Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1917-12-20
LIEUT.. SPALDINC
TELLS HIS STORY
Did Nothing to Disgrace Regiment
Young officer Knew alleged
Spy In annapolis.
BARONESS OFTEN SUSPECTED
Lived Here Where Her Nervous Sys-
tenn Gave Way Under Strain Of
Constant Inspection.

Lieut. j. w. Spaulding, who was ar
rested a few nights ago in the room
/ of Baroness Iona Zollner at the Pat
ten hotel, Chattanooga, Tenn, talked
to reporter of The Chattanooga
| Times at the camp of his regiment in
/ Chickamauga Park yesterday morn
| ing Lieut.. Spalding began by saying
| that he positively had been guilty Of
nothing that could any way be dis
grace to his regiment; that he had
been close friend of the baroness
family at Annapolis. where they had
lived just outside the gate to the Ma
/ val Academy; that he had spent much
4 ime in that household while at An
napolis, and that on one or more oc-
casions had sat up all night, along
with members of her family, attempt
ing to get the baroness quiet after her
nervous system had given away.
Baroness Zollner lived here at Mrs.
Gordon Claude's, No Maryland ave-
nue., and later at the Whispering
Pines, No Maryland avenue. kept
by Mrs. Allen Bowie Howard, where
she boarded some time while one son
was a student at St Johns College
and the other a Midshipman at the
Naval Academy.
The Chattanooga Sunday Times con-
tinuing. says:
The lieutenant said that this was
not the first time the Department of
Justice had investigated Baroness
Zollner; that on numerous occasions
her mail had been tempered with, and
she had seen faces peering in at the
windows of her house It was a re-
suit of this surveillance of the baron
/ ess that her nerves would give way.
He said that she had been suspected
on account of having taken up her
residence so near the Naval Acad-
envy. but Lieut.. Spalding said that
this was done not TO get naval secrets,
but because she was a good mother
and wanted to be near her son. He
said that he had written her once be-
fore to come to Chickamauga, but that
humps had broken out and the trip
had been postponed.
When asked concerning the letters
he had written the baroness, Lieut..
Spalding said that the letter in regard
simply in regard to an apartment the
baroness had rented in Washington,
and there had been some confusion in
regard to the cleaning of the house,
and he further said that there was
nothing in any of his letters that could
not be easily explained.
The officer said, in connection with
the talk of the baroness being a Ger
man spy that on one occasion the
baroness had been instrumental in
saving the life of an American officer
in the Intelligence Department by
means of her influence in Germany
He said that the Baron Zollner is a
Bavarian and did not wish to fight
against the French; that he stated
that he was going to fight simply as
matter of honor, and that it was his
luck to be sent against the French
front instead of the Russian Baron
Zollner, said the lieutenant, had spent
his vacations in France and had many
friends there and felt very friendly
toward the French people
Lieut.. Spalding joined his present
regiment November k3, 1917, after
couse of three months at the officers
training school at Fort Leavenworth,
Kan. He was a Midshipman at the
United States Naval Academy two
years and eight months until last Feb
ruary, when he was honorably dis
charged. officers of the regiment said
that until the recent incident his serv-
ices had been entirely satisfactory,
and it was believed he had all the
qualities to make a useful officer.
The colonel and adjutant of the
regiment, as usual, declined to be in
terviewed on the subject, but said that
hasty judgments should not be form
ed in the matter-Chattanoo Sun
day Times.
Baroness Leona Wilhelmina Sutton
Zollner, wife of Bavarian nobIeman
and high officer in the German Army.
is in Jail at Chattanooga, Tenn, with
out bond, charged with being dan
gerous alien and visiting near an army
mobilization camp for a dangerous
purpose.
On Saturday she will be examined
by United States Commissioner S. ].
McAlester, says the Times.
Mrs. Zollner was by some suspected
as German spy when she lived here
last year, and on one occasion in a
tiff at dinner an American woman be-
came so incensed she threw a glass
of water across the table in Mrs. Zoll-
ner's face. This was before war was
declared.
Preacher 'Spalding, as he was
well known here by his friends. was
"bilged Midshipman," and a former
roommate of Midshipman w. X. B.
Shope. Third Glass. Naval Academy.
Mrs. Zollner's son by former mar
rage. Her st. Johns son did not re-
turn to college this year.
The friends of Mrs Zollner in An
napolis believe the whole thing will
be Strengthened out satisfactorily, both
to herself and Lieut. Spalding.
PERSONAL MENTION.