Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1909-02-24
The True Story of an
Interview Told In 1918.

|
Haenant while we were pacing the
deck of an ocean steamer, that the
late, emperor was impolitic.'
! Not at all There was always a
method in his madness"
what method could there possibly
have been in that affair of the sup
| pressed interview which stirred up
the whole world and put the emperor
In humiliating positions"
'The secret history Of that affair has
never been published. 1t was never
known to more than three persons be-
sides the emperor and his chancellor.
and ! am now the only person living
in possession Of it."
"What, your
"Yes, l. And. what's more, I'm 60
ing to give 1t to you. Listen. There
was then in Williams service a man
whom he consulted more on matters
Of statecraft than even Won Bulow.
Baron Trengel was during the period
Of his intimacy with the late emperor
between the ages Of thirty-five and
forty. He was handsome as pic
ture and would have been attractive
to women had he taken any interest
In them. But he was a pronounced
woman hater.
while travelling In Egypt Trengel
fell In with party of your country
men from New York, among them a
Miss Rebecca Wray. She had come
over and remained with her fellow
travellers by permission, having, it was
understood, been graduated from
school the previous spring. Her trip
was intended as fnisher to her edu-
cation.
"Trengel had never before fallen IN
der the influence of one Of your uncon-
ventional, coquettish American girls.
His ideas Of women were derived from
the German fraulein Of noble blood
and more especially from an old
maid sister ten years his senior who
kept house for him. Miss Wray
made nothing Of visiting the ruins Of
the temple Of Karnak with him I'M
chaperoned or sailing alone with him
on the Nile.
1.-THE next heard of Miss Wray she
was in Berlin. chaperoned by an en-
tirely different party from that which
she was supposed to have Travelled
with in Egypt. She had not been there
long before she received Invitations to
houses whose owners were in high
life and dined with the late emperor
and the now dowager empress. She
spent some time ostensibly visiting
Ill I'LL
there she was riding, driving and
| hunting in madcap fashion with the
baron.
Zone morning Trengel was summon.
ed to Berlin by the emperor for con-
i ference. Your countrymen were get
ting rather too thick with the Japa-
nese to please his majesty. and he de-
sired to head them OF. At this inter
view a number Of different matters
were taken up, all of them Of impor-
lance in European complications Tren-
gel when in conference with the en-
peror was accustomed to jot down the
points discussed; also Williams views.
On returning to his schloss he found
Miss Wray, who had remained during
his absence with his sister, and was
SO delighted to be reunited with her
that he did something he had never
| done before. He tossed his notebook
on his desk in the library to hasten
out for a ride with the girl who had
infatuated him.
THAT was the last he thought Of the
notebook till the next morning. Then
he hurried to the library to find it
gone. Breakfast was waiting for the
guest. who had not yet come down.
After waiting some time for her the
baron sent to her room. She as well
as the notebook had disappeared.
1.-THE CONSERVATION that seized upon
the baron was nothing to that Of the
emperor when Trengel went to Berlin
and told him the story. The police
were notified. and the secret service
men got on the case in hurry. Not
a train in Germany that was not I'M
der surveillance Of government ennis
saries, each having detailed descrip-
ton of the American girl. They failed
to catch her. A boy excited some sus-
picion, but got across the frontier
without being detained, the German
D
detectives having been instructed to
look out for girl. 1t was after
ward supposed that this boy was the
slippery Miss Wray in disguise.
Miss Wray's identity and position
afterward became known to those Of
us in the secret. She was the daughter
of poor professor in an American
university. She was twenty-five years
old at that time and had taken nearly
every honor in woman's college for
which she was eligible for competi-
ton. Leaving college, she went to
New York and worked on one of the
principal papers there. 1t was this pa
per that sent her abroad for news of
certain diplomatic questions of inter
est to the people Of the United States.
Miss Wray, who had always known
the want of money and consequently