"The Explorers"; published by M. Witmark & Sons (1901) – Romantic and comical opera in two acts. Gustav Luders was originally contracted to compose the music to Taylor’s libretto but fell behind schedule due to an extensive honeymoon with his wife in Europe. Walter Lewis replaced Luders, and the opera opened June 30 at the Dearborn Theatre in Chicago on one of the hottest nights of the summer season – the inside temperatures were reported at being 100 degrees. The plot of the musical comedy concerns the misadventures of a German polar explorer, Professor S. Max Nix. The opera is in three parts; the first of which opens in Madagascar where Burdock Root, supplier of peroxide, meets explorer Max Nix. The latter descends in a balloon and explains that he's on his way from the South Pole to the U.S., where he intends to lecture about it. Nix falls in love with a portrait of circus performer, Maizie Fields of Iowa, shown to him by Root. The act ends with Nix ascending back into his balloon in pursuit of her. The second act opens in a hotel in Chicago. Burdock Root is in financial distress and passes himself off as Max Nix, who is not exposed until the third act set in Chicago's Lincoln Park during winter when the irate Nix unmasks Root. When the opera went on the road to other parts of the country (Boston, New York) there were some changes in names, plot, and location. For example, the last scene takes place on circus grounds instead of Lincoln Park.