The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1917-07-27

neling into the house where the safe
was deposited, and then Of cutting the
electrical connections In some cases
and switching off the current to false
ground wires in other cases in such
fashion that all danger would be
avoided.
When everything was ready, they
put their plan into execution. They
wore the most approved and effective
gns masks, and were disguised In art
ful manner. At any rate they actually
succeeded in blowing the safe, and al
though some of the gas mains were
opened and the room filed with gas,
their masks and oxygen tanks saved
the operators. They were able to get
away with large proportion of the
most discriminating documents.
The whole performance was so engi-
neered that the Italian authorities
could not possibly have been held
responsible for 1t If there had been
huke, or If the expected revelations
had not been Forthcoming. When the
thing was finally accomplished and the
Italian authorities held the papers,
which proved a wide-reaching conspirL
acy had been carried on from Swiss
soil, 1t was Of course Italy, not Switz-
erland, that had the grievance, and the
necessity for secrecy was at an end
The documents that were thus Sc
cured contained amazing revelations.
Not only Mgr. Gerlach but other people
of only slightly less eminence, some of
whom had never been under suspicion
In Italy, were involved. Mgr. Gerlach
escaped just In time to avoid arrest.
though there has been suspicion In
some quarters that the Italian authori-
ties, without actually conniving at his
escape, were quite satisfied at not hav-
ing him in their custody. A great
number of arrests followed, and 1t has
been apparent from developments re-
Gently that this nest of plOtters had
been the headquarters Of about all the
spies in Italy.
A Swlndier or a Spy2
The story of Count Luca Cortese,"
the bogus Neapolitan nobleman who
carried on an astounding series of
swindles, was very different. Count
COrtese was arrested nominally for
swindling Roman bank out of $685.
AS matter of fact, 1t Is very we'll
that his operations amount
ed to vastly more and his booty is
at $1.250000.
There is still much mystery about |
The case, many people being convinced |
hat the count was In fact an espionage |
officer of the enemy countries, and the
'unds advanced to him under the
yuise of frauds were somehow or other
provided by either Vienna or Berlin.
The Italian government has refused to
lccept this. view, and all comment on
he case has been required studiOusly
o avoid even the suggestion that es-
homage was involved.
One Of his first ventures was the J.
reation of trust including practi-
ally all the italian dramatic interests.
lie paid unreasonable prices for con-
rOl Of many concerns, and not only
the companies but doubled
he salaries Of actors, supplied ac-
resses with expensive clothing and {
ewelry, leased theaters for long runs,
ought newspapers, founded a new
house to bring out a dra-
latic review suited to his own special I
negotiated the purchase I
( Italian rights on foreign plays with 7
he object of monOpolizing their pro- S
uction in Italy and encouraged play t
rights to compose Italian plays and t
peras for him. t
BY way of ingratiating himself with t
he moral sentiment Of the community, a
e was particularly strong for the v
oral regeneration Of the stage. He v
evoted much attention to projects Of a
lis sort, winning the support of infiu- b
ltial Catholics by his projects for ex- Il
udlng actors and actresses of dubi- Il