Barbour County index., 1886-06-11
AN EXILE'S FATE,
Robbed OF All His Savings and
Cast Into g Dungeon.
An Instance of the Severity cf the E1pIt.
sion of Poles From Germanx-An Un-
natural Wife and Cruel Chill
dren-A Mayors Pcrndj.
berlin Cablegrarn !


Poland continues and is attended in some
eases with barbarous severity. One case
which has just been reported from Poseu,
but has been suppteSsed by every Berlin.
paper, is as follows: ga Pole named jacob
Hagemeister, aged sixty-Rve years, had
resided in suburb ;ef Posen for more
than forty years. He had 4 ,6erman
wife, and. had raised family of five sons
and one daughter. The eldest of these is
a man now about thirty five years old,
and of course he and all the rest Of the
children are Germans. The father had es.
tallshed himself as jeweler and money
loaner in the suburbs in which he lived,
and had accumulated respectable for
tune for man of his class. He Eas sofrie.
what unpopular among his neighbors on
on account of usurious practices in his ca.
pacity of moneylender. When the de-
cree of expulsion came it was seen
that it applied only to the father
of the family, the mother and chill
dren being exempt in conse-
quence of their German birth. The father
called his family about him ard intited
them to join him in his enforced journey
to Russia, where he intended to establish
himself in business. They had evidently
been considering the question ard tiiey
unanimously refused to go. Jacob then
declared that he would withdraw his en-
tire capital from the business in order to
give him start in his new life. Mrs.
HaGemeister and the elder boys at .epce
declared that the property belonged to
them as much to hiin, because it had
been earned by their joint efforts, and
that he should be satisfied with an equal
share with the rest. After much alterca-
tion it was decided that one-half of the
property should he given to the father. He
took his share principally in diauicndS
and few hundred marks that he had in
bank. He started for Russia, comfortably
dressed as com mercial traveller and with
his treasures in u money-belt around
his waist. AT the first stopping place on
the Russian side of the frontier he slept at
an obscure inn and was robbed during tho
night of all his valuables, inciudiniS his
hat and clothing, for which were sub
stituted the garments of Il tramp. All his
efforts to discover the thief were in ra,u,
and he became satisfied that the landlord
was in league with the scoundrel.
Hagemcister made his way back or foot
TO the frontier, which he was not allowed to
pass because he was a Pole. Finally, how
ever, the young officer in command of tho
guard allowed him to escape on the Prus-
sian side. He continued his way on fIut
to Posen, whore he expected to find vel!
come and sympathy from his family. To
his surprise and horror they absolutely re-
fused to recognize him. He begged
them to make another division
OF his own property, but they only
laughed at him as an irupostcr and
treated him as a tramp. Overwhelmed
by grief, the old man fell senseless To tho
floor. A stretchcr was sent for and he was
taken to common hospital When he re-
covered the police examined him ant, made
pretended investigation. They merely
asked the eldest son, who told them that
the prisoner was tramp who had an in
sane deluson that he was Jacob Hage-
meister. The police therefore turned him
loose. He appealed to the may or, who
knew him well and had often borrowed
money from him. bu, the mayor would not
believe his story, saying that if his own
family did not recognize him he coull not
be expected to do so. He was thrown bv
force out of the mayors Office and stood
for few minutes tearing his hair and call
ing down the ven geance of Heaven upon
the authors of bis misfortunes. His actions
soon collected a crowd, and when he
started to trudge back TO Russia the mol,
followed bin, pelt:ng him with mud,
stones, and sticks, and crying out that ho
was one Of the Polish Jews who murdered
young girls for their sacrifices. Hage-
mcister tramped all the way back to the
frontier, and there fresh trouble awaited
him. different officer was on guard,
and he arrested Hagcmeister OF tfie setT-
Gus charge of returning to Germany after
being expelled to Russia. He was loaded
with chains and cast into a dungeon occu-
pied 10y the filest malefactors, where. he
is now vainly trying to get an appea' for
mercy to the new Governor of the prov
ince. The young Lieutenant who allowed
him to slip through the lines is under ar
rest pending court-martial, and will
doubtless be cashered