The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-01-21


p.r,. Ian. 2O.-The reports caoled
from Rio Jaueiro that the Braziilan
authorities were warned from faris o.
nossible attempt to blow up the
American battleship fleet while IN inc
harbor there are true.
Some time ago certain suspicious IN
dicating the existence OF plot 10 ae-
stroy the whole or porllon "a the
leet either at Rio Janeiro or IN the
straits of Magellan. were aroused here.
and naturally communicated TO Hio ana
washington. A chartered steamer was
raported to have conveyed explosives
for the use of the conspirators TO RIO
Janeiro. arriving there about the mid
ale of December and John Fedher,
whose lame is mentioned In the Rio
=dispatches. was one of the men whose
name was revealed here as implicated
In the conspiracy. The alleged plot Is
sunnosed to have some rather startling
ramifcations, but the evidence along
this line Is far from conclusive and
rests chiefly upon the statement of an
Individual whose record was. subse-
nuently proved to be anything but
creditable. Consequently, the whole
affair is regarded with much skepti-
cism and indeed, the presumption has
been raised that 1t may have been q
deliberately concocted scare.
In any event 1t is now believed here
that if the plot actually did exist, the
timely warning and precautions taken
have completely frustrated the plans
of the conspirators at Rio Janeiro and
compelled them to transfer their OPP
erations further south. IL not to aban-
don them entirely. The latter hypoth-
esis is considered here to he most prob
able.
only a few people here treated the
story seriously. others regarding 1t as
fantastic, while many discussed the
whole AFFAIR as a myth. The reports
today from Rio Janeiro have been
characterized as another wierd chap
ter of the fantastic recital. 1t is be-
lieved here that the action of the Rio
Janeiro police grew out of the informa-
ton forwarde to Rio from Washington
and this city. The story is, as given
by those responsible for 1t, substanti-
ally as follows
A young man of good family resid-
ing here claims to have overheard
snatches of a telephone conversation
in which vague references were made
to the cruise of the American fleet and
of plans concerning the feet which
were being Matched at certain cafe.
Being of a Sherlock Holmes disposi-
ton the young man communicated his
information to an American official in
Paris, and also established a surveil-
iance of the cafe. It Is claimed that
the observations at the cafe disclosed
several mysterious characters holding
mysterious meetings.
Their movements are said to have
been traced and their plans in part
learned as to the shipment of explosives
to Brazil When the suspicious par
ties were surprised. they are said TO
have shown fight and in a scrimmage
which ensued the young man claims
to have snatchedga portion of a paper
over which they were porting. contain
ing the cabalistic words "Menaced De-
stroy." supposed TO mean, IF menac-
ed, de-troy." Meantime the official to
whom the young man had confided the
secret made inquiries as to the ship
ment of explosives to be sent. This
inquiry appeared to give some color to
the story, for it showed that small
steamer destroyed by the suspects had
actually sailed from a north German
port with certain boxes which were
at least open to suspicion. 1t is claim
ed that the testimony OF the men who
loaded the boxes was secured. and that
it shows they contained explosives.
The destination Of the steamer was