New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-11-11
GUN SQUADS GUARD
SAYVILLE WIRELESS
Riflemen on Watch Day
and Night to Warn
Away Visitors.
PLANT AROUSED BY
FATAL AUTO DASH
Telefunken Employees Prepared
to Resist Raid-Raze Trees as
Precautionary Act.

Night and day ring Of armed
men surrounds tho grounds Of the Tele-
funken plant at Sayville, one of the
most valuable and highest-powered
wireless stations in the world. Ever
since the European war began the com
pany has takn particular precautions to
keep visitors out of the plant, but re-
Gently the measures of safety have
been doubled. No one is permitted in
side the grounds without special per-
nit.
The guards halt all persons at the
gates. Newly erected signs, bearing the
word Danger" and warning the curl
GUS of trespass. glare out from all
sides. Sayville knows all about the ex-
traordinary care taken in guarding tho
plant. and puts it down as wise meas
ure against possible spy activity.
Certainly, the guards carry rifles.
Why wouldn't they7 Ever since that
automobile crowd was smashed up here
they've been so nervous over at the
wireless station they jump every time
they throw the spark in" said an en-
ploye of hotel on Railroad av. "The
new guards down here are a husky lot,
let me tell you. The company brought
most of them down here from New
York, but some of them are Germans,
right enough
AT the railway station the baggage
agent said he did not believe any one
could get nearer the grounds than
those ties up there" indicating a pile
OF cross ties, perhaps two hundred
yards from the first gate of the Tcle-
funken company's wired Enclosure.
You can't get inside the fence" he
said. Sometimes they stoy you when
you try TO cross tho railroad track in
front OF the inclosurc. They are scared
Of something
There's not much chance Of a man
getting past the guards, with those
rifles they carry"
At the eastern end Of the Telefunken
company's grounds a heavy set man
lounged in the door of a little shack
When he saw stranger he immedi-
ntely came over to the fence in an IN
curing fashion.
mo, sir, not the slightest chance OF
getting in the plant without an order
from the New York office. We have
TO keep pretty close watch on il now,
you know. Hardly anybody ever gets
4Atf Nv cAlA III htANNti ~ Il UlAlu HlfS-
ton about visitors who'd like 70 see
the wireless work.
well, what do you do when any
body tries 10 get by you? Throw him
cut" asked the Tribune reporter.
I've got two good arms" he re-
piled.
amy other kind"
well, q man has TO protect him
self, you know" said the guard, pat
ting his hip pocket significantly.
What Sayville says set the Tele-
funken company on edge was the mys-
ferrous party OF men who whirled over
Long Island on the night of Friday.
October %, and were afterward in an
automobile wreck at Hemptsead. At
the time William Mathisen. Charles
Mayer, August Moos. a Hoboken hotel
keeper, and Henry Zeigler, formerly
bartender Of the Naterland. were killed,
and F. J. Eastman suffered fractured
skull. 1t was said in Ssyville yester-
day that the men visited the town on
the night so fatal to them.
THAT crowd was right in here that
same night" said bartender in one Of
the hotels, land nobody could possibly
convince me that they did not have a
definite mission.
RHt NiAl4E Ahtg uih nifH iIts lAlNk
came excited my suspicion" he contin-
ued. "They drove their car clear
around in the rear of the hotel and
slipped il into the shadow of those big
trees. That looked queer 20 me.
couldn't make out why they wanted TO
hide the car"
1t has been pretty clearly established
that the men in the automobile party
were Germans. and it seemed rather
improbable that Germans would try
to wreck plant belonging to their own
country. but seven other men in Say
Vile believed, like -he bartender, that
the automobile party crtainly wanted
to get into the wireless station. and
one of them explained his idea by say
ing:
Eyes, know they were Germans,
and never said | thought they wanted
to put bomb in the wireless. What
believe they wanted to do was to get
into the station and get some very i'm
portant messages off to Germany or to
their cruisers. You know some of those
men came from the Vaterland. II was
just about that time, il was said, she
was contemplating a dash TO the open
sea. n q wireless operator in that
party could have sent one or two mes
sages IL might have helped the Ger
man cause very much. | think that's
one reason the Telefunken Company
has the guards now. They don't want
70 stand the chance Of having some one
break in, hold up the operators and
send message. What chance would
the Telefunken have then with the
United States government"
The Telefunken company has cut
down every tree in the large inclosure,
so that the great 500-foot tower and
its many antenne stand in full view
all the time. Yesterday men were
burning the dead leaves off the ground
SO that the surface would be bare and
leave no opportunity for even rabbit
to conceal itself, although the grounds
are very extensive, and the tower
stands in the middle of them, many
yards from either side, away from
the wire fence. There were rumors in
Sayville that the Telefunken company
has a special man to watch incoming
trains and that new high-powered
cartridges had been ordered for the
guards rifles.