Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-09-22
Europe's Secret Police, Who Protect
Rulers and Princes.
MUST BE- EVER ON TIE ALERT
Royalty Under Surveillance Even
When on Pleasure Bent.
FOR FEAR OF ANARCHISTS
special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

more dleTt, INDUSTRIOUS ana lHOTouSH III
their designs of protection for those whose
lives they guard than ever before. In
America. where one or two detectives. who
are so obviously detective that nobody is
ever deceived by them, are considered am
ply sufficient to take care of President or
a nations guest even in time Of great pub
lie celebration, 1t is difficult to realize what
intricate, invisible and ingenious barriers
are forever set between the potentates of
Europe and the skulking and dangerous ia
natics who are well content to die II they
can first destroy some ruler. No better au-
thority upon the methods of the anarchists
and the preventives against them lives than
Mons. Lepine, the Paris project of police.
He has made minute study Of all recorded
assassinations and attempts upon the lives
Of chiefs of states and has reduced to
fine art the protection of the French presi-
dent and ministers and the royal visitors
whom Paris constantly attracts. Besides.
he is continually in touch with the chiefs of
police Of the whole civilized world, receiving
and communicating for the common good
information as to methods Of detection and
prevention From the information supplied
by him this article is made up.
The anarchists task is not an easy one.
Though the criminals succeed every now
and then in writing a bloody page of his
y,
would-be assassins have prowled the streets
night and day, tracking their intended vic
tins like bloodhounds, always in hope Of
chance which never offered.
On Guard at Royal Palaces.
Every royal palace in Europe has its
special private police, who, in one guise
or another, are always on the lookout for
suspicious persons. In the case of palaces
in the center CT big cities these officers
are very numerous, and are disguised in
countless ingenious ways. At the gates
there are, of course, uniformed policemen
and military guards, who make attempt
to conceal their function. But these are
not intended for use half so much as for
ornament. Hundreds of people go every
day in and out of the gates on all sorts of
business. The police or military guards are
not the judges of the honesty of such visit
ors.
1t is when the stranger has passed the
gates that the real surveillance begins. In
Paris, Berlin and St. Petersburg, for ex-
ample, among the g;ite-keepers of the rul-
ers palace there are expert detectives, and
on a sign from these one two members
of the secret police move up quietly to
keep watch on the newcomer They study
his appearance very carefully, seeking to
judge whether he his any Ill intent. The
attitude of these men or women for both
are employed) is quite unaffected, and ex-
cept to the trained eye gives no Indication
where to make the, PRECAUTIONS taken for
the safety of high Percentages as unobtru-
slve as possible Often the palace detec-
tives are at the same time acting as gar
deners or hostlcrs, stable boys or scullery
women. But somewhere about each Of them
Is loaded revolver and they are always
ready for any desperate scuff1e should the
person they are tracking show decided in
dicationS of homcidal purpose
1t is said that in the gardens of the Ger
man emperor not less than dozen intend
ing murderers were arrested during the last
year on the unerring suspicion Of the Sc
cret police agent. And since the opening
of the Paris exposition about ten anarchists
who followed President Loubet's party dur
Ing the visits were arrested within the fair
grounds Nothing except their appearance
and manners revealed their murderous in
tentions; nevertheless, weapons were found
on all of them, and later they all made
boastfng confessions. Two of the wfould-be
assassins were young women carrying dead
ly bombs
1t is one Of the elementary principles OF
the secret police tactics that should the
royal parsonage whose security Is concerned
chance to appear Unexpectedly on the scene
while an unknown character is about in
the palace precincts, the protecting agents
at once march the stranger off in another
direction till the parsonage is we'll out OF
the way. ..
Protecting Royalty.
1t very seldom happens. almost never, in
three steps alone outside his private apart
ments. even when doing the sights incog-
nito Whether or not he or she knows 1t
at the moment there are always at least
two members of the secret police in close
though unseen attendance on foot, in a cab
bicycles. They never leave their
charge long out Of reach. Even at Sand
bingham, the quiet little country place of
the Prince and Princess of Wales, if the
princess goes out into field to pick wild
flowers or rambles round the home farm
to how the Attorneys are getting on,
she is always closely tracked by the police
More often than not she probably believes
herself quite unattended except for the
maid of honor, who goes with her for COM
pany. She does not know that the two men
dressed like farm hands or stable boys
whom she sees now and then a little way
off, are first-class detectives armed and
ready to shield her from any harm that
might threaten.
Mons Lepine was told the other day
by one of the German police agents, now
In Paris, that Emperor William not long
ago ordered the dismissal of a gamekeeper
whom he described having impertinently
followed him without orders in the park of
Potsdam. His adjutant communicated the
imperial order to the major, who, of course
professed to accept 1t without question. But
the impertinent gamekeeper was in reality
the most trusted secret service man In the
corps Of the palace police. His only fault
hal been that, owing to the revival of an
archist attempts, he had been afraid to al
low his imperial charge even for one mo-
ment out of his sight.
When on Pleasure Bent.
Young princes and even middle-aged
kings sometimes amuse themselves incog-
nito In rather undignified ways, throwing
off all the outward pomp of their position
and passing as ordinary pleasure-loving
citizens. In this case the absence of all
signs of royalty would seem to insure their
perfect safety. But the police know very
we'll that that very feeling of security
might prove the source Of their greatest
danger. Any anarchist might get to know
of the royal weakness and arrange his
plans accordingly. So 1t is just in those
cases that the surveillance is most elab-
orately careful. The chief of the private
agents installed permanently in the palace
tells two or three of the men most con-
versant with all the pitfalls Of the city to
follow the royal parsonage wherever he
may go. AS he walks down the street in
unassuming garb, feeling free, unobserved
and happy, protectors IN various disguises
are all about him, aIertly watching over his
safety. If he enters a cafe and sits at a
little table to see life, the distinguished
looking man who orders a drink at the
next little table is policeman, and the
street vender who stands monotonously
crying an album of views a new toy on
the curbstone has an eye on his highness