Omaha daily bee., 1906-07-30
CUPID'S PRANKS LEADTOJAIL
Lovers Are Imprisoned for Operating Pri-
vats telegraph Line
PRESIDENT PALMA FINALLY RELtNTs
Arrest is Made Under order Issued by
General wood when Isle of Pines
Was Under Military Rule
of Americans.
CFrom a stan Correspondent

Brown OF Spencer, Ia, from the vile prison I
on the Isle Of Pines, comes In the nick Of
time, the State department having decided |
to protest vigorously against her further
imprisonment and that Of her iance, Lewis !
Gltner, and an American lawyer by the
name of Armstrong These three Amer
leans, now residing on the Ise Of Pines,
were incarcera ted in the same prison in
which Sonora Cisneros was confined for
awhile before she was taken to Havana
and from which she was rescued by an
American newspa per man, formerly Wash
ington correspondent of the New York
Journal, Carl Deckar.
An American from the Isle OF Pines, now
i'm Washington, describes Mile Brown as
a pretty tow-headed girl in love with
Lewis Giltner, who is Cornell man and
civil en- yineer practicing his profession
on the island Miss Brown and Mr. Giltner
saw a great deal Of each other and. hav-
ing mutual likes and dislikes. drifted to-
gether and eventually were affanced. But
as Giltner had to make a show Of attend
ing to his duties as secretary of the Colum-
bia Land company. Of which his sweet
hearts father was for a long time president
and Is at present large stockholder, the
| young people took up the study OF tele-
! sraphy and made such rapid progress that
| they could carry on conversation in
| month by means Of finger taps on the
/ backs Of their chairs as they sat on the
veranda of the Brown home in the trooi-
! cal evenings along with the rest Of the
/ family
violation of Military Order.
Finally Giltner conceived the idea Of
erecting a telegraph line from his home to
his sweetheart's and as the distance was
less than third of a mile the work was
I
received the wire from Havana. The in
struments, however, had licked but few
tender messages when the alcalde, the
governor of the island is termed. sent an
! officer to Giltner's home and had the young
man arrested. Miss Brown being taken in
! custody later in the day. The crime
alleged was the violation of the military
order issued by Major General Wood, when
governor OF Cuba, forbidding the erection
Of telephone or telegraph line without the
consent of the proper authorities.
In vain the Americans on the island pro-
tested that the order was not in force at
| this time when Cuba is an independent re-
public and no longer under the military
rule of the Americans The Cuban author
tiles were deaf to explanations and when
the case was brought to trial the Cuban
trial judge imposed fine Of 500 upon each
OF the offenders and sentenced them to a
] term in jail aud in addition. they were
ordered TO pay a fine of $e5 for every day
| the telegraph line remained up. Indigna-
ton followed the arrest of Mr.. Giltner and
Miss Brown and Immediately protests were
fled at the State department The Amer
leans on the Isle OF Pines, who purchased
land there on the opinion rendered by the
then assistant secretary of war. George D.
Meklejohn Of Nebraska that the Isle of
Pines was American territory. still cling
to that belief It will be recalled that
Secretary Root later delivered an opinion
diametricallv opposite to the Meiklejohn
ukase that the Isle Of Pines belonged TO
Cuba and had treaty prepared to that
effect. which is still pending in the senate.
However so great was the indignation
and so open and severe the criticism of
the authorities that President Palma finally
saw the business OF Giltner's contention
that he had no knowledge Of the law nor
was any commercial business intended TO
be transacted over the line which he
erected that he issued a pardon to the
persons imprisoned for sentimental no.
tion.
POEtOHice Inspectors Work.
Some Incidents in the Life of a Post
office Inspector" is the title of a series of
articles designed for newspaper circulation
that is being issued from the office Of the
. postmaster general. Gaboriou, Vidocd and
Sherlock Holmes promise to be relegated
to the ranks of the hayseeds Judging
from the first two of the articles which
are written presumably for the purpose of
/ | boosting" the postofice inspection d-
vision, The first OF these thrilling tales
Of the life Of an inspector under the Roose-
Welt administration contains a story of
how carrier on rural route in one of
: the southern states was apprehended. A
test letter contained marked bills was reg
istered at b -, Alabama, addressed 10
NJ -, a discontinued office located on one
OF the routes from p -, the ONCE fror,
which the complaints emanated The risl,
of inclosing money in test letters is fire.
, quently taken by postofice inspectors but
the chance of disposing of Il in this mar
/ ticular case was small. The following day
the postmaster at - advised the most
master at - that the registered letter
addressed 10 NJ - had been erronaousIv
sent and requested its return This was
done I'm order to give the postal authori-
ties an opportunity to find out n the let.
ter had been rifed. After requesting the
recall OF the letter the inspectors visited a
little village called n -- which is supnIjaa
with mail by one of the rural carriers rom
p -. The postmaster at - was an
honest old country man and agreed TO as.
sist in the detection OF the guilty marty
: An ordinary letter mailed with him ad
4 dressed to a firm in Chicago in which were
inelosed two 81 bills two silver dollars and
- a 5O-cent piece. all bearing private marks
In payment for pistol. An examinatior
OF this letter after IL passed through tbs
? p - once revealed the fact that II had
: been tampered with. The paper money and
the 5o-cent piece were still in the letter
but a 81 hill had been substituted for m,
- silver dollars, and the original letter bae
: been replaced by one advising the an.
{ closure OF $3.50 instead OF $50
The substituted letter was In the hand
= writing of the carrier on the route betwee,
n - and -. Then follows the stor,
u OF the apprehension OF the carrier viii
Q lots OF red hre thrown in to make II rat
u tling good reading. When placed on tria
the carrier entered plea Of guilty snt
was sentenced TO Imprisonment al bsr,
labor for two years
: Cost of LtvtnE'E Upward Trend
n II is understood that an ofhciaI state
n ment will be shortly issued BY the com
! missioner of labor. Charles p NeiIl. rela
y tive 10 the cost of living during the pas