The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-05-20
STANDING IN THE
SHADOW OF DEATH
Men Who Have Been Threaten
ed by Assassination
COUNT WlTTE VERY BRAVE
He scorns Precautions for His Safety.
Gladstone Was Pursued by shad-
ow of Death, But Had
No Fear.
COUNT WlTTE VERY BRAVE
From the Washington Times.

From the Washington Times.
Williamson. the head of Scotland Yard,
once declared that the most nerve-rack-
Ing test a man could be put to was the
dread of assassination. Some men who
were the bravest in war and in meeting
an open foe were tortured almost to the
point of breaking down the dread of
secret lurking, sudden death. During his
experience at Scotland Yard 1t was some
times his disagreeable duty to convey to
certain personages the intlmatlon that
their lives were in danger and to take
steps to insure their safety.
At the present time, perhaps, the most
interesting person whose life is in dam
ger from the assassin is Count White,
the great Russian statesman The blow
is dreaded from a secret source, not from
the ordinary quarter from which have
emanated so many Russian murders of
high personages. The count Is surround
ed by faithful servants, who guard him
wherever he goes his rooms are searched
for hidden intruders and his food is care
fully tested for poison. The count him.
to take any for himself. Injured to dam
gers, he seems not to care what happens
to him. !,
"PahlssI dc. my best and will take
what connes' lie exclaimed to one who
expostulated with him on his rashness.
The nonchalance of Count White has
had It's counterpart in many of our own
modern statesmen who have at times
had the disagreeable experience of know
ing their9liyes were threatened.
Balfour In Danger.
Mr.. Balfour, when chief secretary for
Ireland, made himself so obnoxious in a
small section OF desperate conspirators
that his life was in danger for several
months. Scotland Yard looked after him
most vigilantlg. Detectives hovered
around him, secured the streets in front
of him and followed him at a distance
ready for any eventua1ity. He persisted
In maintaining that 'fthe bother was
quite unnecessary and after a first pro-
test against 1t seemed to dismiss all
thought of 1t from his mind As to Civ
ing any nffmation to the detectives as
to where he was going, when he would go
or what he was about, such an idea
newer appeared to occur to him. He
would walk out of his office wrapt In
deep thought and proceed calmly through
him. dozen desperate men might have
been at his elbow and he would not have
regarded them or recognized their pres
ence.
Threats to assassinate Mr.. Gladstone
worried him considerably. He never
however had the slightest fear of assas-
sination. 1t was the police precautions
that worried him. They made him
wretched and irritable. He could never
forget that there were detectives watch
Ing over him He was most courteous
and kindly to those who had the respon-
sible duty to perform, but he could not
resist the temptation to give them the
slip whenever it was possible.
He used to escape from the room by a
convenient private door or-at Hawarden
by one of the windows reaching to the
lawn and go off for an hour or SOS ram
BILE by himself, free from watchers. His
hat hanging on a peg in the hall was no
guarantee that its owner was indoors
! That hat fooled many a detective, while
| Gladstone was calmly walking the streets
outside in a hat he had secretly snug
gled in. At Hawarden he walked the de-
tectives thin whose duty 1t was to keep
him in sight on his rambles.
Some Not So Brave.
There We're others who were not pos
health of one Irish secretary was known
to have been wrecked by plots made
against his life, which were only defeat
ed by the ceverness of Scotland Yard.
Another home secretary was driven to
resignation by them.
The immense nerve of Napoleon III.
Is said to have been broken by the
threats of an Italian secret revolutions
airy society to take his life. For years
H.
brink of a volcano. His life was not
worth a months purchase. Myriads of
police spies brought in daily reports of
plots to assassnate him and he drove
about in specially constructed carriage,
the sides of which were secretly plated
with iron. One night he and the EN-
press Eugene were proceeding to the OPP
era house a miscreant threw a bomb be-
meath the carriage which exploded, scat
tering death and wounds all around.
The Emperor and Empress escaped NIL
raculously and appeared in their box at
the opera as calmly as II nothing had
happened, That night when all was still
at the Tuillerles one of the attendants
saw the Emperor softly gliding to the
room where. the prince imperial lay
asleep. The Emperor stood beside the
sleeping boy and bent over him, while
the tears coursed down his face as he
looked at the child; then he slipped back
to his own room as softly as he had
come. From that day the terror of sud
den death lay on him heavily.
Gordon's life was often In the drest
peril from murderous bands In different
parts of the world. He scorned all ideas
of protecting himself and declared that
when Providence ceased to protect him
he was ready to fall. Upon more than
| one occasion persons who sought to muir