Cleveland County herald., 1920-11-04
ss.Js..a.II 0llES
 ARE SELFISH
Betray Their Friends for Money Rather Than for Patriotic
 Motives.
WAS DISTANT KIN OF KAISER
Mime. Victoria in German Secret Pc. lice Emp'oy-Turkish Spy Kills Self at Ellis Island to Avoid
 Deportation.


 New York.-That little romance sur rounded the women spies in the world war Is shown by intimate bits of his tory of the more prominent women who risked, and lost, their lives to gain information. Money alone seems to have been the impelling power in the lives of these women, rather than any heroic motive or patriotic desires.
 Mme. Marie K. de Victoria, who died of pneumonia in New York city re- gently in private sanitarium, was one of the most mysterious figures who arose out of the maze of intrigue unearthed by American secret service agents in their delvings into the plots of Count von Bernstorff She was ar- rested in 1918 and in May, 1919, told a United States judge and jury what she asserted was the true story of her life.
 Life Filled With Adventure.
 It had lasted only 40 years, but in 1t were crowded thrills, intrigues and hairbreadth escapes almost number less. The indictments against her were never pressed to trial, due to her ill health. A distant relative of the former German kaiser, she drew a sal ary of 1000 a month as a spy and lived in luxury
 Mournful was the funeral of the . Turkish spy" Mime. Despina Davido- witch Storch, famous for her beauty and for the diplomatic intrigues of her life, which lasted only 23 years. She died in prison on Ellis island, the of ficials believing that she took poison rather than be returned to France.
 Only three mourners accompanied her body to Mount Olivet cemetery They were the young Baron de Beville and his aged father and mother. The young Frenchman, whose infatuation for the beautiful Turk entangled him in the web of her intrigues, made all the arrangements for her costly fu- neral. Despina was married to an Englishman, James Hasketh, in 1915, but she left him to take up her life of adventure, and soon was numbered on the German pay roll.
 Her beauty and wit enabled her to ensnare many officers, from whom she learned military plans which were of value to the German war ministry. The department of justice has many of her love letters. but the real secrets of her life were buried with her.
 Mata Harris Dramatic End.
 In the season of 1900 an exotic dan- cer, Mata Hari, made a spectacular debut in Partisan circles. The little Japanese dancer entranced all by her graceful dancing and her charming personality. On October 15, 1917, Mata Hari faced firing squad at dawn in a French prison yard They fired and she fell face forward, dead.
 The real name of the woman was Marguerite Gertrude Zelle, who had been convicted of treason. She was arrested in Paris, February 13, 1917, and it was proved beyond doubt that she was a trusted agent of the Ger man special police and had acted for them for decade before the war. She | was known in Berlin by number and | for years had furnished them with | valuable information of French mil itary plans and equipment.
 In 1914. shortly after Germany had invaded Belgium, Marguerite Zelle left Paris for Switzerland, which she said was her native country. She returned after mysterious visit which aroused the suspicious of the French secret police and thereafter her activities were directly for officers in the Ger man army, with whom she Hnmuni- cated and from whom she received large sums of money. To them she sent information on the construction of the British tanks and the informn- ton was intercepted and traced to her.
 Mata. on being arrested and con fined in fortress in Paris. made no denial but stated that her father had been German officer and that what she had done had been for the father lend This was false. for k was proved that she was not of German origin but had played the role of spy simply | for the money she had received.