The European Wold Newton Universe

Timeline
(1860-1900)

Updated 13 May; updates in blue.

c. 1860-c. 1900. A "blackness of treachery" forces a Spanish nobleman to take to the Andalusian highlands and become the infamous Don Q, "Don Quebranta Huesos," a.k.a. "Don Bone Smasher." Don Q is no ordinary thief or bandit chief. He is a sequestrador, one who kidnaps and holds for ransom, what Don Q describes as “the noblest rank of brigand.” When his men discover a traveler making his way across the “magnificent desolation” which is Don Q’s home, they capture the traveler and escort him to the mountain headquarters where Don Q resides. Don Q then chats with his victim, usually cordially, for Don Q is an aristocrat to his bones and thoroughly believes in the duties of the host, which include a kindly courtesy. Don Q then disposes of “the disagreeables of business,” the setting of the ransom, which is always what he believes his victim, or the victim’s friends and family, or the victim’s country, can afford to pay. If the ransom is not paid, “regrettable consequences” follow. If not all of the ransom is paid, the consequences are equally regrettable; if only 75% of the ransom is forthcoming, only 75% of the kidnap victim will return to freedom. (Kate and Hesketh Prichard's Don Q stories, beginning with "The Parole of Gevil-Hay," 1897). (A later biography of Don Q, Don Q's Love Story, cannot be reconciled with the earliest accounts of Don Q's love and so must be disregarded).

Old Shatterhand and Winnetou c. 1861-c. 1900. A short, blond, cigar-smoking German named Karl emigrates to the United States. He moves to St. Louis to be a tutor to the Henries, a wealthy family of German immigrants. But Mr. Henry, a famous gun-maker, sees that Karl has the potential to be one of the great Westmänner, the “West Men” who are taming the American frontier. Mr. Henry makes two special rifles for Karl, Henrystutzen (“Henry Rifle”) and Bärentöter (“Bear-Killer”), and gets Karl a job on a surveying crew for a railroad. The Americans Karl works with are crude and ignorant, lacking the education and wisdom of Karl, and he takes it upon himself to teach them proper German manners. Karl readily admits that he is a greenhorn, but because he is a German greenhorn he is a capable student who learns quickly.

During the surveying Karl and the rest of the railway crew are captured by a band of Kiowa. The strongest of the Kiowa warriors challenges Karl to a fight. Karl, who is not only unusually strong but extraordinarily fast, knocks the Kiowa out with one punch—unlike his opponent, Karl was not armed, as he dislikes bloodshed—and gains himself the nickname “Old Shatterhand.” Karl saves the other surveyors from being scalped by the Kiowa, but they are soon captured by a band of Mescalero Apaches and brought to the pueblos of the Mescalero. The Mescalero chief Intschu-tschuna and his son Winnetou force Karl to undergo tests of strength, frontier skills, and endurance. Karl passes them, runs a gauntlet, and succeeds in capturing Intschu-tschuna. This earns Karl membership in the Mescalero as one of their chiefs. Winnetou becomes Karl’s blood brother and teaches Karl the lessons of “Indian School,” which includes not only the languages of the “Apache” and “Navajo," but also the tactics of the “Indians.”

Winnetou’s beautiful sister, Nscho-tschi, falls deeply in love with Karl. Karl does not believe in miscegenation, but is willing to marry her if she converts to Christianity and is educated in the ways of white men. Nscho-tschi and Intschu-tschuna are on their way to a white school in St. Louis when they are murdered by an evil Yankee, Santer. Over the next two novels Shatterhand and Winnetou pursue Santer, accompanied by Karl's abnormally intelligent and faithful horse Hatatitla. The trio wanders from St. Louis to San Francisco to Mexico, avenging wrongs and teaching ignorant Americas the proper ways of the Westmänner. Shatterhand, Winnetou, and Hatatitla rescue innocent maidens from bloodthirsty and lust-filled native savages. They bring the the law to lawless towns. They fight evil Mormons, degenerate half-breeds, and psychotically evil Yankees. Santer is killed, but Winnetou is mortally wounded in the struggle. He converts to Christianity before dying, and Old Shatterhand continues on by himself. (Karl May's Old Shatterhand novels, beginning with Winnetou v1, 1893).

Texas Jack 1864-c. 1900. Texas Jack Omohundro becomes a legend on the frontier, as a scout, cowboy, and soldier of fortune. On behalf of the Mexican people he fights French soldiers in the Mexico of Emperor Maximilian I. He fights opium smugglers in New Orleans. He heads up cattle drives. He helps Buffalo Bill Cody (see below). He works as a scout for the American army and as a hired gun for the Mexican army. He works for the Canadian Mounties. He discovers a number of enclaves of Lost Races. Stories of him are everywhere, and a surprising number of them are true. (Texas Jack #1-215, 1906-1911, Texas Jack, la Terreur Des Indiens #1-270, 1907-1912, Der Grosse Kundschafter #1-100, 1911-1912, Texas Jack, Der Große Kundschafter #1-120, 1930-1932, and Texas Jack, Der Große Kundschafter #1-75, 1932-1934).

c. 1865-c. 1880. Olaf Svenson, a wandering Danish swordmaster, fencing teacher, and mercenary, leads a life filled with adventure. At different times of his life he is the swordmaster to the Czar, where he fights a Nihilist conspiracy; the instructor at arms to the King of Spain, the fencing instructor to the leader of Cuba, and a mercenary in Honduras, hired to kill off the Seven Deadly Brothers of Tabasco, a widely feared family of bandits and espadachins. Svenson is a superior swordsman whose nicknames are “Iron Wrist,” because of his strength, and “El Rubio Bravo,” the “brave blond,” because of his white hair. Svenson’s skill at arms extends beyond the blade to guns, and he is deadly even with the rifle and bayonet, but he is pure hell with the sword. (Colonel Thomas Monstery’s Olaf Svenson stories, beginning with“Iron Wrist, the Sword master. A Tale of Court and Camp,” 1879).

New Leatherstocking c. 1865-c. 1890. At the end of the American Civil War a German emigrant arrives on the western frontier of America. He immediately takes to the frontier life and quickly earns the respect of both white and red natives, becoming known as the New Leatherstocking. He helps the endangered weak (both Anglo and native), fights the malicious strong (both Anglo and native), and solves criminal cases. Although many of his enemies are ordinary, if wicked, some are extraordinary, both superhuman and other than human, as in trip to the jungles of Mexico, where he discovered “The City of the Gorilla Men.” (Der Neue Lederstrumpf #1-587, 1912-1923).

It is possible that the “City of the Gorilla Men” was the source of the legendary Six-Gun Gorilla. There is no established link between the "Gorilla Men" which the New Leatherstocking discovered and O'Neil, and the level of sentience of the "Gorilla Men" seems to have been beyond what O'Neil was capable of (although, like so much else regarding Six-Gun Gorilla, this is contradicted by a number of oral anecdotes), and O'Neil's provenance--bought from a wandering merchant--would seem to argue against his having been born to the reclusive "Gorilla Men." But there are no other reliable, documented examples of even partially sentient primates (besides humans, of course) in North America. (The Six-Gun Gorilla stories, beginning in 1925).

Sitting Bull c. 1865-c. 1900. The Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux chief and leader Sitting Bull leads a far more exciting and adventurous life than the white American press gives him credit for. Both before and after the 1876 battle at the Little Big Horn River, Sitting Bull was active across the Americas, and although much of his time was spent fighting the incursions of Anglos on to the lands of his people and other native peoples, on a number of occasions he helped Anglos against the efforts of evil natives. For at least a decade after his supposed death he continued to travel in North and Central America and find adventure. (Sitting Bull, Der Letzte Hauptling Der Sioux-Indianer #1-180, 1906-1909 and Berühmte Indianerhäuptlinge #1-160, 1906-1909).

Like most of his adventures, the date of Sitting Bull's final, real death is unknown, as is so much of his life after the December, 1890 death described in the newspapers of the time. It is possible that Sitting Bull met and even teamed up with some of the more native-friendly adventurers on the frontier, whether Old Shatterhand or Deadwood Dick. It is known that the famous New York City detective Old King Brady mourned Sitting Bull and went so far as to release a public statement that the conditions under which Sitting Bull was supposed to have died--dragged unarmed out of his cabin and shot by policeman--"make me ashamed to call myself an American citizen." (Frank and Jesse James story in Boys of New York, 1890). Whether Brady, who often ventured into the frontier in pursuit of Frank and Jesse James or Deadwood Dick, ever heard that Sitting Bull was still alive is not known.

Tex Willer A innocent cowboy by the name of Tex Willer is framed for a crime he did not commit and is forced to wander around the frontier of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, trying to clear his name. Even while a wanted outlaw he never fails to help those in trouble, and after his name is cleared he becomes a Texas Ranger. He marries Lilyth, a beautiful woman, and is eventually made an honorary leader of the Diné (what whites call the Navajo) and one of the de facto rulers of the Diné reservation. As a Texas ranger his missions take him across the United States, from Boston to San Francisco’s Chinatown to Texas. He fights savage natives and bloodthirsty whites in Canada and fights a Lost Race of Mayans in the Yucatan Peninsula. He befriends the famous scout Kit Carson (who lived significantly longer than the 1868 date the history books give as the date of his death), who becomes an uncle to Tex’s son, Kit Willer. Tex befriends the famous Diné warrior Tiger Jack.

And Tex fights a variety of dangerous men: Proteus, an armed robber with an almost superhuman mastery of disguise; Paco Ordoñez, a.k.a. “El Muerto,” a crack shot whose face was disfigured by Tex; Sumankan, a prince of Mali who lost his wealth and empire thanks to the actions of white men and so came to America and, under the name of “Tigre Nera,” tried to unite Chinese, Blacks, and corrupt/venal whites into a fighting force to overthrow the American government; and Andrew Liddell, a.k.a. “The Master,” a mad scientist who tried to blackmail San Francisco and who used a cult of voodoo worshipers in an attempt to loot New Orleans. Worst of all is Tex’s arch-enemy, Steve Dickart, who gained eternal infamy as “Mefisto.” Mefisto was a stage magician and illusionist who used his hypnotic ability for crime. Repeatedly defeated by Tex, Mefisto studied under Padma, a Tibetan monk, and gained actual magical powers. Mefisto allied himself with the wicked Hualpai tribe of Mexico and with a group of voodoo worshipers but was never able to defeat Tex. He eventually died in the flaming ruins of his castle in Arizona. (Bonellie & Galleppini’ Tex Willer, 1948-present).

It cannot be said with any certainty, but it is quite possible that the evil Tibetan monk Padma was an agent of the Nine Unknown, who as described elsewhere are an organization of evil lamas, headquartered in Asia, who use their unnatural powers and advanced technology to spread misery and chaos across the world. Agents of the Nine Unknown were responsibel for empowering a variety of men and women over the centuries, from Monsieur Ming, the enemy of Bob Morane, to the would-be world conqueror Gorillard, to the “mad scientist” Dr. Xhatan. It would be entirely in character for Padma to have been acting on the orders of the Nine Unknown when he gave Mefisto supernatural powers.

c. 1866-c. 1890. William “Buffalo Bill” Cody leads an exciting, event-filled life. He ranges across the United States and North and South America, fighting Aztecs, evil natives, evil cowboys, evil Yankees, making life-long friends with various natives, and in general helping the weak and fighting the oppressively strong. (Buffalo Bill, der Held des Wilden Westerns #1-386, 1905-1912, and #1-123, 1930-1933). One of his best friends is Texas Jack Omohundro, but the behavior of the real Texas Jack is significantly at odds with the behavior of the fictional Texas Jack portrayed in certain dime novels. (Ned Buntline’s various Buffalo Bill stories, beginning with “Buffalo Bill, the King of Border Men,” 1869). The historical image of William Cody is of a huckster who stopped adventuring in 1877 and became a showman more concerned with making money and embellishing his own legend than with doing good, but the true Buffalo Bill was far less mercenary.

Alaska Jim 1867-c. 1890. On March 29, 1867 the British North America Act united Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia into the Dominion of Canada. Difficulties in the administration of the government of United Canada had led to this move, and following the Act Canada had finally become one nation. However, the nation faced a number of threats. Anarchists were a very real danger, with Fenian violence and raids on Canada from America having begun in 1866. The native peoples felt, with reason, that their land was being surveyed by the government only to facilitate its theft, and this feeling would lead to violence in the 1869-1870 Red River Rebellion. And the nation itself was only thirty years separated from the 1837 rebellion, which split Upper and Lower Canada and led to street fighting in Montreal and an international incident when the Canadian government seized and burned the American steamer Caroline, which had been supplying the rebellion.

Well aware of these dangers, the new Canadian government formed the Canadian Secret Service. One of their first recruits was Jim Hoover, a hunter and trapper who agreed to carry out the duties of a Secret Service agent on the frontier. With the help of his best friend, the Mohawk Old Crow, Hoover (now known as Alaska-Jim), patrolled the western frontier of Canada and defeated a wide range of threats. One of those who occasionally assisted him was the man known as Sturmvögel (see below). (Sachse and Winkler’s Alaska-Jim, Ein Held der Kanadischen Polizei #1-227, 1935-1939). 

Pierre It is not recorded whether Alaska-Jim ever encountered the notorious half-breed trapper known only as Pierre, but given their differing approaches to law enforcement–Alaska-Jim was known as someone who, despite the unforgiving environment, hewed closely to a strict morality, while Pierre cared far more about justice than the law–if they had encountered each other there undoubtedly would have been some conflict. (But it is equally without a doubt that Pierre would have assisted Alaska-Jim in the pursuit and apprehension of truly bad men). (Gilbert Parker’s Pierre stories, beginning with “The Patrol of the Cypress Hills,” 1890).

Nor is it recorded whether Alaska-Jim ever worked with members of the Mounties, although the 1875-1876 rebellion in northwest Canada, which was put down largely through the efforts of Sergeant Eric Lewis and his men, would surely have brought him running. (Stewart Sterling’s “Red Trails,” 1935).

An individual who Alaska-Jim did encounter is the infamous sky-pirate Captain Mors. An early (and obviously heavily fictionalized) account was published early in Alaska-Jim’s serialized biography. (Sachse and Winkler’s “Der Luftpirat von Oglivie,” Alaska-Jim #5, 1935). Interestingly, the environment in which they clashed is described as being remarkably similar to the environment around Promontory Point, in what was the Nevada Territory. Promontory Point was the scene of more than one conflict, but the one most relevant here was the 1873 clash between the bounty hunter Jonah Hex and a man calling himself “Vandal Savage.” (Timm and Altieri’s “Showdown,” Batman the Animated Series, 1999). As demonstrated in “An Extraordinary Family of the Wold West,” this individual was not the fictional “Vandal Savage,” but in all likelihood the very real and very dangerous Kane. Intriguingly, the conflict between Hex and Kane took place over (and at one point on top of) a technologically-advanced dirigible. The science of this dirigible was significantly inferior to the technology which Captain Mors used in his later aircraft, but it may be that Mors took some of Kane’s technology for his own crafts. Certainly the aircraft which Mors used in his encounter with Alaska-Jim was inferior to Mors’ later crafts.

IXE-13 The Canadian Secret Service Agency in which Alaska-Jim served would later produce a much more celebrated agent: John Thibault, better known as IXE-13. (Pierre Saurel’s Les Aventures Etranges de L'Agent IXE-13, L'As des Espions Canadiens #1-960, 1940-1967).

c. 1870-1873. Laura de Guéran, the intimate of numerous explorers (including Overweg, Speke, Richardson, Vogel, and Schweinfurth) and the wife of the celebrated and wealthy French explorer the Baron de Guéran, is told that her husband has disappeared somewhere in Egypt. She mourns for a year's time, and then gathers together three of her best friends and announces that she is traveling to Egypt to find her husband's remains and discover why he was killed. Two of the men go with her, and the trio travel through Saharan Africa and across Sub-Saharan Africa. They encounter enemy tribes, rampaging elephants, and slavers, and survive abandonment by their native guides. After Laura and her friends discover that Laura's husband might still be alive in a country on the southeast coast of Africa, they trek there, picking up an army of native warriors on the way (their king falls in love with Laura and is persuaded to accompany her south). They eventually find the Baron, who has been made the lover/prisoner of the beautiful, powerful, and majestic queen Walinda, a “black Venus” in charge of a great army of ferocious Amazon warriors. Laura’s forces defeat Walinda’s army in pitched battle. The Baron attempts to escape from Walinda, but she falls on him with her spiked armor and badly wounds him. Walinda is captured by Laura. Walinda tries to kill Laura, to regain the Baron (who she is in love with), but she kills the Baron instead and then drowns herself out of grief. The group returns to Paris and Laura marries the member of the trio who did not accompany her to Africa. (Adolphe Belot's A Parisian Sultana, 1879).

c. 1870-c. 1880. Pierre Biscard, a cowboy of French origin, emigrates to the American frontier (perhaps inspired by the earlier example of Vallentine Guillois) and achieves many minor triumphs and victories. (Jean Petithuguenin's Rouges et Blancs #1-80, 1913-1914).

A German immigrant recently arrived in New York City, Fritz Stagart, finds that America is far more dangerous than the press in Germany (and the colporteur novels of individuals like Old Shatterhand) has described. He begins solving crimes and fighting evil, both in the cities of the Eastern seaboard and on the western frontier. His home remains New York City, however. (Max Landenburg’s Fritz Stagarts Abenteuer #1-80, 1909-1910).

Winoga Winoga (I), a noble native chief, is assisted in his fight against evil by two frontier adventurers who had both recently emigrated from Italy: Tom Bartlett and Iron Fist. (Winoga, Occhi di Falco, 1920-1930, and Pugno di Ferro e Tom Bartlett, Gli Amici di Winoga, 1934).

Coyote c. 1870-c. 1890. A Mexican of noble Spanish descent, Don César de Echagüe, pretends to be a useless fop by day. By night he becomes the heroic do-gooder and enemy of evil, the Coyote. (Jose Mallorqui's Coyote novels, beginning with El Coyote, 1943).

Tex Bulwer Following the destruction of his ranch by a group of savage natives, Tex Bulwer, a frontiersman from Germany, begins wandering around the Western frontier. He has a long series of minor victories helping others and discovering treasure. (Tex Bulwer, Abenteuer in Wilden Westen, #1-80, 1936-1938).

Jurgen Peters A German youth, Jürgen Peters, goes to sea as a boy. He sails before the mast on the ship Stürmvogel (Storm Bird) for two decades. His captain is Kapitan Schlüter and his best friend is the Stürmvogel's helmsman, Oll Kopp, and together they have adventures around the world, some of them verging on the fantastic. (Jürgen Peters der Schiffsjunge #1-448, 1914-1923).

1870-1909. The Italian policeman John Siloch begins a decades-long series of triumphs as a crime-solver, both as a policeman and later as a private detective in Rome. He is assisted by police Commissioner Clark. (Antonio G. Quattrini’s John Siloch, il più grande poliziotto del mondo #1-20, 1909). Later researchers would note Siloch’s similarities to Sherlock Holmes, and in the 1890s and 1900s Siloch was billed as “the Sherlock Holmes of Italy,” but as Siloch’s biographer pointed out, Siloch began his work over a decade before Holmes made his debut. As has been noted in the “Great Detective Syndrome” article, the similarity between Siloch and Holmes resulted from Sherlock Holmes visit to Siloch in 1871, to learn what he could from Siloch’s methods. (See also 1909 below).

c. 1875-c. 1890. A German adventurer on the American frontier becomes known as Sturmvögel, the “storm bird,” for his tendency to appear in a town just as the storm of evil is about to break. With the help of his native friend, Old Grey, Sturmvögel fights wickedness and helps the innocent from Canada to Mexico. On occasion he aids his friend Alaska-Jim. (Winkler and Barthel’s Sturmvögel, Mit Buchse und Tobbogan durch die Arktis #1-82, 1939-1941).

1875. Ernest Fandorin, a Russian government clerk, begins solving crimes as a sidelight. (Boris Akunin's Fandorin novels, beginning with The Winter Queen, 2003).

1877. A private investigator from America, William Dow, begins investigating a series of crimes in Paris. (Léon René Delmas’ William Dow novels, beginning with Le No. 13 de la rue Marlot, 1877).

1879. An old raven, Dudu, helps a French girl, communicating with her in reality and in her dreams. (Mrs. Molesworth’s The Tapestry Room, 1879).

Baron Felix Amella c. 1880-c. 1890. A Dutch diplomat, Baron Felix Amella, succeeds at a series of high-level political intrigues throughout the decade, including behind-the-scenes involvement in the Boulanger Crisis (see Monsieur Sabin below). On occasion, when the situation calls for it, Baron Amella engages in a little discreet second-story burglary or even gentlemanly blackmail (all for honorable ends, of course). (Achter de Scherman).

The white head of the government “Indian Police,” Colonel Longarm, fights a series of evil natives while protecting the good ones, both on the American frontier and in the more settled areas east of the Mississippi River. He also fights vicious white men, pirates, the Mafia, and so on. (Oberst Longarm #1-15, 1906-1907).

Winoga c. 1880-c. 1900. The last descendant of the noble Mohican tribe, Winoga (II), leaves his ancestral homelands and emigrates west, wandering around the American frontier and helping natives and Anglos as he finds them. Late in the 1880s he found the grave and weapons of his great-great-grandfather, Chingachgook. (Winoga, der Letzte Mohikaner #1-90, 1921-1924).

It is a part of recorded history that Winoga was the last of the Mohicans. (It is not recorded that he had fathered any children). But the link between Winoga and Chingachgook is obscured. It is possible that Chingachgook had a second biological son that his biographer, James Fennimore Cooper, never knew about, although it is doubtful that Chingachgook would have concealed such a fact from his adopted son, Natty “Hawkeye” Bumppo. It is more likely that Chingachgook’s son, Uncas, fathered a son before his death, perhaps with Cora Munroe, and that Cooper, out of a personal dislike for miscegenation if Uncas’ lover was white or simply out of respect for Chingachgook, did not mention this fact. (James Fenimore James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, 1826).

c. 1880-c. 1910. Gavur Memet begins active duty in Istanbul. Memet is a policeman, active for the government of Sultan Abdülhamit II as a special agent, both solving crimes and defeating foreign spies, both within Turkey and outside of it. (Ziya Sakir's Gavur Memet novels, beginning with Mahmut Sevket Pasa, 1939).

1882. For a brief time a woman known as La Marmoset, “the Detective Queen,” becomes the most famous detective, male or female, in all of France. (Albert W. Aiken’s “La Marmoset, the Detective Queen; or, The Lost Heir of Morel,” 1882).

An Italian Priest, whose name American history books has not recorded, works in the worst parts of Rome, solving crimes and saving souls. A former policeman, he is particularly skilled at catching criminals. (Mario Giudice’s Un precursore di Sherlock Holmes – Ambienti romani, 1929). The Priest’s habits, appearance, and crime-solving methods are markedly similar to Sherlock Holmes’, and it is likely that the Priest was another sufferer from the "Great Detective Syndrome."

There is no historical record of this, but it is possible that the English crime-solving priest, Father Brown, studied under the Priest, however temporarily, during a visit to Rome before Brown assumed his duties in England. (G.K. Chesteron’s Father Brown stories).

1886-1889. General Georges Boulanger, the protégé of Georges Celemenceau, becomes minister of war in France and begins to receive significant support, both popular and from the military. He begins conniving and scheming to take ultimate power in France, but before he can do so, in January, 1889, he is forced into exile by the French government. As Boulanger is maneuvering, his greatest supporter, Monsieur Sabin, is working behind the scenes to resurrect the French Monarchy. Sabin’s patrons finally force him to abandon Boulanger, and Sabin retires to western Massachusetts. (E. Phillips Oppenheim’s Mysterious Mister Sabin, 1898, and The Yellow Ribbon, 1903).

1886. Robert Easterley and Jack Wilbraham, two Welsh teenagers, hear stories about alien abductions which reportedly have been taking place in Wales for centuries. Easterley then witnesses an abduction. (Robert Potter's The Germ Growers, 1892).

1887. An college student in Florence known only as Alberto C. is suffering despair from bad grades and a love affair gone awry. He quits his literary studies and takes up chemistry, which he finds more real and less imaginary than love. After playing around with various chemical combinations Alberto accidentally mixes up a paint which nullifies gravity. Alberto and his friend Professor Sandrelli build a ship, which they call the Casa Volante, or “Flying House.” They travel around the world in it, seeing Africa and the Pacific Ocean, and then go into space. Alberto and Professor Sandrelli eventually return to Earth, landing the ship in a sea near the North Pole, where it sinks. (Ulisse Grifoni’s Dalla Terra alle Stelle, 1887).

Tony, a clever and tough man, begins working for the Third Republic against the spies of Kaiser Wilhelm II. He moves on to police work, continuing to wage war on spies as well as ordinary criminals. He involves himself in l’affaire Dreyfus and occasionally fights more fantastic enemies, including a cult which could control people’s spirits from long-distance. (Gabriel Bernard’s Les Mystères de la cour de Berlin #1-33, 1916-1917, and Pages de gloire ou les aventures de Tony).

One of those who Tony is responsible for defeating is a large young man who is the leader of a gang of spies working for the Germans. Tony is not wholly responsible for the capture of the gang, however; one of the gang betrayed the gang to Tony. The police surrounded the gang’s headquarters, a building in one of Paris’ slums, and attempted to storm the building. A firefight followed, leading to the building catching on fire, and all but two members of the gang were captured or killed. The two who were not were the gang’s leader and his most trusted assistant, who pulled the badly wounded gang leader from the flaming ruins of the building. The gang leader recovered, although his legs were permanently damaged, and emigrated to America, where he rebuilt his criminal organization and, three decades later, became infamous as The Spider. (Johnston McCulley’s Spider stories, beginning with “The Spider’s Den,” 1918).

1888. “Conrad Klotz,” a German professor who as demonstrated elsewhere may have been the infamous Doctor Moreau, passes on the secret of accelerated evolution. Kenneth Stafford, an American, uses the knowledge gained from “Klotz” to create the supercanine Solarion. (Edgar Fawcett’s Solarion, 1889).

1890-1905. Georges Manolescu, a Hungarian thief, has a successful, fifteen-year-long career as a master thief. During these years he jousts with many of the most successful and famous detectives in Europe, including Nat Pinkerton. He spends most of his time away from his wife, but he does visit her enough to impregnate her. The child grows up to become the famous detective John Kling, who is as law-abiding as his father was crooked. (Manolescu, der Prinz von Dieb #1-27, 1928).

1890-1915. Dagobert Trostler gains fame as a detective in Vienna. He is a sufferer from the “Great Detective Syndrome,” but was secure enough in himself not to pretend to be Sherlock Holmes, and was successful in Vienna for a generation. He disappears during World War One during a spy mission. (“Balduin Groller”/Adalbert Goldscheider’s Dagobert Trostler stories, beginning in 1890).

Hans Stosch-Sarrasani c. 1890-1934. As a seventeen-year-old German Hans Stosch-Sarrasani begins a lifetime of high adventure which will end only with his death as a sixty-one-year-old, in 1934. History records that the Bavarian Stosch-Sarrasani would achieve fame primarily as a circus clown, debuting in 1892 as an unusual "animal clown" and gaining enough fame to be able to open his own Circus Sarrasani in 1902. The Circus Sarrasani toured Europe to acclaim from 1907-1911, Denmark during the war in 1915, and then South America from 1923-1925. By 1929 the Circus Sarrasani was the largest and most renowned circus in Europe. But the rise to power of the Nazi party in Germany would interrupt Stosch-Sarrasani's success, as he was opposed to their policies. In 1932 the Circus was damaged by a fire of mysterious origin in Antwerp. From 1934-1936 Stosch-Sarrasani toured South America, using the tour as cover by which to smuggle Jews out of South America. He was granted Brazilian citizenship in 1934 and died later that year.

Or so most history books record. But Stosch-Sarrasani was active in a field quite separate and different from that of clowns and the circus, a field which attracted much less attention but which did far more good. Beginning in 1890, Stosch-Sarrasani spent fully half his life fighting evil, both in Europe and in the Americas. Many of his most notable exploits took place on the American frontier, where he teamed up with Billy Jenkins, but in many other cases he worked by himself. He was a crack shot and able cowboy, skills he used for the betterment of others. When his circus moved into a new location, he would investigate the area, and if there were evils present there, he would destroy them. He was active fighting Apaches in America, criminals in tea-houses in Japan, murder in hunting parties in the Indian state of Baradhot, and evil Cossacks in the Caucasus. (Hans Stosch-Sarrasini #1-80, 1923-1924, and #1-100, 1925-1926).

But his work as an adventurer is relatively well-documented compared to his work as a kind of mentor to what might be called the "Celluloid Adventurers," for more on which see Note #7.

1890. The ghost of Medea da Carpi (see above, 1568-1582) returns to destroy an unwary student. (Vernon Lee’s “Amour Dure”).

Alraune 1891. The formation of the Pan-German League arouses German patriotism among both industrialists and academics. One of those, Dr. Ten Brinken, is insane and decides to create a superwoman to serve Germany and the Kaiser. Following the directions handed down from ancient times, he scrapes the ground beneath a freshly hanged man and uses the semen gathered thereby to impregnate a prostitute. The child, Alraune, grows up to be beautiful and superhumanly powerful, but also quite evil, and all who become involved with her as an adult, in the 1910s, come to a bad end. (Hans Heinz Ewer’s Geschichte eines lebenden Wesens, 1911).

Robert Easterley and Jack Wilbraham graduate from Oxford and go to Australia to become sheep and cattle farmers. While trekking across the Kimberleys, the plateau region of northern Western Australia, they discover the base of the aliens who have been abducting Welshmen (see 1886 above). The human-looking aliens are led by a particularly evil being who calls himself "Signor Davelli." Davelli claims that his race has been warring on God, who Davelli calls "the Infinite One," for centuries, and that Earth has been used as the location for the proxy war between Davelli's race and God. Davelli and the aliens on Earth have greatly advanced technology and superhuman abilities, including mind control, and intend to conquer the Earth and enslave humanity through their technology, including their bioengineered plagues, and their mind control. But when Davelli attempts to take control of Easterley's mind God intervenes and protects Easterley, and then another alien race, led by a creature calling himself "Leäfar," appears and destroys the alien base, driving Davelli and his followers away from Earth. (Robert Potter's The Germ Growers).

The attempt by "Davelli" and his followers to conquer the Earth is the first Martian invasion of the 1890s. Mars is of course a patchwork mosaic of aggressive, martial races, who war on each other as often as they war on non-Martians, and as our colleage Dr. Lofficier has pointed out, the involvement of Mars and Earth goes back centuries and is a complex one filled with war more often than peace. But not all of the Martian races are evil. Some, like the Sorns, are peaceful and well-inclined, and the action by "Leäfar" is one of the few recorded appearances on Earth by the Sorns. (C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet, 1938). The Sorns would take at least one further action against their Martian fellows, in 1898. (Moore & O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen v2, 2003). "Davelli" and his followers would make one more attempt to invade Earth later in the decade. (see 1897 below).

Mr. Nobody 1892-1922. A German reporter for a Berlin newspaper, working under the pseudonym of “Mr. Nobody,” begins tracking down international stories, no matter how fantastic they are. (Robert Kraft’s Nobody - 30 Jahre im Dienste einer Weltzeitung #1-17, 1922).

1892. A Bavarian inventor, Nicholaus Geibel, creates a mechanical man, Lieutenant Fritz, in an attempt to provide his daughter and her friends with the ideal dancing partner. The attempt is a horrible failure, and Lt. Fritz kills his partner. (Jerome K. Jerome’s “The Dancing Partner,” 1893).

1893-c.1910. Joseph Müller gains fame in Vienna, first as a policeman and then as a private detective. Although a “Great Detective Syndrome” sufferer, Müller displays a level of warmth and compassion that fellow GDS victims and even Sherlock Holmes himself never possessed, and is correspondingly beloved by the Viennese. (Auguste Gröner’s Joseph Müller stories, beginning with Die Goldene Kugel, 1893). There is no evidence that Müller and Dagobert Trostler ever met, either as adversaries or allies.

1893. Fridolf Hammar gains fame in Sweden as a detective. His home city is Stockholm, and he usually works there, assisted by police Commissioner S., but on occasion he is called upon to practice his skills in Norway or Finland or Denmark. He is one of many “Great Detective Syndrome” sufferers to appear during this decade. (“Prins Pierre”/Johan Frederik Lindholm’s Stockholmsdetektiven, 1893).

c. 1895-c. 1910. A German detective known only as Victor gains fame for his work solving crimes in Cologne. Like his fellow German Dagobert Trostler (see above) Victor is a “Great Detective Syndrome” sufferer, but there is no evidence that Victor and Trostler ever met each other or Sherlock Holmes himself. (Maximilian Böttcher’s Victor stories, beginning with “Der Detektiv,” 1899).

1895. The Baronesse von Brannburg opens a one-woman detective agency in Brandenburg and becomes famous around the country as "Wanda of Brannburg, Germany's Master Detective." Her career is intense, albeit not particularly long-lasting. She fights criminals throughout Germany, from Berlin to Hamburg (where  she overthrew the city's crimelord), and across Europe. In Budapest she uncovered the secret of the "vice caves." In Frankfurt she caught a serial killer, and in Munich she fought a group of corrupt Masons. (Wanda von Brannburg #1-22, 1907-1908).

1896. Two members of the French Foreign Legion discover a lost city, calling itself "Atlantis," ruled by the cruel Queen Antinéa. (Pierre Benoit's L'Atlantide, 1919). For more on Queen Antinéa, please consult Dr. Lofficier's dossier on her.

1897-c. 1910. Following the announcement of the discovery of gold in the Klondike, men and women from around the world flock to the region hoping to strike it rich. One of them is an Italian man, Joe Milton. He finds gold, but also finds adventure while helping other men and women to survive and prosper in the otherwise brutal area. (Joe Milton, Il Cercatore d'Oro del Klondike).

1897. Axel Johnson begins a successful career as a police officer in Denmark. Working out of Copenhagen, Johnson suffers from the “Great Detective Syndrome” but is otherwise independent and very competent. At different times during his career he is described as "A Danish Lecoq" and "A Danish Sherlock Holmes." (C. Andersen's En Dansk Lecoq, 1897, and Genoptrykt som En Dansk Sherlock Holmes, 1905).

Karl Monk begins a short, if successful, career as a detective in Norway. A former policeman and a “Great Detective Syndrome” sufferer, there is no evidence that Monk ever met Sherlock Holmes. ("Christian Sparre"/Fredrik Viller's Kaptein Monks oplevelser, 1897).

A balloon expedition racing to the North Pole discovers a Martian base on the North Pole and a Martian orbital station above the North Pole. The Martians have advanced technology and claim to be well-inclined toward humans and Earth, but their ultimate goal is the conquest of Earth. They are eventually defeated and driven off Earth. (Kurd Lasswitz's Auf Zwei Planeten, 1897) The Martians appear to be human, but no one who took part in the brief destruction of the Martian base was aware of Robert Easterley and Jack Wilbraham's 1891 adventure in Australia, or they would have recognized that these Martians were the same race as Signor Davelli's, and that this was a repeat attempt to conquer the Earth.

1898-1908. A “Great Detective Syndrome” sufferer takes the name of "Sherlock Ol-mes" and begins working as a consulting detective in Madrid. His cases often take him to America. (The "Sherlock Ol-mes" stories).

1898. One of the most notorious of all mad surgeons, Doctor Armand Caresco, begins work in France, using living humans as subjects for his vivisection experiments. (André Couvreur's Le Mal Nécessaire, 1899). (see also 1904).

The second defeat of an invasion from Mars, and the humans' destruction of the Martian space station, brought about an immediate, full-scale attack from Mars to Earth. This invasion was also a failure. (H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, 1898).

1899. Count Leo V. Hagen, a German-American, reports on his adventures around the world for a German newspaper. (Robert Kraft's Aus allen Welttheilen #1-5, 1899).

An unfortunate, if not particularly well-inclined, Swedish peasant woman discovers that the grave of King Atle is neither quiet nor kind to the cruel. (Selma Lagerlöf's “The King’s Grave,” 1899).

Newton Moore 1900. Newton Moore is a clever, resourceful and tough agent of the “Secret Service Fund,” which works out of the British War Office. Moore is one of the Fund's best agents and is assigned by his superior Sir George Morley to handle the hardest and hottest cases. Moore has a number of friends, contacts, and informants in a wide range of professions, and he uses them to help him solve the cases. His cases take him around the world, from Russia, Scotland and Germany to the countries of “Contigua” and “Marenna.” Moore’s enemies are those of the Empire itself: Russia and Germany, both of which scheme against Great Britain and employ spies against it. The head of Germany’s intelligence department is Emile Nobel, the “great, gross German” who is the “chief rascal in the Rogues' Gallery of Europe.” Nobel is a deaf, squat, toad-like man who is a brilliant chemist and is responsible for many murders, “all strictly in the way of business.” Nobel succeeds in stealing the plans to a recoilless, frictionless rifle that propels bullets by means of “liquid air” and has a magazine of 400 projectiles. Moore, showing ingenuity and physical stamina, succeeds in taking the rifle and the plans away from Nobel, although Nobel manages to escape capture. (Fred M. White's Newton Moore stories, beginning with “By Woman’s Wit,” July 1900).

There is little historical evidence about the existence of a "Secret Service Fund," even as a minor subset of MI-6. It is more likely that the "Secret Service Fund" was a front so that Moore, if captured, could not betray anything of importance, and that Sir George Morley worked for the Diogenes Club.

Timeline: To 1800.
Timeline: 1801-1859.
Timeline: 1901-1910.
Timeline: 1911-1920.
Timeline: 1921-1930.
Timeline: 1931-1945.
Notes.
Some Unknown Members of the Wold Newton Family Tree.