Evening star., 1909-06-14

the peculiar conduct Of the gentleman
behind her. and did not notice that he
was following her continuously Other
wise she would certainly have thought il
strange that he suddenly entered tn
same house as she did. and fastened past
her in the broad entrance hall and up the
stairs, which. however, he at once de-
scended again.
'Afeanwhile the lady had got halfway
up to the first story. when the gent ieman.
who was apparently Fastening past her.
| suddenly sprang upon her. quick as light
ming, and attempted to cut her throat
with a sharp knife. Nevertheless. the bo
frustrated the work by getting caught in
the knife
I'm spite of the loud cries Of the ladv.
the aSsailant did not desist. and cold
hloodedly attempted to fulfill his purpose.
He would also have succeeded completelg-
had he taken with him another weapon
than a pocketknife.
His dagger he had forgotten-which
does not often happen. But at the second
cut which he then made the pocketknfe
shut UP, and the lady had the good for
tune to be only slightly wounded
IF the assailant had merely Intended
robbery he could have taken her silver
bag and diamond rings at his ease.
Husband Is Accused.
This was much more detailed account
than had yet been published of an out
rage which had actually been perpetrated
on the wife Of manufacturer named
Wagner. The police were speedily able
to convince themselves that the informa-
ton contained in the letter could only
have come from the assassin himself.
The Investigations of the police in this
case had shown that Herr Wagner was
on bad terms with his wife. who was OF
| questionable origin, and that he had a
| lidison with another woman. On the
| strength of the statements of Frau Wag-
ner he had been arrested on suspicion o.
| having attempted to compass her death,
and he still remains in custody.
| Previous to his arrest Herr Wagner had
been in communication with DIR. Arthur
! Pleissner. a lawyer and Journalist. well
known both In Berlin and Leipzig, VINO
I had given up the office where he impaired
legal advice on divorce cases, and started
| bi-monthfy paper the Deutscher
Kampf. In this publication he had Sc
verely critsed the action of the police
| in the Friedrich case, and he now took
up the cudgels vigorously for Herr Wag-
ner.
With the professed object of proving
that Frau Wagner's story of an attack
upon her had been trumped up by her 10
wreak vengeance on her husband, Herr
Plessner Travelled about the country COL
lecting information with regard to her
antecedents and published long articles on
the affair In his paper. In the course
of his investigations he said that he had
Halle, and these he handed over to the
public prosecutor.
One of them was written in mixture
of cipher and Hebrew characters. The
address bore a strong resemblance to the
writing of the blackmailing letters which
had been sent to the firm of Weber
This. for some reason which is not
quite obvious. threw the suspicious of the
police on Herr Peissner. After contis-
cation of his papers and a hearing h.
the public prosecutor he was arrested this
week. A number of papers have also
ner's legal adviser.
That is all that Is known about this
extraordinary affair up to the present.