The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-09
GERMAN EXPERTS BELIEVE IN NAVY Discount Reports In American
 Deficiencies BARONESS A SUICIDE Having Long Been Queen of Beauty Could Not Bear the Idea of
 Growing Old and
 Ugly.
sY MALCOLM CLARKE.

Berlin February S.-It will undoubteo- 1v interest many Americans and gladden. the hearts of the navy department at Wa shfngton to hear that German naval experts do not consider the recent con demnation of American battleshlps py NIT. ReuterdahI in a New York magazine As Justified by the facts.
 Count Ernest Reventlow, Germany 5 most famous naval expert, has repeatea- ly praised the construction of the latest American battleships. and ridicules the idea that they would be useless III hisn seas and now the naval expert or the Norddeutsche AllGemeine Zeitung' the official organ of the Germans, jumps lnto the breach for Uncle Sam's ironclads.
 Taking up the criticism of MT. Reuter- dahl point by point the expert shoWs that the American critic. using wrong facts and figures, ha reached aosolulely false conclusions.
 He proves that the United States navy possesses excellent material, and that US recently built vessels are equal to those of any other great power.
 This attack upon the sensational state ments made by MT. ReuterdaEl has ere ated a great stir here, as there Is little doubt that the writer was inspired by the German government
 Having for long been queen of beau ty. Baroness von Schwitzer could not bear the thought of growing old ana ugly, so she committed suicide.
 The Baroness was the daughter of Romanian shopkeeper, and was married at 16 to wealthy Russian, Count Tai lewitch, who was captivated by her re- markable beauty. After a married life of "A years the Count died, leaving his widow a fortune of over $5,OO0.ooo.
 Still beautiful, spite of the lapse or years, and with the added charm of i'm mense wealth, the Countess had no diff ficu1ty in finding a second partner, and soon after her first husbands death she was married to an Austrian nobleman, Baron von SchWitzer.
 Of late though, the Baroness who re- gently passed her fiftieth year and had always been very proud of her remark able beauty, had become very melan- choly. owing to the fact that the rayages of time were becoming more and more evident.
 So greatly did the loss of her beauty prey on her mind that a few days ago she attempted to poison herself. The effort failed, but she was determined on self destruction, and on Tuesday she ob- tained revolver with which she blew out her brains.
 She left a letter stating that she could not DedE lO ShlNlN0 liCA tOON AoCNA'S'
 Herman Hertzka, who tried to mur- der a motor ear dealer named Kraus last August and then steal a motor car in which he was riding at the time, mas been sentenced to eight years hard la Dor.
 Herztka and confederate named Prosh were taken for drive by M: Kraus, who believed that they wished to purchase the car,
 When on the outskirts of Vienna, Hertzka attacked M. Kraus with ham mer and likewise shot him in the head blinding one eye while Proseh shot at the chauffeur, who escaped.
 They then threw Kraus out of the car, but owing to their ignorance of the mo- tor car mechanism they were unable to start the car and finally abandoned it
 In his defense Hertz1a declared that he and Prosch Had composed q musical com edy which they were unable to get pro- duced in Vienna They decided, there fore to steal a motor car and go to Italy in the hope of having the musical com edy accepted there.
 Prosch, who is deserter from the army. will be tried by courtmartial.
 The Kaiser has made a record in the number of orders and decorations con ferred at the annual distribution of hon- ors. The exact number was SS3O. nearly twice the numb Der distributed in the first year of his reign.
 Most of the decorations were given to military men. Civilian officials got good many, but art and science were scantily recognized. Commercial men. too. came poorly off in the shower of orders. Forty-nine members of the Reichstag received decorations. but nat urally not one socialist received a sign of imperial favor.
 A sensational automobile story in real life comes from Roumania, the actors being Prince Ziska. who is a millionaire his wife and his chauffeur.
 Harver, the chauffeur. who had hope less passion for the Princess. begged her to elope with him. She ordered him to quit the Princes service or she would report the affair to her husband.
 Agreeing to these terms the chauffeur rendered his resignation to his employer who, not knowing the cause, refused to accept it, and peremptorily ordered liar yer to drive, him and the Princess to an entertainment at a country house.
 This was fine opportunity for the crazy chauffeur to be revenged upon master and mistress. As soon as he knew they were clear of the city, in the 70-horse power automobile, Harver put her at her top speed, shouting at the Prince and Princess: Now I'll drive you to hell!'
 Seeing Harver was insane. the Prince climbed over from the tonneau and tried to stop the car. There was tremendous struggle between the Prince and the chauffeur. while the car swerved from side to side. Meanwhile Harver re- tained control of the steering wheel and headed straight for a river.
 He then sprang out and the Prince was just able to apply the brakes in time to stop the car on the rivers brink The mad chauffeur had struck q tree and was lying dead with a broken neck.
 Southern Railway now the only line operating afternoon A.osnn tlrnrn,l Hn Ennkn,...