, " we are now 
 ready to hear what you may have to 
 offer. I warn you to stick to the facts, 
 as we are not men to be trifled with. 
 We are prepared, however, at the out 
 set, to offer to you liberty and a chance 
 

 "Gentlemen," said the Baron, "I shall not depart until I have 
 established that I am Porzig . . . and have received your apolo 
 gies." Page 107. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 107 
 
 to depart, providing you renounce your 
 absurd claims." 
 
 " Gentlemen," replied the baron 
 haughtily, " I shall not depart until I 
 have established that I am Porzig, have 
 secured my rights, and received your 
 apologies. As my evidence is mainly 
 documentary, may I request you to 
 select some one to read it ?" 
 
 " I will call in my private secretary," 
 said Mr. de Land ; and he did so. 
 
 " I propose first to offer reports of 
 special correspondents in the news 
 papers," announced the baron, " and 
 will ask you to have this dispatch, dated 
 New Dresden, Idaho, read." 
 
i c8 A Ride on a Cyclont. 
 
 The gentlemen looked at each other 
 in astonishment. u We will listen to 
 such reading," assented Mr. Moran, 
 " but I hope for your own sake you do 
 not intend to depend upon penny-a- 
 liners." 
 
 The account dealt with the storm, by 
 an eye-witness ; and the secretary read 
 as follows: 
 
 " The Porzig ranch is located in the 
 valley known as New Dresden. Lofty 
 elevations surround it. This section of 
 the country is generally conceded to be 
 the place of origin of blizzards rather 
 than the home of cyclones. It is easy 
 to tell from observation here when a 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 109 
 
 storm is about to sweep across the con 
 tinent. At such times it is no uncom 
 mon thing to see long, dark clouds, 
 very narrow, and cylindrical in form, 
 which seem to whirl clown the moun 
 tains in a rapid zigzag fashion, like a 
 band of snakes, instead of moving hori 
 zontally, as clouds usually do. Never 
 were so many snake-like clouds seen 
 wriggling down the mountain sides as 
 on the day of the cyclone. Gradually 
 they increased in number, size, and ve 
 locity, until blended into great masses. 
 Darkness fell, and our camping party 
 ascended higher up on the mountain 
 side, hoping to get above the torrents 
 
1 10 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 of rain which we expected would soon 
 flood all the water-ruts. About eleven 
 o clock we were aroused by a terrible 
 roar beneath us, where the lightning- 
 was so vivid and continuous that every 
 thing was as visible as in the broad 
 light of day. Finally we saw two cy 
 clones approaching from opposite direc 
 tions. One was actually climbing up 
 the valley instead of down a phenome 
 non never before witnessed at these al 
 titudes. We could see two masses of 
 
 cloud, one revolving up the valley and 
 
 * 
 
 the other down, each destroying every 
 thing in its path. We were terrified, 
 and wondered what would happen if 
 
"Among the strange phenomena which the lightning exposed to 
 view were wooden houses floating a mile high ; cattle, sheep, horses, 
 wagons, several churches ; everything, in fact, which the hamlet 
 contained. "Payc 111. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 1 1 1 
 
 they struck. In a few minutes they 
 collided at the little hamlet of New 
 Dresden, revolving around each other 
 and causing an enormous whirlwind. 
 The buildings, stock, and trees were 
 ground to fragments like grain be 
 tween the upper and nether millstones. 
 Oceans of water seemed to be spontane 
 ously generated, and ingulfed the val 
 ley. Very soon debris began to fly 
 past, and at one time we feared that 
 our cliff would be caught in the whirl 
 wind. Among the strange phenomena 
 which the lightning exposed to view 
 were wooden houses floating a mile 
 high ; cattle, sheep, horses, some with 
 
112 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 riders thereon no doubt the cowboys 
 who act as night watchmen ; wagons, 
 several churches; everything, in fact, 
 which the hamlet contained, and which 
 was not a part of the earth itself. But 
 one thing startled us more than all else. 
 It was a bed, with what seemed to be a 
 human being in it, which suddenly 
 took fire from the lightning, and yet 
 did not seem to burn up like the dwell 
 ings, which also ignited away up in the 
 sky. In fact, it looked as if the bed and 
 the man in it swept safely through the 
 flames out into the night. " 
 
 At this point Miss de Land fainted 
 and the men sprang to their feet, gaz- 
 

 "It was a bed, with what seemed to be a human form in it, 
 which suddenly took fire. "- Paye 112. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 1 1 3 
 
 ing at the baron with horror as they 
 remembered the bed on the roof. He 
 was quite calm ; and taking Miss de 
 Land gently in his arms, placed her on 
 a sofa. 
 
 " The account is of no impor 
 tance now, gentlemen," the ban n 
 remarked ; " we must restore Miss de 
 Land." 
 
 Maids were called, restoratives ap 
 plied, after which the young lady re 
 vived. She opened her eyes and 
 grasped the baron s hand. 
 
 " Oh ! you are safe," she said in tones 
 of terror. " I am so glad ! I am so 
 glad !" 
 
114 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 " Calm yourself, my child," said the 
 father tenderly. 
 
 " And look with contempt on your 
 emotions," suggested the baron . in a 
 whisper which no one of the assembly 
 heard, and at the same time showing in 
 his speaking eyes the depth of his grati 
 tude for her sympathy, which had so 
 overpowered her. 
 
 After a few moments the assem 
 bly seemed to be restored to its nor 
 mal condition; but before proceedings 
 were commenced again Mr. Moran re 
 marked, 
 
 " Newspaper men are such exagger- 
 ators, such deft magnifiers of mole-hills 
 
"He was quite calm ; and taking Miss de Land gently in his arms, 
 placed her on a sofa. 1 Paye 113. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 1 1 5 
 
 into mountains, that if you propose to 
 depend on them to vindicate you, and 
 expect us to believe what they say, 
 you are a victim of a misapprehen 
 sion." 
 
 The baron deigned no reply. He 
 merely handed the secretary another 
 clipping from an Associated Press de 
 spatch. The reader continued : 
 
 " This despatch is dated at New 
 Dresden, from an improvised telegraph 
 office, and is relative to the Baron Franz 
 Porzig. It says : The * baron has long 
 been a well-known character in this 
 part of the world. His bravery terri 
 fied the outlaws. When he first came 
 
n6 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 here as a tenderfoot, a band of stock 
 thieves prepared a descent upon him 
 in broad daylight. It may not be 
 known to the public that there is a 
 large and thoroughly organized associa 
 tion of stock thieves operating west of 
 the Mississippi, with headquarters in 
 New Mexico. The desperadoes are 
 regularly employed, and are paid sala 
 ries. The heads of the concern com 
 prise three gentlemen well known in 
 politics, two of whom live in New York 
 City, and one in New Mexico on a 
 ranch. The two New Yorkers are 
 leaders in the councils of one of the 
 political parties, and are known as 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 1 1 7 
 
 presidential-nominee makers. Although 
 by persistence they have nominated 
 their man, they have never succeeded 
 in electing him. The third gentleman, 
 resident in New Mexico, once actually 
 controlled an important branch of the 
 public service which at one time was 
 the subject of the greatest scandal which 
 has ever been exposed and snowed un 
 der at Washington. The organization 
 has gangs of stock thieves operating in 
 all the Territories. The stock, as fast 
 as stolen, is hastily driven away, loaded 
 at some convenient railway station, 
 shipped direct to the sea-coast, thence 
 to Europe, where it is sold. From the 
 
1 1 8 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 proceeds of these thefts and sales the 
 triumvirate are enabled to live in lux 
 ury, and by their ill-gotten gains ac 
 quire control of railways, gas and other 
 corporations, to say nothing of opening 
 barrels in political campaigns and influ 
 encing the appointment of Territorial 
 officials, who decide questions to suit 
 their interests, -and discharge their 
 thieves when arrested. 
 
 " It was one of these gangs which 
 leisurely rode up to the ranch of Baron 
 Porzig one day to kill him, intimidate 
 his employees, and loot his stock. 
 They commenced firing at the baron 
 on sight. He hastened to his house, 
 
"At every shot he made a bandit was blown to fragments." Page 119. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 119 
 
 and immediately reappeared with his 
 rifle. At every shot he made a bandit 
 was blown to fragments. He used ex 
 plosive cartridges, which he had found 
 best in combats with grizzly bears. 
 After the fragments of a dozen bandits 
 and as many horses had been scattered 
 over several acres of ground, the re 
 mainder of the gang hastened to get 
 out of range. He only received a 
 slight contusion in the leg, and was 
 never again molested by any one. The 
 terrible fame of his marksmanship 
 spread all over the Wild West. His 
 loss to the Territory of Idaho is univer 
 sally deplored. He employed a large 
 
120 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 number of cowboys, and paid them 
 promptly and well. Not one of these 
 men, not one bullock of his vast herds, 
 escaped. The baron himself was seen 
 on the day of his frightful demise at a 
 little settlement twelve miles from New 
 Dresden, by all its inhabitants. He was 
 over there making purchases, and is 
 positively known to have gone to his 
 home and to have been in bed when the 
 cyclone struck the ranch." 
 
 "There!" exclaimed Mr. Vander- 
 pool. " That shows that the baron 
 was at New Dresden, and a victim of 
 the cyclone. Why read further ?" 
 
 "You forget the mention of a bed 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 121 
 
 with a man in it," replied the Baron 
 calmly. " I desire to call your atten 
 tion to this clipping." 
 
 Again the secretary continued : 
 " This despatch is dated Isle Royal, 
 Lake Superior. It reads: The great 
 cyclone which started in the valley of 
 New Dresden, Idaho, last night, passed 
 over this island to-day. It has left a 
 wide path of wrecks. At the border 
 of Lake Superior it ascended high over 
 our heads. For miles in the air can 
 be seen houses, trees, sheep, horses, 
 cattle, and what looks like men. The 
 most remarkable spectacle, however, 
 is a bed, containing a man, and fully 
 
122 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 one mile high, above all other forms 
 of debris. It is sailing with fright 
 ful rapidity in the vortex of the cv- 
 clone. The mangled remains of stock 
 and men are being reported by the 
 fishermen, who are hastening in from 
 their nets. These remains come plung 
 ing down into the lake, as do also other 
 objects, making their trips exceedingly 
 dangerous. A number of dead cow 
 boys, rigidly fastened to dead and 
 mangled bronchos, the riders erect and 
 looking like spectres, can be seen oc 
 casionally plunging into the lake 
 around the island. 
 
 " I don t believe that stuff," growled 
 
"A number of dead cowboys, rigidly fastened to dead and 
 mangled bronchos, the riders erect and looking like spectres, can 
 be seen occasionally plunging into the lake around the island/ 
 
 Paye 122. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 123 
 
 Surgeon Banks; "it s too Mulhatton- 
 
 ian." 
 
 " But all the papers have it, and from 
 a dozen different correspondents," calm 
 ly remarked the baron. " I know it 
 to be true." 
 
 " How do you know such a yarn as 
 that to be true?" asked the surgeon 
 politely. 
 
 " I saw the scene described ; it was 
 more horrible than it has been de 
 picted." 
 
 " You saw it !" all gasped. 
 
 " I did." 
 
 " It is as I feared," remarked Mr. 
 Moran. " We are wasting time either 
 
i 24 A Ride on a Cyclone, 
 
 with a lunatic or a desperate adven 
 turer." 
 
 Surgeon Banks arose and made a 
 critical examination of the baron s 
 head while all watched the proceed 
 ing. 
 
 " Gentlemen," decided the surgeon 
 at last, " I pronounce the prisoner 
 entirely sane. I fear, however, that 
 he loves a joke." 
 
 "And on such an occasion, too," re 
 marked Mr. Blest, solemnly. 
 
 " Unless the accused changes his tac 
 tics and offers reasonable evidence, I 
 do not see how it can be to his advan 
 tage or ours to continue the session/ 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 12$ 
 
 said Mr. Moran. " Sir, again let me 
 offer you your freedom." 
 
 The baron turned appealingly to 
 Miss de Land, but whether his glance 
 requested her advice about accepting 
 the proposition, or was in reference to 
 his persecution, she failed to make 
 out. However, believing that he 
 meant the latter, she remarked 
 sweetly, "This is more interesting 
 than a novel, opera, or play. Do let 
 us have the remainder of the baron s 
 story." 
 
 The gentlemen gallantly assented, 
 and the baron expressed his gratitude 
 to her in a speaking glance. He hand- 
 
126 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 ed another clipping to the secretary, 
 who read : 
 
 " Despatch, dated Mexico Point 
 Life-saving Station, Mexico Bay, Lake 
 Ontario, sixteen miles east of Oswego, 
 N. Y. : The second night of the great 
 cyclone is setting in. Shipping has 
 been swept out of existence by the 
 wholesale. The path of the cyclone s 
 wrecks is now twenty-three hundred 
 miles long, but only in the very upper 
 currents are tremendous active energies 
 visible. The lake at this point pre 
 sents only a furious gale, and so far 
 we have rescued but three crews, and 
 not more than six vessels are to be 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 127 
 
 seen flying flags of distress. One 
 vessel was dashed against the bold, 
 rocky projections at Nine-Mile Point. 
 Another was thrown high and dry on 
 the sands of Big Sandy Beach. The 
 third, borne on the crest of a moun 
 tainous wave for a time, suddenly 
 settled in the trough of the sea, and 
 struck the outer bar a half mile from 
 the Point. This is the first wreck of 
 the kind known to the section. The 
 outer bar has eighteen feet of water 
 this year, because the lake is at its 
 highest mark. Nothing short of a 
 tidal wave could have been followed 
 by a trough so deep as to project a 
 
128 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 vessel against the shoal. The wave, 
 however, was terrific. It swept inland 
 for over a mile, nearly ingulfing the 
 hamlet of Texas, tore down fences, 
 uprooted trees, unsettled buildings, 
 and in following up the bed of the 
 Little Salmon River, struck the mill- 
 dam at Texas and forced it up stream 
 for more than a mile, where it rests 
 solidly, and has created a new pond 
 on valley land of a farmer where he 
 raised the best crops in the county. 
 While he is threatening to sue every 
 body, from the postmaster up to the 
 President of the United States, for 
 damages, the miller is bemoaning his 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 1 29 
 
 fate that his mill was not also carried 
 along and set down by the dam in its 
 proper place. The summer-resorters 
 here who are housed on a high plateau 
 have been nearly scared out of their 
 accustomed appetites, but none of them 
 were hurt. 
 
 " Lake Erie escaped, but the upper 
 end of Ontario suffered immense dam 
 age. Very little debris is visible in 
 the air. It is composed mostly of 
 light articles, such as boards, barrels, 
 sections of houses, sails, and rigging. 
 The bed which has been reported at 
 all points as passing at a great altitude 
 with terrific speed, and which some 
 
130 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 correspondents claim contains a man, 
 is now floating overhead. The figure 
 of a man is visible in it, sitting upright. 
 It cannot be a chimera. Hundreds of 
 people are looking at the poor fellow 
 with field-glasses. These people are 
 summer resorters of well-known stand 
 ing in the societies of their respective 
 cities. As seen through a field-glass, 
 the man has a heavy head of hair, 
 undoubtedly black, and a full beard, 
 parted in the middle and brushed 
 either way. He is alive, and no doubt 
 enjoying his novel ride, unless he feels 
 like the Irishman who fell out of a tree 
 and broke his arms and legs. Faith, 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 1 3 1 
 
 said he, when picked up, sure an the 
 fallin was plissant enough, but the 
 strikin was what did the business/ 
 The current of air has shifted, and is 
 bearing the bed toward New York 
 City at about thirty miles per hour. 
 You may find the air sailor on the 
 Brooklyn Bridge in the morning, 
 .waiting for his breakfast. " 
 
 " What rotten nonsense !" again 
 growled Doctor Banks. 
 
 " It is all true so far as I am con 
 cerned," affirmed the baron, sternly. 
 " I can see it all now. Of course, I will 
 not approve of that mill-dam story." 
 
 " It is a wonder you have not already 
 
132 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 claimed to be the man in the bed," 
 sneered the surgeon. 
 
 " I shall not merely claim it. You 
 yourself will be the first to acknowl 
 edge it." 
 
 " I will lay you a wager on such an 
 absurd claim being established," re 
 marked Mr. de Land, who, with the 
 ladies, had been a quiescent spectator 
 of the proceedings. 
 
 " Done," replied the baron. 
 
 " Well, what shall the wager be ? 
 We have plenty of witnesses." 
 
 The baron thought a moment, ner 
 vously glancing at Miss de Land. " This 
 shall be the wager. If it is not clearly 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 133 
 
 proved that I was carried from New 
 Dresden to New York by the cyclone, 
 I will deed to you and your heirs and 
 assigns forever, all of my property, real 
 and personal, and thereafter beg for a 
 living. If, on the contrary, each and 
 all of you admit that I was borne here 
 by the cyclone, you are to give to me 
 the hand of your daughter in mar 
 riage." 
 
 " So far as I am concerned, I accept 
 the wager," laughed Mr. de Land, de 
 lighted at this turn of affairs, and decid 
 ing that he should be glad of such an 
 alliance at any cost, if this proved to be 
 the real Porzig. 
 
1 34 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 Miss de Land arose, a picture of 
 superb scorn and indignation ; she was 
 almost weeping with rage. " So !" she 
 exclaimed, " you dare to bargain me off 
 as if I were a race-horse, and before 
 people." She abruptly left the room. 
 
 " Marie !" gently called the mother. 
 
 " You are perfectly safe, if you don t 
 want him/ laughed the father, 
 
 The gentlemen looked at each other 
 with smiles, wondering what the baron 
 would do, and for the first time were 
 disposed in his favor, because if he 
 should marry Miss de Land he would 
 become one of the financial ring. 
 
Marie ! M gently called the mother. Pu(;e 134. 
 
VI. 
 
 AFTER the incident described, and 
 the abrupt departure of Miss de Land, 
 the baron became moody and de 
 pressed. There was a lull in the pro 
 ceedings for some time, but the mem 
 bers conversed in whispers. 
 
 " He is no maniac, nor imbecile; nor 
 is his mind the least obscured or daft," 
 Surgeon Banks insisted. 
 
 " But he must know that we cannot 
 
 accept such preposterous evidence," 
 
 135 
 
136 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 snarled Mr. Moran. " We all know 
 that if he is not the genuine baron, 
 there never was one." 
 
 The whispers were interrupted by a 
 startling announcement from a digni 
 fied flunkey in gorgeous livery, who en 
 tered the room with a big salver piled 
 high with cards. 
 
 " One hundred representatives of the 
 press !" he thundered. 
 
 * Reporters be damned !" said Mr. 
 Vanderpool in alarm. 
 
 " What say you ? shall we admit of 
 this intrusion?" demanded Mr. de Land 
 of the baron. 
 
 " They are my witnesses, my best of 
 
"One hundred reporters of the press," he thundered. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 137 
 
 friends in this ordeal. Have they not 
 already proved that I retired in my 
 bed on the night of the cyclone at New 
 Dresden, and was seen floating in it up 
 to within three hundred miles of New 
 York ? If the decision must come from 
 me, let them in by all means." 
 
 " They are a lot of beasts," remarked 
 Mr. de Land contemptuously, " but let 
 them come in." 
 
 The baron gained new courage when 
 the reportorial corps was announced. 
 He had innocently imagined that the 
 evidence he had already presented, to 
 gether with the fact of his being found 
 on the roof in his own bed, would be 
 
138 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 evidence sufficient to convince the most 
 skeptical and unreasonable. In this he 
 was completely mistaken. As a conse 
 quence he fell into a revery and thought 
 in the following vein : He was dealing 
 with men of whom it was sufficient to 
 say, as Miss de Land had intimated, 
 that they were New York business-men. 
 He could see now that she had not only 
 dissected the species accurately, but 
 that she had omitted much concerning 
 them which events had developed. 
 They were men whose words were 
 gold and could be relied upon, yet their 
 motto was, " All fair in business." They 
 scrupled at nothing, either to make 
 
\ 
 
 As a consequence, be fell into a revery." Page 138. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 1 39 
 
 money or retain it. They secured and 
 retained money, even at the expense of 
 truth and justice, with a disregard for 
 equities which amounted to crime, if 
 such acts could be sustained by the ef 
 forts of their counsel before juries and 
 judges. Judges are often very humane 
 in this century, that is, humane in the 
 sense of being very human. They have 
 been known to lie awake nights to find 
 technicalities and legal holes whereby 
 men whose money and prestige put 
 them in office could receive a favorable 
 decision. They were often sustained 
 in deciding against the equities and law 
 in a case by the division of popular 
 
140 A Ride 011 a Cyclone. 
 
 clamor, secured by a division of the 
 leading dailies. Two great dailies 
 fighting on opposite sides of a subject 
 is naturally supposed to mean that 
 there is a division of public opinion, 
 as a newspaper by right stands to 
 represent the views of its subscrib 
 ers, else they would not subscribe to 
 the paper. Laws in these stirring 
 times are made for the rich and influ 
 ential, for the protection of incorpora 
 tions and of great interests ; the small 
 fry, the poor, the little fishes, have 
 no laws ; or if there are some on the 
 statute-books for them, there are ways 
 of misconstruing such laws in favor of 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 141 
 
 r 
 
 him who carries the biggest pocket- 
 book. Those of the poor who secure 
 the passage of laws in their favor, do so 
 only when they combine in large voting 
 unions and hold up their votes as a 
 menace against oppression. It may be 
 that these things are for the best; it 
 may be that the man who represents a 
 big purse intrinsically represents greater 
 interests than one poor man who only 
 represents himself and his one interest, 
 and is therefore void of rights which 
 courts are bound to respect. It may be 
 that these seemingly gigantic wrongs 
 are, after all, inspirations for a poor man 
 either to become rich and powerful, or 
 
142 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 to so educate his son and aid him that 
 he may acquire power through his 
 progeny. It may be that Darwin was 
 right, that life is a struggle and a sur 
 vival of the fittest ; that the rich grow 
 richer and the poor poorer ; that small 
 families are crowded out and large 
 families increase in size, and that conse 
 quently the Smiths are becoming so 
 numerous that some day the world will 
 be made up only of Smiths. It may be 
 that everything which oppresses and 
 leads to suicide ; that drunkenness which 
 drives so many under ground ; that cy 
 clones which kill so many people ; to 
 gether with railway accidents, sickness, 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 143 
 
 and everything which destroys, only 
 make room for other people. I merely 
 say that all this may be true. If so if 
 it is really the law of nature that " tis 
 fate, the weakest die, the strongest 
 grow and multiply," then judges and 
 juries and laws are certainly justified 
 in only assisting those who are best 
 fitted to survive, and thereby, in the 
 case of the judges, gain powerful allies 
 to accomplish their own survival on the 
 bench. Let us be broad enough to 
 admit that many of these principals are 
 obvious and prevail to a large extent, 
 and that they really inspire us to toil 
 for wealth, power, and greatness with 
 
144 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 which, in some cases, to work for the 
 good of mankind, and in other cases to 
 accomplish evil. Let us also be broad 
 and reasonable sufficiently to admit 
 that there are no great evils not pro 
 ductive of equally great good. Did 
 not the conflagration of Chicago result 
 in the greatest good not only to that 
 city but to all the western country ? 
 Did not the stupendous stealings of 
 Boss Tweed result in Central Park, the 
 most beautiful area on the globe, where 
 two hundred thousand people often 
 secure air and exercise on a single 
 Sunday ; where Terrace Bridge stands 
 unique among structures of its kind as 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 145 
 
 the most wonderful piece of architec 
 ture in the world ; where the best ar 
 tistic creations of the world are stored ; 
 where beauty, grace, and enchantment 
 abound for every glance of the eye, and 
 everything is pleasing to every one of 
 the human senses ? Would Washington 
 be the beautiful city that it is had not 
 one man seen an opportunity to divide 
 immense appropriations with contrac 
 tors? Is it better, after all, to have 
 strictly pure elections, -or to have ten 
 to fifteen millions taken from the coffers 
 of the rich and distributed among the 
 poor voters to provide their families 
 with the necessaries of life even on a 
 
146 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 quasi illegal bas s? Was it better or 
 worse that Nero should destroy Rome, 
 and with it, in one fell swoop, its 
 monstrous and universal crimes against 
 nature, its citizens run mad with volupt 
 uous wickedness, and that all should be 
 swallowed up in a maelstrom of flame ? 
 Was it wrong to put the negro in 
 shackles and at the right time to sweep 
 the unclean presence of slavery from off 
 the face of the earth, when by so doing, 
 and only by so doing, the races of can 
 nibalistic blacks were brought into con 
 tact with civilizations and given an 
 opportunity to evolve from wild beasts 
 into men, and free men at that? These 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 147 
 
 are great questions. It is not for me to 
 answer them at this time and place per 
 haps never. I only insist that you shall 
 confront the conditions of life as they 
 actually exist, and not view mere seem 
 ing wrong from a pessimistic stand 
 point. What is wrong? What is right? 
 Are not these undefinable terms ? Are 
 they not terms which every individual 
 defines for himself, sometimes, but 
 mostly for the conduct of others ? Are 
 they not mere local terms like the 
 words Time and Space things that do 
 not exist except for local convenience ? 
 Is there anything tangible ? Do two 
 and two make four when there are no 
 
148 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 two things alike in all this universe? 
 Are there not, admittedly, spheres 
 where two and two could not possibly 
 make four in the sense with which we 
 apply the addition here on this earth, 
 false and unreasonable as it is ? Could 
 anything we can possibly do or con 
 ceive on this earth by any means be 
 made to apply to any other sphere in 
 the heavens? What a worm you are, 
 O man ! what an animal ! In public the 
 type of a man, in private the lowest 
 type of animal, base with passions, un 
 clean, unchaste. You assume every- 
 thing, and have never proved much of 
 anything. Your governments, your 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 149 
 
 forms of religion, your mathematics, 
 your science, everything you believe in, 
 are based on assumptions of your own 
 assuming, and no two of you agree even 
 on these assumptions. Therefore be 
 reasonable, and try to face the several 
 sides of all questions with fairness and 
 justice to all, and look with calm 
 ness on the individual make-up of 
 the great court which daily tries your 
 case. 
 
 The baron was aroused from the 
 deep, far-reaching revery into which he 
 he had almost unconsciously become 
 plunged by the entrance of the report 
 ers, who came in quietly and regarded 
 
1 50 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 the group in silence. They were evi 
 dently organized with a leader and 
 spokesman, knew what to do, and did 
 it. 
 
 " Which of these gentlemen, please, 
 is the proprietor of the house ?" 
 
 " I have that honor, gentlemen," re 
 plied Mr. de Land. " If you will per 
 mit me to make a remark, I was saying 
 a moment ago that reporters are beasts. 
 I beg to change the form of that expres 
 sion and admit that I am the beast in 
 this case. You appear to be well- 
 dressed men and gentlemen ; in fact, I 
 recognize several of you as sons of our 
 best families. Now, if you will respect 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 1 5 1 
 
 the sanctity of my home in your 
 accounts, we shall be glad to know 
 why you came, and what we can do 
 for you." 
 
 The remarks caused a sensation 
 among the fraternity. 
 
 " As the spokesman representing the 
 party as well as the Associated Press," 
 remarked the first speaker, " I must say 
 that after your kind greeting we can 
 only exonerate you, as you have us, 
 from being a beast, and also certify that 
 you are a well-dressed man and a gen 
 tleman, besides being surrounded by the 
 fathers of our best families." 
 
 There were smiles all around, in 
 
152 A Ride on a Cyclone, 
 
 which Mr. de Land shared, and the 
 good humor of all was restored. 
 
 " You have no doubt been interested 
 in the cyclone, as it is now the leading 
 topic of the times. In brief, I beg to 
 present to you Charles M. Tower, 
 Captain of Engineers, U. S. Army, in 
 charge of the Harbor Improvements of 
 the Port of New York. He has kindly 
 consented to come with us and make a 
 statement in order to assist us in solv 
 ing the most remarkable mystery with 
 which the press has ever had to 
 deal." 
 
 Captain Tower came forward, his face 
 bearing every mark of humiliation, 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. i$3 
 
 which for a moment his auditors could 
 not understand. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said he, " when I con 
 sented to accompany the reporters, I 
 was not aware that I should enter a 
 house where I have been a guest, and 
 find myself without invitation in the 
 presence of leaders of society who have 
 entertained me at their homes. It is 
 a serious breach of etiquette, to which 
 no Army officer desires to be a party." 
 
 " Captain Tower," said Mr. de Land, 
 "you have always been a welcome 
 guest at my house ; and if I apprehend 
 the case, the chances are that you have 
 never been more welcome than you are 
 
1 54 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 on this serious occasion. If you have 
 anything to say, I beg that you will 
 proceed, knowing that in so doing you 
 may do an act of the greatest conse 
 quences, and for good." 
 
 "That being the case, I am glad to 
 be here. In brief, I have to say, that 
 of late the United States Corps of En 
 gineers has been occupying the west 
 tower of the Brooklyn Bridge as an 
 observing station, getting our azimuth 
 and connecting our harbor operations 
 with the triangulation work of the 
 U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. We 
 have there the largest theodolite ever 
 made. At dawn the other morning the 
 
I was observing and my attention was attracted by what first 
 appeared to be a large bird." -Paye 155. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. l$$ 
 
 telescope of this big instrument was 
 pointed north, with the vernier scale 
 set on the heliotrope on Mt. Marcy. 
 I was observing and my attention was 
 attracted by what at first appeared to 
 be a large bird sailing toward this city 
 high in the air. As it came nearer, I 
 was astounded to define the outlines of 
 a bed, and finally of a man in it. The 
 bed descended slowly, and landed on .a 
 roof in this square. I saw that the 
 strange arrival created a commotion, 
 was surrounded by people who, with 
 the man, descended through the scuttle. 
 For several days not until to-day, in 
 fact I said nothing about the matter; 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 but seeing the strenuous efforts of the 
 press to find out the fate of the man 
 borne in this direction by the cyclone, 
 I thought it my duty, in behalf of 
 humanity, to inform the newspapers of 
 what I saw, and have the affair investi 
 gated. You have no doubt read the 
 startling accounts as to how this man 
 travelled hither, and whence he came. 
 If the accident by which I noted his 
 arrival in New York shall in any way 
 assist to unravel the mystery of this 
 strange adventure in air, and be a help 
 to the man or his friends, I shall be 
 truly glad." 
 
 " Captain Tower," said Mr. de Land, 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 157 
 
 rising and grasping the hand of the 
 officer, " you have rendered a service 
 not only to one greatly endangered 
 individual, but to humanity at large. 
 Gentlemen of the press, I have 
 the honor of presenting to you the 
 Baron Franz Porzig of New Dres 
 den." 
 
 " Porzig !" cried the reporters in sur 
 prise and horror. 
 
 " Ah !" exclaimed Doctor Banks, 
 "have I indeed lived to see reporters 
 unmanned?" 
 
 "But it is so horrible," retorted 
 several, trying to be calm. 
 
 " We think it a mighty escape," said 
 
158 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 Mr. Moran, unable to discredit such 
 distinguished evidence. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said he of the Asso 
 ciated Press, "let us have the narra 
 tive of the baron concerning his aerial 
 trip." 
 
 "Good!" cried all. 
 
 The baron glanced triumphantly at 
 Mr. de Land, then turned his face, 
 beaming with joy, to the doorway, 
 where he could distinguish the graceful 
 form of Miss de Land. 
 
 " When I awoke in your beautiful 
 city the other morning I imagined my 
 self at home in New Dresden, glad to 
 escape from what had seemed to be a 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 1 59 
 
 terrible dream. The sudden realization 
 that I was over twenty-five hundred 
 miles from where I had retired but 
 two nights previously nearly drove 
 me mad. During all that trip I could 
 not once convince myself that I was 
 really awake, and so did not enjoy it 
 as I should do at another time, if I had 
 the opportunity. After several hours, 
 what seemed to be a horrible dream 
 came back to me in vivid reality. The 
 story is brief, as it has been accurately 
 gathered by a line of bright corre 
 spondents from whom nothing has es 
 caped I was aroused at midnight by 
 my house taking a plunge into space 
 
160 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 and then breaking into pieces. My bed, 
 however, was held firmly in the vor 
 tex of the cyclone, and as I was hurled 
 along like a shell from a dynamite gun, 
 I thought I should be drowned. No 
 sooner would I become thoroughly 
 drenched than the lightning would 
 dry out and shrivel up my bed. The 
 bedstead was burned very soon in my 
 flight, but the mattress, and clothing, 
 made of asbestos, which, as you know, 
 is non-inflammable, were preserved. At 
 times I travelled at such speed that it 
 was necessary to cover my nostrils to 
 retain my breath. Over Isle Royal 
 I was a witness to the heart rending 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 161 
 
 destruction of my stock and cowboys. 
 I think the entire population of New 
 Dresden, together with my stock and 
 cowboys, were carried to Lake Superior 
 and thrown in. I sincerely hope that 
 some have escaped death, but I doubt 
 it. I surely expected to be killed by a 
 fall, but the mattress being of the in 
 flated kind, came down gently while I 
 was asleep. That is all that it is neces 
 sary for me to relate, as you already 
 know the details. I had no fears after 
 a few moments, supposing it at the time 
 all a mad dream. Fear was an after 
 development, and on account of the 
 results." 
 
1 62 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 The reporters soon hurried away to 
 prepare their accounts. 
 
 " Gentlemen," demanded the baron, 
 " have I won my wager ?" There was 
 a unanimous assent, with the proviso 
 that delivery of the reward might give 
 considerable trouble. The surgeon 
 was, however, still surly and bitter. 
 He dealt with tangible facts, not with 
 supernatural phenomena ; but he con 
 trolled himself wonderfully, and con 
 gratulated the baron. 
 
 " Baron Franz Porzig," said Mr. 
 Moran, arising and offering his hand and 
 for the first time calling the prisoner 
 by his right name, " there ought never 
 
Gentlemen !" demanded the Baron, "have I won my 
 wager V " Page 162. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 163 
 
 to have been a doubt concerning your 
 identity. We all knew you personally, 
 and of your worth as chief executive 
 officer and largest shareholder of our 
 ranch. It was our duty to have sup 
 ported you in your trying ordeal instead 
 of spurning you. But you confronted 
 us with an extraordinary and supernat 
 ural phenomenon, and you were legally 
 dead, dead, dead. We seemed to have 
 no alternative but to let you work your 
 way out, and that seemed impossible. 
 In that operation you have had the 
 assistance of the watch-dogs of the press, 
 the guardians of the personal liberty 
 the rights, justice, and equity of all 
 
164 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 mankind. We owe to you an apology 
 greater than was ever man s due, and 
 we tender it in a spirit of contrition 
 and yet of congratulation." 
 
 " I accept the apology, gentlemen, 
 and suggest that we now discuss the re 
 organization of the ranch." 
 
 "Gentlemen," remarked Mr.de Land, 
 at this juncture, " let us lunch and re 
 sume our conversation at the table. 
 We seem to have a being in our pres 
 ence who has been killed elsewhere, 
 and we need food to sustain the ordeal 
 of investigation." 
 
 The lunch passed pleasantly. Mr. 
 Moran inquired if the baron had any 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone, 165 
 
 plans for the reorganization of the com 
 pany s affairs. 
 
 " I was thinking," said the baron, 
 pleasantly, "that since we have noth 
 ing left but our lands, we had best 
 sell." 
 
 "And give up the business?" 
 
 " Not at all. We can invest our in 
 surance money and the proceeds of the 
 sale elsewhere. We may have to assess 
 ourselves largely, but it will pay." 
 
 "Where should we locate?" 
 
 " Out of the cyclone area, by all 
 means. There are plenty of lands in 
 the middle South where only zephyrs 
 blow. We can get a million acres in 
 
1 66 A Ride on a Cyclone 
 
 Georgia, Florida, Alabama, or even in 
 Kentucky and Tennessee for from $i 
 per acre upwards. These lands are 
 mostly timbered, and the timber could 
 be cut and sold for more than the lands 
 would cost. Forest lands have a very 
 rich soil, and along the Louisville 
 and Nashville Railroad are richest 
 blue-grass lands extant, which produce 
 the finest crops and stock. 
 
 " There is profit on beef at present of 
 about sixteen cents per pound. During 
 the recent troubles of the cattlemen the 
 beef business gradually fell into the 
 hands of four Chicago monopolists, 
 who now have the public at their 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 167 
 
 mercy and are daily coining fortunes 
 on dressed beef. Great droughts in the 
 Southwest, and blizzards in the West 
 and Northwest, causing a loss of from 
 thirty to sixty per cent of the cattle, 
 compelled the ranchmen to rush their 
 herds to Chicago and sell out at any 
 price, to save what they had. The * Big 
 Four of that city purchased the bulk of 
 the cattle west of the Mississippi at a 
 ridiculously low figure, which gave 
 them control of the market. Then the 
 Big Four put the cattle out on safe 
 pasturage, through their agents, and 
 have held the animals for slaughter at 
 their own time and price. You pay 
 
1 68 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 the cattle trust twenty-eight cents per 
 pound here in New York for ordinary 
 beef, while in the villages throughout 
 the State the local marketmen sell the 
 beef raised in their vicinity for a shil 
 ling, and at a decent profit. It is our 
 opportunity to operate independently 
 and on a large scale. We can buy 
 cheaply the rich lands of the South. 
 We can stock our new ranch with small 
 purchases among the farmers who are, 
 at this season of the year, on account of 
 the scarcity of fodder, selling at from 
 five to ten dollars per head, and, for 
 comparatively small money, may soon 
 be able to compete with the Big Four/ 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone.. 169 
 
 or compel them to let us in the trust. 
 Further, the market of England is con 
 trolled by not more than fourteen men, 
 and that is the reason why foreign ship 
 ments of cattle are invariably made at a 
 loss. Whenever cattle go abroad they 
 cannot get a good sale because the Lon 
 don trust will not let them in their 
 markets, small and big. The trust is 
 the only purchaser, and it won t buy. 
 The consequence is that American cat 
 tle are sold on shipboard under quaran 
 tine regulations, imposed at the in 
 stance of the trust, and for any figure 
 the agents of the trust are disposed to 
 offer. I suggest that we make an alii- 
 
170 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 ance with the London trust, which will 
 enable us to control the shipments of 
 American cattle absolutely. In so do 
 ing we will get our fingers on the 
 throats of the Big Four and have 
 the foreign pudding baked in our 
 oven." 
 
 As the gentlemen left the house, it 
 was observed that they agreed that the 
 baron was of the stuff of which money 
 kings are made, and had adopted him 
 as an acquisition to their brain power 
 as well as their financial sway. 
 
For several days the Baron was invisible/ Page 171. 
 
VII. 
 
 FOR several days the baron was in 
 visible to the de Lands. He sent down 
 excuses to the effect that he was both 
 recuperating and giving some atten 
 tion to the enormous pressure on him 
 caused by the recent crisis in his 
 affairs. Meantime Miss Marie was 
 greatly dispirited and depressed. She 
 felt that she had been cruelly insulted, 
 
 but even more by the baron s silence 
 
 171 
 
172 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 than his rash wager. The wager, after 
 all, was a compliment to her ; and when 
 she asked her father if he intended to 
 hold her to it, he merely asked in re 
 ply if she would have held the baron 
 to his contract had he lost and sent 
 him out in the world a beggar. 
 
 One day, to soothe her wounded 
 feelings, she went to the piano and 
 softly played the "Traumerei." At its 
 conclusion she felt a slight sensation as 
 if some invisible hand had touched 
 her. Looking down, much to her 
 dismay, and yet with a thrill of pleas 
 ure, she beheld the Baron Porzig on 
 his knees and face by her side, his 
 
n 
 
 She felt that she had been cruelly insulted. Pa</e 173 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 173 
 
 head buried in the long train of her 
 gown, which he held to his lips. 
 
 " Rise, Baron Porzig !" 
 
 " Not until you pardon me, he said, 
 not looking up. 
 
 " Why should I forgive so base an 
 effort to trade me before so many 
 people ?" Her voice was firm though 
 gentle. 
 
 " I intended no wrong, beautiful 
 lady. For an instant I remembered 
 only our Prussian customs of marriage 
 contracts. I was obtuse and rash. It 
 was because I love you so much. For 
 give me." 
 
 " Then rise, Baron Porzig ! A wo- 
 
1/4 -A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 man can forgive anything that is done 
 for love of her." 
 
 He would have seized her hand, but 
 she motioned him away. 
 
 " Is it a Prussian custom to fall in 
 love and demand a maid s hand all in 
 a few days ?" she asked. 
 
 " Love is not of growth like a weed," 
 he replied. " One s love always ex 
 ists in the ideal of the brain. Some 
 times we never meet the affinities of 
 our ideals, but the love for them lives 
 within us whether the object is visible 
 or not. Love is not produced by ex 
 ternals, such as beauty or the lack of 
 it, wealth, or anv circumstances what- 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 175 
 
 soever. It is an irresistible and un 
 known quantity, which manifests itself 
 in spite of ourselves. That unexplain- 
 able something about you for which 
 there is no description or words makes 
 my heart say, Here is your affinity." 
 It matters not whether I ever saw you 
 before. In you at once I discover the 
 ideal which my heart has ever adored. 
 Say you will not leave me alone, me 
 of the cyclone, me of the maelstrom, 
 torn from my home in the storm, and 
 hurled through space at your feet, borne 
 by the very elements in sympathy with 
 my heart s own idolatry. Say you will 
 
1 76 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 not leave me in a night of blackness and 
 despair worse than the last." 
 
 He took her hand this time, and she 
 did not remove it. He pressed his 
 lips again and again on her beautiful 
 and shapely fingers; she did not re 
 pulse him. She only looked at him 
 with wonder and awe, the man borne 
 to her feet by the elements, he of the 
 cyclone, he of the maelstrom. 
 
 " Love/ she said gently, " is all you 
 have pictured it to be. Is there not 
 an axiom that no two bodies can oc 
 cupy the same space at the same time? 
 Love is the disproof of that, because, 
 
"He pressed his lips again and again on her beautiful and 
 shapely fingers." Pa( d e 176. 
 
A Ride on a Cyclone. 177 
 
 if real, it blends two lives into one. 
 I have never seen the man whose 
 life and mine could blend" the man 
 looked up with a glance of agony, 
 which cut her like a blade" unless 
 it be you." 
 
 In an instant his face lighted with 
 joy. 
 
 " Marie, dear, won t you be merciful 
 and grant to me the results of my wager, 
 of your own free-will ?" 
 
 She went close to him and inclined 
 her stately form she was taller than 
 he and placed her beautiful arms 
 around his neck. 
 
i/8 A Ride on a Cyclone. 
 
 "I could not be less merciful than 
 the elements which brought you to 
 
 me. 
 
She went close to him and inclined her stately form 
 
 she was taller than he and placed her beautiful arms 
 around his neck. Page 177. 
 
8 727; 
 
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