The San Francisco call., 1906-05-27
LIVES BY
|NSU[ TING
EMPEROR
Kaiser r-Baiting Is Novel
Occupation Of a
Socialist.
Repeatedly Sent to Jail
for the Crime Of
Lese Majeste.
Prefers Life in Prison
to Hardships He
Endured.
Special Dispatch to The Cali.

BERLIN, May 26.-Strange methods of
earning a living are frequently employed
in this strenuous age af fierce eompet-
ton, but the most remarkable way of
procuring food and lodging at other peo-
pies expense has been invented by
German shoemaker named George
Schoene, formerly resident of Goerlitz.
he makes a business of insulting the Ger
man Emperor, and he has pursued this
occupation with unvarying success for
the last ten years.
Schoene received a good education in
the Prussian state schools up to the age
of IA and afterward at various supple
mentary night and technical institutions.
At the age of Is he was apprenticed to
shoemaker, and piled his humble calling
for six years, during which, like many
other young German workmen, he be-
came imbued with more or less socialistic
ideas
He came to the conclusion that it was
unjust for him to be obliged to work hard
for thirteen hours a day in order to earn
a weekly wage of fourteen shillings
while other people are enjoying super
fluffy of wealth. and he combined these
theofiess with a rooted dislike for any
kind of labor.
One day he stood in the street in front
of the principal police station in Goerlitz
and shouted at the top of his voice a long
and vehement denunciation of the Ger
man Emperor
DELIsERATE INSULT.
A crowd gathered and listened in as
tonishment to the torrent of abuse. One
terrified citizen dashed into the police
station to fetch the police. Schoene was
arrested and indicted on charge of lese
majeste. At his trial he offered no expla-
nation of his conduct whatever, and the
court, in view of his previous good rec
ord, passed the minimum sentence for
this offense-that of two months impris
onment
This was precisely what Schoene de-
sired. He had come to the conclusion in
the course of his meditations that it
would be an extremely clever thing to
live at the expense of the community in
one of the state prisons. He was not
quite sure whether the pleasure of a life
without care would sufficiently compen-
safe for the loss of liberty, but his two
months Imprisonment allayed his doubts
ON this point He thought prison was a
great improvement on the hard life which
he had lived as sweated shoemaker. and
he made up his mind that his incarcera-
ton would not terminate at the end of
two months.
w nen ne was released lTO1l the prison
at Goerlitz Schoene walked straight
through the town to the exact spot in
front of the principal police station where
he had committed his first offense, and
proceeded once more to bawl out at the
top of his voice insults aimed at the Kai-
SER Again a crowd assembled, and again
the police swooped down and arrested
the culprit. This being the second offense.
he was sentenced to six months impris-
he a tba
first
REPEATS THE ACT.
When he was released for the second
time he again walked to the same spot
shouted his familiar abuse of the EN-
peror, and submitted with feelings of the
keenest pleasure to arrest. This time he
was sentenced to one years imprison-
ment This process was repeated time
after time until Schoene had spent ten
years in prison except for those brief in
tervals required to walk from the prison
gates to the spot where he perpetrated
the crime of lese majestic.
The authorities nave made various at
tempts to evade the necessity of sending
Schoene to prison for this offense.
Recently Schoenc was released from
prison after serving sentence of two
years, and he Immediately repeated the Of
fense in his old familiar way. He has
now been sentenced 10 lOur years I'M
prisonment because the law provides that
repetition of this crime must be punished
with increased severity.
EXPLAINS HIS CONDUCT.
Schoene. who is now 81 years of age,
will thus, at the age of SO. have spent If
teen years in voluntary Imprisonment,
and there is every reason to anticipate
that when he regains his liberty in 1910
he will again compel off1cialdom to lock
lock him up for another period. He has
indeed become unfit to procure living by
any other means. When questioned at his
trial on the motives of his extraordinary
conduct, Schoene replied:
Il am perfectly happy in the career
which have chosen. The idea that the
loss of liberty has rendered me unhappy
is entirely false.
when, as a workman, I was sweated
by a tyrannicaI exploiter I was nominally
free but in reality slave. Not only was
1 in reality slave, but suffered severe
hardships, had no pleasures in life, and
nothing but the prospect Of pauperism in
my old age In prison l enjoy, as mat
ter of fact. more liberty than possessed
as a victim of the sweating system. I en-
dure no hardships, have no cares, and
know that provision will be made for
me, not only in my youth and manhood
but also in my old age. There is nothing
dishonorable in the crime which perpe-
trate so that have no feelings of having
disgraced my name. Why should l. in
these circumstances, hesitate to seek the
hospitality Of his Majesty's prisons?"