PROLOGUE<br >In x844 Sigmund Herzog tried tu persuade his father to enroll in tile<br >project that was to take emigrants from Germany and settle them in<br >the Republic of Texas. Herr Herzog had no wish to Icave Frankfurt，<br >where even a ]ew， if he was a clothing manufacturer like Herzog，<br >could live in comfort， relatively free from harassment， for the un-<br >known hazards of a strange land. When the Texas project collapsed，<br >leaving hundreds of refugees stranded， he trusted that he had heard<br >the last of this nonsense of Sigmund s.<br > He had not， although it was five years before the subject came up<br >again. Sigmund， with typical tenacity， renounced many of tile pleas-<br >ures of youth in order to save file money he made working for his fa-<br >tber. In 1848， when he was twenty-two years old， he said good-by to<br >his family and set sail for America.<br > Sigmund spoke no English. After paying for his passage， he had<br >little money left. If he had dreamed of prospecting for gold in the<br >pavements of the New World， he was disappointed. Many like him<br >gave up and went home， but even if Sigmund could have hought his<br >passage back he would not have gone. He was too stubborn.<br > He was also handsome and， even as a young man， compelling. All<br >the Herzogs had finely etched， imperious faces， with brilliant， large<br >eyes of blue， gray， or green， and， with few exceptions， great personal<br >magnetism. They tended to be clever as well. Within several<br >months， Sigmund had put aside sufficient money from various me-<br >nial jobs to equip a pushcart and had picked up enough of tile lan-<br >guage to convince prospective customers of the superiority of his<br >merchandise. He began by selling cheap household items to the poor<br >in the streets of New York， but before long he was able to upgrade<br >his stock and take it into the homes of middle-class women， who<br >found him as attractive as tlrey did his prices and what he had to<br >sell.<br > Eight years after he landed in America， Sigmund opened a<br >