The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-02-23
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
FREDERIC J. HASKIN, Director,
Washington, d. c.
WARRIORS OF THE DARKNESS.
Work of the Spies in the Great War Is
the Most Dangerous and Thankless
of AII-But II Is Necessary


the Most Dangerous and Thankless
of AII-But 1t Is Necessary.
Washington, D. c., Feb. 18.-A few
days ago a great transatlantic liner
was met at the dock by armed men.
Her more than a thousand passengers
were held incOmmunicadO for twenty
four hours. Marines with fixed bay
onets walked the decks. Everything
aboard was searched, from letter
cases to boxes of salve. Finally the
bearer of a code message was located
and taken into custody.
There is famous categorical paint
ing which depicts a royal ball upon a
floor supported from below by scores
of bent, toiling iaborers. In the fore
ground, the knotted arm of one of
these has burst thru the floor, where
the jewellers gather about it in amaze
ment In much the same way, the
Great War is undershot by an elab-
crate hidden spy system Kept strictly
below the surface, hidden from view,
few people give thought to its being
and it's power. Only now and again,
in some dramatic climax, it bursts into
view like the fist of the toiler in the
painting. Such a climax was the de-
tention and search of the passengers
on the liner.
This incident was only the culmina-
ton of a long and dangerous game
of spying and counter-spying, and in
this instance, America and the allies
won the trick. Immediately, the game
sinks again from public view. The Sc
quence of intrigue and strategy that
preceded it, the series of new trails
started, of reorganization made neces-
sary, that follow it are alike unnoticed.
To the casual observer of world
events, it stands an isolated hap
pening, dramatic, unexpected, brief
OF course, it is only a single link in a
long chain-a link that was neces-
sarily exposed to view when the rest of
the chain was hidden.
Every warning nation must perforce
maintain a spy system. The position
of the spy is unique His is often the
most perilous and thankleSS task OF
all. He carries his life in his hand
from days end to days end, playing
his game alone under heavy handi-
cap against the best brains that the
enemy can muster to confound and
undo him. He faces death, not in the
fever of battle, not backed and sur
rounded by comrades, not in the thrill
ling rush of a battle in the clouds or
a dash across No Mans Land, but in
the coolest of cold blood at the hands
of a firing squad. An atmosphere OF
much opprobrium and contempt at
taches to the very name of spy, but
it is none the less evident that the
game often calls for a high sort OF
courage and devotion.
OF course, there are all sorts of
spies, and many of them deserve the
bad name they bear. Men and women
who worm their way into the conf
dence of an unSuSpecting and friendly
people, who trade on the hospitality
of an alien land to undo their hosts
and betray them, will infallibly be re-
garded with scorn and hatred. Even
more bitterly hated is the spy, not I'M
common in Europe, who is not dis
guised enemy but bought and bribed
native. For the pettier forms of spy
| ing, such persons are often available.
A combination of avarice with some
grievance, real or imagined, against
the native land, seems to lead GER
| tain types to listen to offers of large
sums of money in return for informa-
| ton. Their position is not enviable,
| for their employers while using them,
feel as much contempt for their tools
as they would for traitor of their
| own race.
But besides these types of spy, there
| is the man who takes up the work in
wartime, applying his wits and risk
| ing his life, knowing that his achieve
ments must necessarily be without
public recognition and his death with
| out record. 1t is a significant fact
| that soldiers and officers at the front
| almost always speak of such men with
pity. Poor DEVIL is the term you
will hear oftenest applied to the spy.
The spies work everywhere. Neu-
| trail Europe is full of them, and this
part of the work is least DANGEROUS
| They operate on enemy soil on both
! sides, and here discovery means
stone wall and firing squad. Per-
haps the most dangerous part of the
| game is that which is played at the
| front News of enemy movements
| location of important bases, of sup
| ply depots and concealed batteries. is
glea ned from the reports of spies as
well as from airplane scouts. Camou-
! rage is ineffective against the spy
Men for this work are generally in
troduced into the enemy's lines by
a1rplane. A squadron of planes sets
out by night. AS soon as the enemy is
aroused, and hostile planes come nm tn
give battle, the plane slips quietly
away Besides the pilot, it carries the
spy Flying high in the darkness
presently the engine is cut off, and the
plane glides silently down to some
light scouting operations Here the
spy alights, and after giving him time
| to disappear, the aviator takes the air
again as rapidly as may be, to escape
peIore the roar of the engine betrays
hlm- This task of dropping a spy is
one of the most hazardous that a mill
tary aviator must undertake
But II the aviator is captured
ne IS only prisoner. He may be
shot down in rising, and escape with
his life. He is in uniform, an officer
prisoner of war AS for the spy, if
ne is discovered, that is the end of
him He is. of course. a man fitted
by the circumstances OF his life for
MS task. He speaks the language of
the enemy, probably knows the coun-
tryside intimately He is supplied
with whatever captured or forged pa
pers and evidence his superiors are
able to supply. He may pass for
peasant, or even for a soldier of the
! enemy For fixed Drrnher of davS
he will remain within the hostile
| lines, seeking for what ever informa-
ton has been assigned to him. At a
given place and hour, he has a rem
devious with an aviator of his own
army. Again an airplane will glide
ell IL. IL ~.