Evening journal., 1900-03-08
FHANco.6E EMAN sPIEs.
How Two Jealous and wstchfuI Ma.
tions Conduct Their Secret Service.
(Berlln Correspondence.


TEN. The French spy reaches Ger
many and stops In the large town
nearest to his field OF operations.
There his first care is TO consult the
/ doctors as to a good air cure, or a
bath, or springs. Suppose his business
Is TO report on the roads. bridges and
resources of mountainous district
/ He Will need the air cure. Eliminat-
Ing one by one the uninteresting dis
trlcts, he at last causes his physician
20 indicate the spot that he has
chosen. The good physician, always
anxious for his commission, gladly
recommends him to a proper pension.
There, wandering about the hills, his
story is: Il came to Y In search
OF tranquil mountain village Cor the
air cure. DR.. y recommended me
to come here. II the climate suits me
/ shall stay a month"
Certainly the first quality Of good
spy Is that OF knowing how to see
and then remember. A crooked line
and a few words traced hastily on q
cigarette paper must recall the out
lines OF an earthworks Hills, foot
paths, springs, rich-looking farm
houses, bridges. must be seen at
| glance and indicated on a little piece
Of fiimsy paper. He must indicate the
crops OF the neighborhood the char.
ncteristics OF small villages, the lodg.
/ ing capacity Of churches and other
public buildings, the number Of bak.
ers, butchers and grain dealers, the
situation OF blacksmith shops and the
condition OF roads. II is easy to under.
stand. for example. the interest at
taching TO a bridge. The enemy, In
/ t.At 80 -. I.
It up. The spy must indicate how
long Il would take to repair It.
His day finished. the spy must Sc
cretly. In his bedroom. write his re-
port and post IT, II he imaglnes he
"a followed or suspected. he must stop
work instantly. and even leave the
country. In such case he returns to
Paris, where he finds at the Etat Ma
ior. carefully gathered together, all
the letters he has addressed to his
fictitious correspondents. Aided by
maps aud the work Of his predecessors
in the field II Is his business to com
pose an upto-date report on the region
he has visited. Each little counts.
Each month the Minister Of War Is
Just little better informed on details
that-when the great scientific Euro
pean war breaks out-may win or lose
a battle a campaign. a peoples des-
tiny.
Such work may seem easier than
Il Is in fact. Along the country roads
alone. with not man in sight the
fear OF being watched makes the most
innocent note-tnkng courageous ex-
plot. Not to speak OF country police
gamekeepers. foresters and patrol
whose chance appearance may cause
him to destroy a mornings work
each simple passer-by becomes an OBJ
ject Of suspicion. The surveillance
around all fortified places is so severe
as to tender going near them real
peril Men have Deen shot inside for
hidden grounds at dusk without an
opportunity TO say what they were
doing.
No legend is more popular In En-
rope than that Of the aristocratic
German or French officer who. In dis
guise. obtains work as a mason or
carpenter inside the fort he wishes to
observe. Yet few think of the practi-
cal impossibility OF such feat. How
shall such men know the trades, the
slang, the social customs and preju.
dices Of foreign artisans? How can
they talk of their relatives, their home
1
last? Most OF this talk is romance
pure and simple.
Nevertheless, / have heard OF two
instances OF foreign officers pentrat.
ing fortified places In disguise. One
was a Prussian lieutenant operating
in Poland, where he pretended to be
a hydraulic engineer in search OF en-
ployment. He had been instructed to
report upon a line of railway project
ed at a certain point in Poland. En-
route, perceiving that he was watched
he jumped from the train and made
on for a woods that lay at a short dis
tance; but he was soon caught by the
pursuers. OF course, he had a story
ready for the Russian police. He was
buying wood and wished to inspect
the forests OF the neighborhood. On
this they answered that there we're
no forests IN the nelghborhood, and
he must accompany them to the police
station OF the nearst town. To this
he objected, protesting that he had
been informed of a vast amount Of
timber cut and stored near there. The
Russian police admitted that such was
the case-much to his satisfaction
but insisted on arresting him in spite
Of 1t. They rushed him of; but soon
at crossing the Russians stopped TO
hold a consultation. Then-lucky
chance-they changed direction and
walked to a fort he had not dreamed
of being able to get into. It was luck,
pure luck.
The other case was told to me by
a French army doctor. Il have Just
held the hand of a brave dying man."
he said. He had crawled across the
frontier with great dificulty, being in
the last stages of disease and starva-
tion. When found he could scarcely
make himself understood, but the
night before he died he managed to
tell us this much. He, an ofioer OF
the French army, had disguised him
self as an Alsatian peasant and sought
work in the neighhernood Of the new
German works that threatened the en-
trance to the Moselie Valley. He spoke
German perfectly. aad, as an Aisatian
from beyond Belfort, he was not near
enough to his pretended home for ip-
Quiry. He had to make himself ragged
and dirty. He lived in a peasants hut,
and, after several months. got himself
employed to carry wood into the fort
ress. Little by little he paced dis