The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1917-08-04

"Why. l don't understand. But his
majesty told me that you would ex-
plain. The young lady and her mother
are friends of mine."
Exactly. That's just It'll" he ex-
claimed. "You apparently know but
little of them-eh?@or you would not
call them your friends !"
These words surprised me, but / was
the more astOunded when he contin-
ued:
"You of course know Of those dis
graceful anonymous letters which have
been continually arriving at cOurt-of
the emperor's fury concerning them"
; I replied in the affirmative, for, as a
matter of fact, for the past three.
months the whole court had been flood
ed with most abusive and ~disgraceful
correspondence concerning the CANA
rilla that had again sprung up around
the kaiser. The emperor, the empress,
the crown prince and princess, Prince
Eitel, Sophie Caroline, Prince Henry of
Prussia and others had received let
tiers, most of them In typewriting, con-
tanning the most intimate details of
scandals concerning men and women
around the emperor.
Fully a dozen of these letters adj
dressed to the crown prince he had
handed to me-letters denouncing In
some cases perfectly innocent people,
destroying the regulations Of honest
men and women, and abusing the heir
to the throne in an outrageous ann
On at least three occasions willie"
had shown me letters addressed to the
kaiser himself, and intercepted by the
kaiserin, who, in consequence of this
flood of anonymous epistles that had
produced such a terrible sensation at
Potsdam, had ordered that all such
letters found in the imperial postbag
should be handed at once to her.
1.-THE identity of the writer is the
point that is engaging my attention."
the baron said, as he opened a drawer
and drew forth a bundle of quite a
hundred letters, adding: "All these
that you see here have been addressed
either to the emperor or the empress"
and he handed MI one, which on scan
ming l saw contained some outrageous
statements. allegations which would
make the hair of the all-highest bristle
with rage.
"Well," I exclaimed, "that certainly
is a very interesting specimen of
anonymous cor .spondence."
"Yes, it is! !" exclaimed the baron.
"1n Berlin every inquiry has been made
to trace it's author. Schunke (head of
the detective police) was charged by
the emperor to investigate. He did so,
and both he and Klewitz failed utterly.
Now 1t has been given into my hands,"
A Typical German Investigation.
Presently, when / sat with the baron
at his table, he switched on an intense
electric light and then spread out some
of the letters above a small, square
mirror.
"You see they are on various kinds
of note paper, bearing all kinds Of wa
termarks, of French, English and Ger
man manufacture. Some we have here
are upon English paper, because 1t is
heavy and thick. Again, three differ
ent makes of typewriter have been
used-one a newly invented importa-
tion from America. The written let
tiers are, you will see, mostly In a.
mans hand"
"Yes, l see all that" I said. "But
what have you discovered concerning
their author? The letter 1 received
bore a French stamp and the postmark
of Anglers"
He placed before me quite a dozen
envelopes addressed to the emperor
and empress, all bearing the postmark
of that town in the Maine-et-Loire.
Others had been posted in Leipzig,
Wilhelmshaven, Tours, Antwerp, Ber-
lin, Wilmersdorf and other places.
"The investigation is exceedingly
difficult, I can assur you," he said. II
have had the assistance of some of the
best scientific brains of our empire In
making comparisons and analyses. In
deed, Professor Harbge is with me fom
Berlin"
A few minutes later the professor
himself, an elderly, specialized man in
gray tweeds, entered the room. /
knew him and greeted him.
Sixteen different varieties of paper
have been received at the Neues and
Marmor palaces" the baron remarked.
"Well, l have worked for two months,
night and day, upon the inquiry. l
have discovered that eleven of these
varieties Of paper can be purchased