Evening star., 1900-08-10
A MAN WITH A BOMB
AN ITALIAN INVENTOR WANTED TO
SEE THE PRESIDENT.
Ushers Were Startled at His Heavy
Satehel and q Mysterious
Brass PrOjectile.

A swarthy, short man, who couldn
speak word Of English, reached the White
House this morning about 1880 O clock. Just
a few PAGES behind him was negro man.
carrying satchel that appeared to be very
heavy. Both entered the front door, and
the dark-skinned man presented slip OF
paper on which was written in English:
Prof. Figuccia presents this projectile to
the President of the United States.'' Pro-
jectiles are bad things to have around the
White House, especially where they are
stored away in a satchel and accompanied
by a suspicious-looking man. All this and
much more quickly passed through the
mind of Robert Mitchell, the usher. who
had been handed the note. Star repor-
ter was also present. Both began an effort
to ascertain the desires of the stranger,
who had ordered the satchel placed on the
floor. In the meantime the negro man had
received fee of 10 cents and started to
move away
Wait there he was told. Where did
you run across this MANI?
'Ober dair by dat big building. He sayed
he'd glib me 10 cents.
We'll, how do you know but this thing
contains bomb that you have brought
along? By this time the dull intellect
of the negro began to awaken to the pos
sibilties. and his eyes grew as big ap-
pies. He moved away from the heavy
satchel and went to the front porch:
You stay right there TIL l come back,
he was told. but few minutes later he
was seen walking hurriedly out of the
grounds, apparently much frightened.
A Brass Projectile.
The Italian. for such it was soon seen was
his nationality. was making all kinds of
efforts to say something or to explain him
self. He had book full of papers and
showed some of these, nearly all in Italian.
One of them was an envelope bearing the
imprint of the War Department 1t was
addressed to Prof. Figuccia at Felucca,
Italy.
Usher Mitchell told the Italian to open
the satchel. He took out an immensely
heavy brass projectile and began to num-
BILE over it. At the extreme end of the
nose of the heavy projectile was a small
hole. The Italian pulled out of the satchel
small, long wire with peculiar appear
ance. BY signs he explained that all the
projectile needed to cause its explosion was
to push it down the hole. ''Zp-boom'
would be the result, he explained, with an
upward throw of the hands and a shrug of
the shoulders. Mr.. Mitchell almost felt him
se,f going up into the air in small pieces
at that. Yes the latter uttered in strong
English. and he reached for that wire like
left fielder taking in dangerous fly that
would have turned out home run had it
not been caught. He didn't let the Italian
have the thing back. either, until the man
had been told to go and had carefully pack
ed his brass mystery away.
Chief Usher Dubois Joined in the EFFORT to
extract some Information from Prof. FL
guccia, but he was more successful than
any one else.
Sent to the Italian Embassy.
1t was finally concluded that Figuccia
was an Italian inventor who had just come
over from Italy in the hope of getting
recognition from this country for some in
vention and desired to have the President
see for himself what It was. 1t was thought
best not to detain him hold his pet al
though it was for presentation to the Pres
ident. The Italian was given a card con-
tanning the address of the Italian embassy
and departed for that. His satchel was SO
heavy that he had to stop every few min
uteS for a rest.
Figuccia had the appearance of an educat-
ed man, but one deeply interested in some
project. The most suspicious thing about
the whole matter was that he went to the
White House unaccomDanied by any one
who could make his mission known.
The facts We're given to the secret service
later, and 1t is probable that the exact In
tentions of Figuccia will be ascertained.