Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1915-12-23
SEARCHING FOR GERMAN SPIES
Free Press Reporter Does a Lit
Tie Sleuthing in Burlington.
Fortified by n Glass Of German Uccr
and n IrctzcI. Newspaper Man
starts out aud Makes Re
marknbIe Discoveries.

Hist. Shush, Be careful, r'he German
spy is in our midst. The report that Paul
kocnig's activities extended to Burning
ton led a Free Press reporter yesterday
10 do little slcuthing, which resulted
i'm some wonderful dis 'cveries concern
ing a band of desperate men who are
Worl1inE at this nefarious business in our
fair city.
The Free Press mans sleuthing started
with Il glass OF German beer aud
Inctzrl obtained in a life-savng dis
pcnsarN presided over ny repres anta-
tive of the entente allies. No informa-
ton could be obtained here since the
prctzcls were made in New Jersey and
no beer has been imported from Ger
many since the opening Of the war, as
any Intelligent newspaper man could
easily tell after consuming a stein of
the substitute. The allies representative
said that no German spies had reported
their presence in the city to him 50 the
scene OF action was shifted to tho office
Of the Western Union Telegraph COM
panN.
The genial manager Of the Western
Union office was not able to recall the
receipt of any teleerams addressed to
German Spy" and said that they would
not have been delivered if received as
all Of the messenger boys are in sympathy
with the allied powers. The best that
the manager could do in the way of re-
memb"riue any suspicious persons Turk
inx about the office was TO recall man
who came in last week and after stating
that I've was attending the granEp meet
ing said he wanted to send a message
To his wife. After the message had been
given to the telegraph operator. who
promptly sent it over the wire. the man
who wrote IT refused 10 believe it had
Vecn sent, since the yellow telegram
blank still reposed ON an office file He
hung around the Office for some time
and acted i'm strangely agitated man
ncr. It is not doubted that h was
German spy who knew the Morse code
and was listening To the messages being
sent and received at the office
Postmaster James l.. Burke likewise
was unable to remember any letters
being received at the postoffce marked
German Spy" or For the President Of
the German Spy club" Some Of the clerks
/ experienced considerable alarm g few
days ago when a parcel post package
contained AN instrument which licked
like a bomb with q time explosion at
tachment and did in fact explode when
being unwrappcd, after being thrown
into pail of water. hut the instrument
turned out to be a German alarm clock.
y clue obtained at the post office resulted
in the Free Press man marching out to
the north shore where Il wireless station
was reported to be operated by German
spies but the only wireless apparatus that
could be seen was small boys Kite,
when had lodged in the top of a clump
of trees ana hung there, with it's tail
Tapping mournfully in the breeze.
Sheriff Allen, chief of Police Russell
and United States Deputy Nnrshal
Thomas Reeves were also unable TO
throw any light on tho German shy situa-
ton. The sheriff and the chief OF police.
however though, the presence of Ger
man spies in the city not improbable as
a number of men purporting to be
resorvists in the armies Of the allied
powers had been arrested for intoxica-
ton, and all declared that they had OBJ
tanned their liquor from tail dark
strangers, who had provided them with
beer 1t is thought likely that the Ger
man secret service agents are taking
this means to weaken the allied armies
by keeping their rcservists from joining
their ranks.
y number of the prominent citizens OF
Burlington of German origin We're theI
interviewed and to man secuted I'll,
idea Of there being any German spies
in Darlington. All agreed that no on,
could know better than themselves the