The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-04-22
The story of Il Spy.


 saken, after ten days illness. His name will be familiar to every newspa- per reader in Europe as the author of the famous compilation of secret docu- ments in reference to Russian plots in | Bulgaria, and as for a time the right | hand man of Stambuloff, and the as- sistant and confidant of M. HitroVo, | the Russian agent at Bucharest. His origin was of the obscurest. Accord ing to the Russians, his name was Noises Abramovitch, and his family IS still to be found among the Jews Of southern Russia. But when he first obtained employment as clerk in the Russian consulate in Sofia, under Con- l sul- General Hitrovo, he called himself Michael Ivanovitch Jacobson, and, It IS believed, was a convert to the Ortho- dox faith. He very soon acquired such an intimate knowledge of men and things in Bulgaria that M. Hitrovo, who knew well how to choose his ln- struments, by degrees took him into his confidence, and made his reports and observations the basis of his own communications to the Asatic depart ment in St. Petersburg. Jacobson was so versatile, so modest, and, at the same time, so honest in money matters, that when M Hitrovo had to leave Bulgaria, and was promoted to the rank of minister in Bucharest. While the center of the Russian agitation was transferred to Rustchuk, the services there of a man like Jacobson were con- sidered indispensable, and he was ac- cordingly appointed to the official post of Dragoman to the Rustchuk consul late. He was privy, from distance, to the Grueff- Bendereff plot to kidnap Prince Alexander, and continued his services till after the failure of General Kaulbar's mission
 On the withdrawal of all the Russian consulates from Bulgaria, he was peti- toned for by his former chief, M, Hi | trovo, and made Dragoman of the le- gation in Bucharest. Here he was re- quired to act as a secret intermediary between the Bulgarian refugees in Ru- mania and Russia and their fellow conspirators at home, and to distribute subsidies among them It has been proved beyond all question that he helped to organize the plots against the life of NJ. Stambuloff, and later against Prince Ferdinand, and assisted in the smuggling of arms and ammuni- ton. including dynamite, into Bulga-
 ria. In a word, he took upon himself the dirtiest work of the Russian propa-
 ganda, the funds for which were placed
 at the disposal of M. Hitrovo. and so
 useful were his services considered
 that the Asiatic department, as well as
 the Slavonic Benevolent society, en-
 tered into direct correspondence with
 him.
 He was at one time within an ace of
 receiving Russian honors and distinc-
 tions, the appointment to a representa-
 tive post in the east having distinctly
 been promised to him. But, unfortu-
 nately for his prospects, he quarrelled
 with M. Hitrovo over the subsidies tc
 the refugees and the money sent from
 St. Petersburg, of which, he asserted, 2
 considerable portion found it's way into , his chiefs pockets, while he himself
 was expected to render detailed ac
 count. The quarrel lasted long enougf
 to give him time to prepare for his ul
 innate dismissal. His preparations consisted in taking copies of document ,, in the archives of the legation--in som cases only nasty copies, which ac : counted for the errors in dates ant
 names that were afterwards single' out in a Russian reply to his book Z But if not all, at least ninety per cent | of the two hundred and thirty docu ments he subsequently, published wer | | tolI a talp If RnS sian methods of agitation at that tim which deservedly brought that poWe
 into contempt.
 With number of original docu
 ments, which he purloined, and wit
 copies of the rest, Jacobson left Ruma
 mia for London, where he made offer s to a publisher that were declined n Thence he went to Vienna and Be s grade, and finally to Sofia, where, in
 Stambuloff, he found the man Wh 0 could appreciate him and his mant 2 scripts at their true value The fir k six of his papers were published by IT e Syoboda, and made sensatio n throughout Europe before the remali
 der were put together in book for' n and published in Bulgarian ar if French He was promised ten tho' ,t sand francs by the editor of the Svoo' t da-that is to say, by Stambuloff-b' m actually never received more Una
 about three thousand francs, beif ", compensated with small post una ", the Bulgarian government. Ills re II position however, was that or go ;, ernment spy, whose duty it was to i'll , out and give warning of plots; and n ,t only did he more than once save U
 lives of Prince Ferdinand and Stambuloff, but he even enabled | , latter to warn the King of SerVla. ly deed, thanks to his vigilance al y acuteness, the secret police of Bulgar | was at that time the best in Europe, 'v NJ. Stambuloff fell, and with him c parted the glory of Jacobson.
 stayed in Bulgaria too long, and wh he he fled to Belgrade he was arrested IT, the demand of the Russian mlnlst l but released after the papers in r. possession had been taken from h ed and sent to St. Petersburg. About " fortnight ago he arrived in Budape
 i'll and destitute, recognized only ou one former acquaintance,a writer D. Balkan affairs, to whom, it is said, Tt confided the rest of his documents a e? his will He died of phthlsis, IT. 1t. which he had been suffering for so es- time. Prince Ferdinand in Constan
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