The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1917-08-11
AMAZING STORY OF HOW PROVIDENCE
JOURNAL UNCOVERED GERMAN PLOTS
Met Guile With Guile and Spy With Spy and for Almost Three Years
Kept the Government Informed Of Teutonic Intrigue
and Treachey in This COMMUNICATION Tells
How It Was Done.


with spy, how 1t had its man in Bern
storf's own household and its tw'
wireless stations listening in" on thu
German Sayville cline" to Berlin-how
In fact, this one New England newspa
per for almost three years kept thu
United States government informed o.
the German-Austrian plots in America
has at last been revealed.
John r.. Rathom, In q speech made
at the convention Of the Canadian
Press association In Toronto, and re
ported in the Editor and Publisher
from the Toronto Star, weaves story
Of plot and counterpart as remarkable
rs any that have come from the pen OF
e. Phillips Oppenheim. And Mr.. Rath-
ON says that he has safe full Of doc.
uments yet unused which he will pull
cut If the situation ever again requires
It.
The story bristles with dramatic lit
tie scenes almost unbelievable in hum
drum America. There Is Bernstorf's
confidential secretary at the last mo-
ment at Halifax revealing himself as
m American. There is the pretty ste
nographer who sat on the packing box
with Captain Won Papen and made him
write the evidence of his own guilt.
And through it all runs the trail Of
the "green blubber," which Is Mr.. Rath-
om's word for the strange "air holes"
In German brains which make them
overlook the most obvious things. We
see the "green blubber" when Van
Horne, the spy, dressed up like work
man and then rode in Pullman. Fol-
lows, too, the incident Of the foolish
little street car tight that cost Doctor
Albert his famous portfolio Of treach-
erous secrets.
It's 4 Great Story.
It's great story, and greater still in
its hints of what it might be. Here 1t
is:
'9The Providence Journal" begins
the Editor and Publisher, happened
upon it's course of exposure through
having had for ten years before the
war what other papers described as a
bug on wireless telegraphy. The pa
per had maintained two powerful wire
less plants at Point Judith and at
Block Island. When war broke out
they had decided to listen in on the
messages crossing the Atlantic. For
five months they kept record of these
messages, and then they set out to find
the codes and make revelations. OF
11cod
only fractional part.
Zone Of the newspapers stenogra-
piers was sent and secured an APP
pointment in the Austrian consulate In
New York. Other of its workers were
constantly engaged in shadOwing Cap
tain Boy-Ed, Captain Won Papen, for
mer Austrian Ambassador Dumba, the
German Ambassador BernstOrff and
other German and Austrian officials.
The two wireless plants increasingly
listened in, two shifts of operators at
work day and night, on Sayville and
Nantucket, the two wireless stations
which were being used mostly by the
Germans to keep in touch with Berlin,
from where they received instructions
for every detail of their plotting pol
Icy.
For the United States government
the Brooklyn navy yard had had in
structiOns to keep a close watch on
the Sayville and Nantucket stations,
but nothing suspicious was ever re-
ported until Mr.. Rathom took some
of the messages which he had received
from his operators to the state depart
ment. 1t was then learned that the
navy yard operators had been in the
nav of German agents in America, and
had been told not to hear too much.
Ingenious Codes Used.
1.-THE codes used by the Germans
were Of the most ingenious nature.
Many of them pretended to be stock
quotations, and some were even done
up as funeral directions. In some
cases. however, the codes showed evil |
lence of the "green blubber," referred |
to by the speaker, as on one occasion
when Mr.. Rathom was able to go to
President Wilson and show him copies
If eight separate messages sent by the
wireless plant within nine days, all
.dating that little Emily" had died
# such and such an illness, in certain
art of q room, had been buried In
ertain cemetery beside such and such
previously deceased relative. In every
me Of these messages the Illness, the
,art of the room, the name Of the rela-
i've, the cemetery, and so on, varied,
nd a clear codeswas detected in each
+ the messages.
Green Bubber in Brain.
"The first revelation which Mr..
lathom told illustrated the German
apacity for laundering. 1t was the
tory Of Werner Horne-the man who
,as responsible for the attempt to
low up the Vanceboro bridge. Horne
ad been detected as a German spy by
ne Of the Journal reporters in New :
ork. In an effort to disguise himself ,
[orne allowed his beard to grow for
Tree days, put on an old suit which he +
urchased for three dollars (even this :
etail was reported) and packed his I
ersonal effects in an old carpet bag. !
aving carried out these elaborate pre- !
buttons he took passage for the point r
here the Job was to be done, on one +
the finest and most luxurious trains +
the United States. AS is well known d