The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-09-14
BRITISH REVUE GIRL WHO WAS AN
 UNDERSTUDY OF GERMAN SPY-DANCER
 TELLS SECRETS OF HER PRIVATE LIFE
By Nellie Hlusfis.

By Nellie Hustis.
 (The beautiful dancer had many toured with her on the Continent, tells a remarkable story.)
 When I first made the acquaintance of Marguerite Zel1e, the bewitching Dutch dancer who has been sentenced to death by a. French Courtmartial on a charge of espionage, she was without exaggeration the loveliest girl that ever captivated the hearts of an audience either in this or any other country.
 In those days she was known as Mata Hari, and almost from the first momeDt of her appearance on the stage of the Musee Guimet in Paris her popularity and reputation as an artist were assured.
 This renowned beauty was Dutch to the core, with just dash of Southern blood in her veins. Small wonder, then, that no suspicious were ever aroused, not even amongst the astute figures of the British Secret Service.
 But in the light of what has since transpired there can be little doubt that in those merry nights before Ar mageddon burst upon Europe Mata Hari was playing her, own part in the service of the Wilhelmstrasse, and glancing back I can recall how the little Dutch girl used. at intervals to be engaged in conversation with ''gerl- tlemen'' who I am now certain were none other than the spying agents of the German Government.
 \ L. . kA.~ life I would like to mention a few de- tails of her brilliant career as dan cer. It was in 1905, if am not mis- taken, that. Mata Hari came to Paris and fascinated select audiences with the weirdest Oriental dances. At the time she was just a private artist who went from drawing-room to drawing room.
 In very short while the music halls of Germany, France and Britain vied with each other in order to obtain a t'turn" which was likely to prove a success on any hall. The first contract which was signed was with the man. agement of the Olympia, Paris, where myself was appearing with a troupe of English dancers. took an immense liking to the girl, and we became very intimate friends.
 Kaiser and Emperor Joseph's Friend.
 When Mata Hari went to the Ger man capital accompanied her. Our first appearance was at Coburg, where the Kaiser, the Kaiserin and the Crown Prince actually. honored the performance with their presence. Mata. Hari. with her snakes and sinuous dances, her lighted braziers and Oriental rugs, and clouds of smoke which followed her round the stage at her direction, took a vast audience by storm. She was applauded to the echo, and apparently the German pub lie was every bit as much fascinated with her mystical turn as Paris had been. It will convey some ide to Eng fish readers of the triumph which Mata Hari scored when I mention that the following day she was invited to luncheon at the Imperial Palace by the express command of the Emperor.
 The Kaiser talked to her as if he had known her all his life, and de- clared that Germany had never pro- duced anything so strikingly novel and original as the entertainment of which Mata Hari was the life and soul. Two other girls and I were just mere as- SlSldAtS, .hl4u IldluId4ly Ilc1u IO pldy second fiddle to the wonderful 'sstar."
 From Coburg we journeyed to Ber- lin, where Mata iFIari packed the Inn perial Music Hall for month. Vienna was next visited, and here the Elm perior Francis Joseph commanded the dancer to appear before him. Like the Kaiser, the old Emperor took keen interest in stage novelties, and as Of hi m rilt for Harris performance he presented her with diamond ring which, I believe, she was wearing at the time of de- tention in England.
 After her divorce Mata Hari became less prominent in the Paris cafes, and suddenly she vanished altogether. where no one knew. Afterwards I learned that she had gone to Berlin Just about the early summer of 1914,
 It seems certain now that that visit was inspired by her associations with the German Secret Service, for she had no dancing contracts to fulfill in Berlin or any other German city.
 confess that I was never more startled and pained than when I, an old friend, read in the English papers that she had been found guilty of espionage. I could hardly believe it. Today, however, the veil is lifted. Her private life was a complete mystery, but from all have read re- gently there is not the slightest doubt that Mata Hari even in her early days in Paris, was identified with the spy ing organization of Germany.
 She First Travelled as Jap. When first knew Marguerite Zelfe she was called Mata Hari. and she danced through all the more ques- i tionable cafe chanta nts of Paris as a Japanese.
 With her dark eyes painted to aI-