New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-04-21
SPYING AMONG SPIES
,hWdrtln6 German COntfabdnd Runners
AN UNDERGROUND MAIL
SYSTEM THAT THE ALLIES
TURNED TO THEIR OWN USE

show his last discharge papers and
get another passport.
And so the passport trade was a
thriving one. A reservist who tried
to procure a passport to get home
to Germany had to pay well for it.
Sixty dollars was about the average
price; and he would then have to
work his way home at hard labor on
ship selected for him by the pass
port vender.
Another kind of Transportation"
was the letter traffic. Those engaged
in it made good thing of it financial
ly. Many Of them became rich. l
might be accused Of exaggeration if
1 mentioned even approximately the
amount of money spent to keep the
lines of correspondence open between
Germany and the United States. AS
TO numbers, there were thousands of
illicit letter carriers plying their
trade.
After the British authorities insti-
tuted their systematic inspections of
all mail, it became necessary to
transport secretly all German let
tiers, at least all Of them that con-
tanned any sort of secret informa-
ton or required certain or
prompt delivery. Sailors and
passengers thenceforth engaged in
the traffic to an extent almost unbe-
lievable. Scandinavian routes were
the most used, but many letters were
sent to Germany by way of China to
make surer secret delivery.
This letter Transportation" be-
came a regular organized traffic.
The price per letter delivery ranged
from SO cents to $40 or more.
Uptown in New York were sew
eral private houses that were used
as mailing stations, or sub-stations,
SO to speak. They we're all well
known to the initiated and did
thriving business. Regular Grams
porters" thus knew where to get let
tiers to deliver and be assured good
pay. And it was usually prearranged
that the return letter or answer
should be called for and brought
back by the man who made the first
delivery.
knew all about these sub-mailing
stations in private houses and, in
fact, every sort Of mailing station
Tor this contraband. They were as
useful to me as they were to the
Germans. More so, in fact. had
ali agent in every one of them whom
| paid very we'll, who brought me
all letters and packages of impor-
lance, especially such as were from
embassies, consulates and propagan-
dist headquarters; and there were
many of them.
Some of the mailing stations did
business in such a wholesale way
that l had to get at the letters
through my agents at Scandinavian
ports. will give you a little look
at one of these stations as I saw It
myself. This station was uptown
near Riverside Drive in large
apartment house. There were two
rooms on the ground floor, the door
opening into the foyer. The letters
were brought to these rooms in suit
cases IN a manner which did not
attract attention. The room with
the door was furnished and used as
sleeping room by the two Danish
officers who occupied this apart
ment. The adjoining room, which
had a window on the street, but no
door, was furnished as living room.
and there were books on the window
sill that could be seen from the
street to carry out the DECEPTION.
In the corner of the room next to
the window was a closet or ward
robe in which the letters and pack
ages were secreted until the Danes
found opportunity to carry them up
stairs to the fifth floor, where an
other Dane in the plot had a five
room apartment. In this apartment
they were sorted. Sometimes as
many as dozen persons would be
engaged in the sorting of these let
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