The evening times., 1898-10-17
THRIFT GOT HER into JAIL
Mrs. Lizzie COhn. of New York.
in a Berlin Prison.
HAD SIX THOUSAND MARKS
Worked Seven Years to Earn II,
Only to Have an Migrate Whom
She Kindly Aided Cause Her In
cnrceration and Separation From
Her Husband and Babe,

New York. Oct. lin dingy prison IN
Berlin, bound up by red tape and Prussian
spite, Mrs. Elizabeth Cohn, OF New York
is confined. 1t is now three weeks since
Mrs. Cohn was thrust into prison. charged
with fraud, and in spite OF what has been
done by the State Department, it may be
many more dreary weeks before she is
freed
Seldom has an American been subject
ed 10 such danger and humilia ton in a
foreign capital as has the young and
pretty wife of DR.. William Cohn, of No
$50 Union Avenue, New York
DR.. Cohn's friends in Berlin have cheer
fully offered bail TO the amount of 50, 600
marks for the release of the young wo-
man, and her husband stands ready 10
pledge his fortune, but the Prussian au-
thorities turn u deaf ear 10 all his plead
ings.
The direct cause of Mr.. Cohn's plight is
the alleged thirst for revenge of one
Adolph Petrich. a citizen of Berlin. Mrs.
Cohn is the daughter of August Benjamin,
and was born in New York twenty-five
years ago. She was graduated from the
normal school with honors and her fam
lily not being wealthy she started out to
earn living for herself
She secured employment as stenog-
rapher with the firm of Mason & Co.. No.
IL Beekman Street, for whom she worked
several years.
BY economy and close application to her
duties, in a few years her bank book
showed that she had some S5 600 deposited
to her credit in the German Savings Bank
She then gave up her position with the
Nasons.
About five years ago she purchased a
liquor store at No. 572 Second Avenue
and placed her father in charge. In 1896
she sold the liquor store to r. Cohn, who
had just come over from Germany and
| who subsequently became her father-in-
| law. In payment she accepted a note for
| 5000 marks, which had been given to Cohn
by Petrich in Germany, who was, besides
| COINS best friend, the mayor of the city
| of Sempleburg, Prussia.
Petrfch was afterward removed from
| office for an offense that scandalized his
| constituents and broke up the home of
| one OF his friends. The note was given to
| Cohn for cash borrowed from the latter.
Petrich never paid the note, and Miss
| Benjamin brought suit through the KAN
mergericht, one of the hign courts of
| Berlin. w nlic the case was D6l0S IrIeu
she became the wife of DR.. Cohn, who
had just obtained his diploma from the
! University of New York. They lived
| happily at No. 232 East Thirtieth Street,
| and their happiness was greatly enhanc-
| ed when a little girl baby was added to
| the family.
| At the same time news came from Ber-
| lin that Mrs. Cohn had won her suit
| against Petrich who had been compelled
| to deposit with the court the amount IF
| judgment, 6,000 marks.
| The Coins moved to a pretty house at
! No. 600 Union Avenue, but the money
| from the courts of Berlin never came.
| Annoyed by the delay, Mrs. Cohn left for
| Berlin last September, where she stated
! her claims to the court. The aug,lst bar
| risters of Berlin looked extremely wise
and finally decided that no woman twen-
ty-five years old could possibly own at
any time 5000 marks worth of property
in her own right.
Not owning the property, she could not
legally sell it. Not being able to leg-,lly
sell so much property, she must have
practised fraud upon poor Petrich though
another Berlin court had decided the case
in her favor, and held Petrich's 6.Ai
| marks.
One day, three weeks ago, as Mrs. Cohn
was about to leave the court room, she
was arrested and cast into prison, charg-
ed with fraud Her husbands relatives
in Berlin, who are wealthy, offered to put
UP so, 900 marks bail, but their petitions
were denied.
Secretary of State Palmer was appealed
to- He forwarded letters from Mason &
Co.. and sent personal letter to Ambas-
sador White, asking him to do what ne
could for Mrs. Cohn, but the embassy
was powerless before the Prussian law
Edward Lauterbach and other prominent
persons interested themselves in the wo-
mans behalf, but the court was firm.
A tiny one-year-old, blue-eyed baby
badly in need of a mothers care, keeps
the unfortunate father company while
her mother counts the days in the Moabi1
jail in Berlin.