The evening world., 1920-11-18


ming Of the World War not a word
did no breathe about his prison rec
ord until a few days ago when the
whole thing leaked out.
ITS useless to try to keep prison
records a secret" Mr. Irwin confessed
as he sat in his apar tlnent at No. 2s7
Central Iark West, and owned up TO
every "darned arrest" ''Fho other
day was pulled in Boston for ignor-
iEg a policeman's signal; said was
too frivolous with my hivvsr.
'-Tho Judge looked mo ever WITH
condescending glance and demanded
Have you over been arrested before
To which I replied meekly, Not in
this country Whereupon I was
recognized as a dangerous character
and my whole record came out"
And may 1 ask just how many
times YOU have been arrestedf'
asked Mr. Irwin with judicial stern
ness
But Mr.. Irwin only threw back his
hsad and gave one Of his typical VIII
Irwin laughs.
''Ttmes?" he queried. ''Why I've
been arrested so many times that
lost count long ago, II I had a medal
for each offense 1 would look like a
prize skater. The London Boobies
and the French gendarmes plnched
me every time / stuck my nose over
sagk ma
twice and the Dutch put me behind
the bars once. In fact got so used
to enforced visits in jail | felt lone
some when they gave me night out.
The Italians were about the only
Eu ropsans who never got anything
on ms. How did that happsn7 Anil"
"what was your funniest expert
ence?" l asked, and 4 said funniest
because that was the spirit Mr..
Irwin seemed 10 take Il all in.
"rn ten YOU all about that"
laughed the premier arrestee. bat
first let me explain how l happened
to be the first war correspondent ar
rested"
A cigarette Lighted, the story. secret
ell these years. began:
'"The moment the war broke out I
rushed over to Belgium with lot OF
other war correspondents. In our
especial party there were Irwin Cobb.
John Y, McCuteheon. Arno Dosch
Fleurot. Richard Harding Davis and
Miss Mary Boyle o'RSllly.
at so happened that I was the only
one in the party who conld speak
French, and when the GsEn1ans en-
tered Louvain L was pushed, forward6
to explain our mission. was
promptly arrested. You ace / have a
shock of yellow hair and wear spec
tacles. aud was promptly taken for a
German spy. Davis and the others
thought it such u good Joke they
voted unanimously to make me the
star arrestee on all future occasions.
And now comes the mystery
story" laughed Mr.. Irwin. "As
quickly aa we could. we made our
way to little town called Felts. which
is right on the border line between
Germany and Holland. Crowds of
people passed through here. / never
saw so many different nationalities
collected together in my life. The
town was neutral and usually when
people reached 1t they fully expressed
their opinions OF the Germans.
Il noticed a very beautiful young
woman with wonderful yellow cats
eyes, groOmed 10 the last degree and
seated on her baggage. But outside
of her unusual beauty l paid no at.
tention TO her and we stood about
and chatted most indiScreetly.
After a time we dropped into a cafe
TO got a drink. and then I was sum-
monod by the beautiful young lady,
who asked me many Questions. While
l was engaged in conversation Davis
began to wigwag 10 mo 20 get away
from her quick. When reached him
he said the proprietor OF the cafe had
tipped him Off that this beautiful GreR,
ture was a German SPY.
"SOOu after that We took a t-N1a
which, after many changes, was 20
reach Flushing. The German spS
heard US talking and knew where
we were going. Alas, we saw her board
our train. But on the car the con-
ductor told us not TO change where We
hau pAaAlAlgd dlA0 gave lH dlloNntE STOP
OF. We saw the German spy get of
at our planned destination, and as the
train rolled on we gave three merry
cheers. But tho cat's yves turned up
later in England and We were eventu-
ally arrested.
Strange to say concluded Mr..
Irwin, Il had my worst experiences
in England. I was the first CORE
spondent TO write the account OF the
battle OF Ypres and II did not find
favor in England. That Is why so
many Bobbies told me that | would
Jolly well have TO go 10 jail" After
tho story was printed Lord North
Clffe told me that l was In for a
IL of a time And | was. I was
between the devil and the deep blue
sea. Everywhere I went they would
say, Are you the guy that wrote that
pres stuftY And then 10 was 'rigat
about turn and | heard that JOllv
well jail music and saw bars, not
stars!
Thought I was through with jail
life when / returned 10 America. So
you can understand my humiliation
when that boston COpDor took me in