Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1917-07-20

wireless stations 'listening in" on the
German Sayville Zine" to Berlin-how,
In fact, this one New England newspa-
per for almost three years kept the
United States government Informed OF
the German-Austrian plots in America
has at last been revealed.
John R. Rathom, in Il 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 counter-plot as remarkable
as 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
out If the situation ever again requires
| it.
The story bristles with dramatic lit
| tie scenes almost unbelievable in hum
drum America. There is Bernstorff's
confidential secretary at the last mo
ment at Halifax revealing himself as
an 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 a Pullman. Fol
lows, too, the incident of the foolish
little street car fight that cost Doctor
Albert his famous portfolio of treach-
erous secrets.
It's a Great Story.
It's great story. and greater still In
its hints of what 1t might be. Here it
is:
THE Providence Journal" begins
the Editor and Publisher. happened
upon its course of exposure through
having had for ten years before the
war what other papers described as d
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
the material they secured they used
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 !
engaged in shadowing Cap /
tain Boy-Ed, Captain Won Papen, for
mer Austrian Ambassador DuInba, 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
cy-
For the United States government
he Brooklyn navy yard had had In
,tructions to keep close watch on
he Sayville and Nantucket stations,
,ut nothing suspicious was ever re-
ported until Mr.. Rathom took some
If the messages which he had received
rom his operators to the state depart
nent. 1t was then learned that the
Iavy yard operators had been in the
'ay of German agents in America, and
lad been told not 10 hear too much.
Ingenious Codes Used.
1.-THE codes used by the Germans
we're of the most ingenious nature.
fany Of them pretended to be stock
and some were even done $
% as funeral directions. In some 7
asses, however, the codes showed evil ,
ence of the green blubber." referred G
D by the speaker. as on one occasion r
hen Mr.. Rathom was able TO go to r
resident Wilson and show him copies n
eight separate messages sent by the a
'ire,ess plant within nine days, all 8
Stating that little Emily had died +,
such and such an Illness, In certain h
Irt OF room, had been buried In a
rtain cemetery beside such and such II
deceased relative. In every "
lie of these messages the illness, the n
lrt of the room, the name of the rela- d
We, the cemetery, and so on. varied, Il
Id clear code was detected in each m
the messages. n
Green Biubber in Brain. fe
THE first revelation which Mr.. nj
athom told illustrated the German m
pacity for laundering 1t was the d,
DRY of Werner Horne-the man who w
as responsible for the attempt to
ow up the Vanceboro bridge Horne
d been detected as a German spy by II
e of the Journal reporters in New OF
,rk. In an effort to disguise himself ra
,rne allowed his beard to grow for ca
rec days, put on an old suit which he tv
released for three dollars (eyen this w;
tail was reported) and packed his tn
rsonal effects in an old carpet bag Y,
wing carried out these elaborate pre- W