The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-02-06
TRAGEDIES OF
GERMAN SPIES
Are REVEALED
Are Never Allowed to spend
Their Declining Days in
Peace.
(London TIT Bits.)

some years been the most important
woman in German secret service, OF
which her rascally husband Conrad
Won Hertzenfeldts. murderer. thief.
blackmailer. and profligate, to whom
she was passionately attached, was
for some time the controlling influ-
ence.
Possessing the organizing brain of
Napoleon, the beauty Of Venus, the
wealth Of Rothschild, the power
(wielded secretly equivalent to that
OF many an emperor, she ranked as
the most dangerous spy who ever cast
the fascinating spell OF her beauty.
talents, and INSCRIPTIONS daring over
the chancelleries Of the world.
When Blunder Means Death.
She could, up till some time ago, do
no wrong In the eyes Of the kaiser.
She possessed more dangerous Sc
crets that any other ten women in the
Fatherland. Hers was the mind that
controlled and directed the vast Ger
man espionage machine in which the
cogs are women of all ages in every
station OF life.
Hella Won Wamberg has disappear
ed. Not a word Of her disappearance
has been printed in the newspapers.
Only in the most select secret service
circles is here presence missed. No
one knows for a certainty what has
become of her.
But those of us who move behind
the scenes in the great network of in
ternational espionage-spying. to put
It bluntly-can give pretty shrewd
guess. Over something, we know not
what, Hella Won Wamberg has blund-
cred so high in the secret service Of
the Fatherland to blunder means
death. Bunglers are worth more dead
TO the kaiser than alive. Perhaps Hell
la has obeyed an order 70 commit sui.
eide: perhaps she has been myster-
iously and artistically put away and
her secrets sent with her to a name
less grave. The latter is more prob
able. Any day the news may leak out
in Germany and be cabled here that
Hella Won Wamberg, the woman whose
name never appeared in the newspa-
pers but who welded tremendous
power and was dreaded by the spies
of all other countries. has been found
dead "in mysterious circumstances"
Follows in Footsteps
If Hella Won Wansberg has been
murdered, as a person like myself
with inside knowledge has every justi-
fication for assuming. she will only
have followed in the footsteps of many
other German spies who, at crucial
moment have failed in some great
espionage task upon the accomplish
ment of which the war lord has set
great store.
In my calling as n neutral secret
service agent, moving about the world
in places where the ordinary mortal
dared not to venture even If he were
allowed, ! have become acquainted
with some astounding happenings
Nothing has struck me more forcibly
than the absolute brutal pitilessness
with which the German emperor treats
the spies for whom the fatherland has
no further use.
/ have seen with my own eyes the
imperial signature attached to docu-
ments authorizing the shooting. pois-
oning, drowning or stabbing. not only
Of men. but of young girls of from
seventeen to twenty, and women be-
tween fifty and sixty-flve, who have
failed in their duty as spies. With
some OF these women l have been
brought into close professional con
tact. ] have dined, travelled and done
the numbers ] have personally known
who have followed failure by suicide
rather than meet the terrible doom
the kaiser has planned for them can
be counted by the dozen--some of
them bright, brainy, beautiful young
women of high parentage. who could
have made their mark in practically
any walk of life calling for the exhi.
bition of mentality, physical courage
and total disregard of danger.
or course, nobody is fool enough to
believe that the kaiser carries out
these murders with his own hand.
But the fact remains that he orders
them or sanctions them, therefore he
is as much murder morally as If his
own hand had fred the fatal shot
The Life or Torture.
However valuable be the service a
German spy has rendered to his or
her country. they are never allowed to
be pensioned off nor spend declining
years of their lives in peace. When
the secret service has had all it can
get out of them death is their newt
able portion. And the reason why the
kaiser murders his spies--morally. if
not in actual facts not far to seek.
ne very VI lutlT
puts them in possession of informa-
ton the disclosure Of which would be
disastrous to the fatherland. Whilst
they are actually in the service there
is comparatively little danger of their
doing much harm.
Periodical tests of the most COM
plete and searching character are
made to plumb the depths Of a spy's
loyalty. The men can not trust their
own wives; the women their own
mothers and sisters. Letters are
opened and examined. maids and men
servants are installed to spy on the
spies-and they in turn are spied on
and this great espionage network is
so vast. so interminable, that no one
on earth seems to know exactly where
it ends. It is practically impossible
for a spy to communicate or preserve
anything valuable in writing
in the early days Of Britain's stu
pendous efforts to turn out munitions |
in tremendous quantities, the German
secret service, on the kaiser's own
cant ordorS that p,onv