The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-11-10

more remarkable change than for Baron von Dankelmann, a former member of the German Army Staff and boon companion of the Crown Prince in many of his revels. In this article the Baron gives his own yer sion of the events that brought about | the change.)
 I Hamburg, Germany.-It is hard to reconcile my position today with 1 what it was less than a year agC, when I was one of the staff of the 1 German Army, and enjoyed the con- l fidence of the Emperor, the Crown i Prince. and the High Command. To. 1 day I stand at a street corner in Hamburg in my uniform selling pa ! pers to the people of all classes who I pass by. Some of them stand i'll | amazement before me. wondering what great change has been wrought i that I should be filling a position in | life that would have scandalized peo. | pie only a few months ago. | Occasionally a kind-hearted busi" ness man ventures to ask polite ques" l tions as to the reason for the change in my fortunes, and only the other day one sympathetic old man hinted as deHcately as his middle-class up- bringing would permit that if I car" 1 ed to accept of his bounty there was l home and an assured position in l life, so far as money would give it, | for the asking.
 | Politely I declined, but I could not | doubt the sincerity of the old man. l My refusal seemed to pain him very ! much and as he left me I swear tha. l I saw tears gathering in his eyes. What is the Fatherland coming to?" he murmured as he passed. When l 1-fx- n +hai l bread thus as gutter merchants in the streets of Hamburg"
 My Downfall.
 The story of what some people call 1 my downfall is easily told. Not so very long ago I was one of the boon com panions of the eX-CrOwn Prince, and I was his associate in more rev. els than I care to enumerate.
 When I embarked on my military career I was quite wealthy for a member of the German nobility, and had no reason to fear diversity; l but I soon found that the life of riot and extravag gance I was forced to Iead in the circles around the Crown Prince was going to eat into my re- | encores.
 I tried hard to avoid excess ex- penditures, but to no purpose. Soon l found myself getting into debt. I tried to keep away from expensive | haunts frequented by the Crown Prince, but he kept on pressing me for explanations of my absence, and so I found I had to return.
 1 I could not tell the Crown Prince the truth, because I was overcome | with false shame. I could not say that I could not afford the luxurious life we were living, that I could not keep up with the fast pace in extra l vagance set by him and those around | him.
 Therefore I went. p1unging deeper and deeper into debt. and when the war came it completed the disaster for me, for what was left of my for tune was invested in shipping shares. and these came to be worse than val
 ueless before the war was many days old thanks to the relentless energy of the British fleet m driving our
 ships off the sea.
 Crown Princes Tears. When the war broke out I went with the Crown Prince into the war zone as a member of his personal staff and took part in the desperate fighting from the battle of Charleroi to the arrnistice. I was in the Verdun shambIes and can r=stfTy tnaJ, con trary to the general belief, my master
 opposed the scheme from the start, and during the month of July, when the carnage was at it's height, I saw him frequently in tears as he had brought home to him the terrible suf- ferings of his men.
 On one of these occasions he said to me that he had made up his mind
 to go into the battle himself, and get killed in the hope that it would bring home to the Kaiser the need for stopping this frightful carnage, into which he had been rushed by the High Command against his judgment and against the entreaties of his son.
 He asked me whether I would go 1 with him to make this sacrifice, and I answered readily, Willingly, my l Prince" for I, too. had begun to re- aEze all that was implied by this senseless sacrifice of brave mems lives, and I was willing to pay any | price to end it.
 l had made up my mind that if were spared the horrors of war I should retire into private life, and I started to lay my plans accordingly. It was while I was in the grip of this decision that there came into my life
 the sweet influence that changed it forever.
 | A Frank Girl.
 One day in the town of LuXemburg met by chance a lovely young girl | of the student class. I was able to give her lift in my car, and we be- 1 came quite good friends. I found t6at she was very thoughtful girl and | rather well read for her sex and her l 1ge. She held strong Socialist views.
 md, to my surprise, she did not hesi-
 tate to express them in my presence.
 hough she knew well enough what 1 ny station in life was
 | I liked to hear the wickedness of 4 ny class denounced from such bret