Evening journal., 1918-11-06
letters, High Assassin,
is JekyT and Hyde
BY HAROLD e. BECHTOL
hropean Manager for Newspaper En-
torprisc Association.


LONDON, England. Nov. 6.
JACOB PETERS-A gentle, faithful
psbsnd. an indulgent father, q stanch
riend.
fJACOB PETERS-Russla's man Of
terror, chief executioner for the Bo.-
sheviks; man who signs away scores
or lives at time,
Are they two men-or onef Is Jacob
Peters a living reproduction OF the
story OF DR.. Jekyll and Mr.. HydeS
1T Is unthlnkable," says Mrs. Jacob
Peters, an English woman, who lives
In London with her little daughter,
Alaisle.
He was tho kindest OF husbands
and fathers" she said. Never, before
ho left England to go 10 Russia, In May,
1917, or In letters since, has he ever
breathed word against Great Britain
I mink that It Is only Just that. as an
English woman, should say this.
Baby constantly speaks fondly OF
her father, and wonders when he Will
como back. Why, he was never hap
pier than when spending his evenings
at home with US. He couldn't do such
things as they say he Is doing"
Sho produced his last letter;
Toll my darling Baby that she WIN
500 me soon. Look well after our darl-
Ing. Tho knowledge that she thinks
OF me viii give me strength In my
work. cannot forget our darling
Maisle, in the midst OF the hardest OF
work"
In Russia, through the long, exciting
days following the revolution, Peters
for months Is stIll found as DR.. Jekyll:
helping his friends, interceding for man
after man, and all the while finding
time twice a week to send home mes
sages OF love.
go TO Peters; II anything can be
done, hen do II for YOU" was the
advice often given one Anglo-Saxon by
another.
Then came the reign OF terror. as
the BolsheSik power began to wane. To
check the counter revolutionaries the
Bolsheyists placed power OF life and
death in the hands Of Uritsh.
Uritski started the reign OF treror.
Then he was slain, and Into his place
stepped Jacob Peters; more remorse-
less stlll, II the stories Of bloodshed and
terror ism In Russia can be believed.
About this time the steady flow Of
letters from Jacob Peters to his wife
and daughter IN London was interrupt
ed perhaps. as Mrs. Peters believes, by
the censOrs.
Refugees recently back from Russia
say there Is no doubt that the Peters
from London Is the Peters who, with
a swoOp OF his pen, signs the execution
order for scores-and then picks up the
next list; whose orders are carried out.
blood-thirsty fashion, while the ink Is
scarcely dry.
There Is a story about a double"
but Il Is given little credence. At the
time OF the HOundsdtch murder trial,
Peters claimed that persons who identi-
fed him mistook him for a cousin who
looked very much Ike him. Peters was
acquitted. but, II there was a cousin
double" he got away. for police never
located any such man.
Information seeping through from
Russia by devious routes add TO the
stories Of Peters executlon-mania re-
markable account Of his changed ap-
pearance. ........
His suaviiy OF manner Is gone, these
stories say, and with IL his genial
smile. lie is paler and thinner than
ever; he seems to have "shriveled," one
account puts It. and his eyes no longer
frankly meet those Of the visitor.
Instead ihey stare with a strange
light at the mass OF papers on his desk !
scraps OF evidence on which the fate |
Of hundreds depends.