Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1922-06-09
c. c BERGDOLL IS
IN SWITZERLAND
GOVERNMENT STILL is DETER,
MINED THE DRAFT DoOGER
SHALL BE PUNISHED.
AGENTS ARE AT HIS HEELS
Case of This Arch Stacker Makes a
Remarkable Melodrama - Many
Of the Actors Have Disappeared
From Public Life,
BY EDWARD 3. CLARK

BY EDWARD 3. CLARK
Washington. 49, Grover Cleveland
bersdoil, the Philadelphia draft dodg-
81, whom ex-service men love nor
DIT ana who has been haunting the
United States government from a safe
distance for long time, is now in
switzerland. Secretary of War Weeks
Is On record as saSIhs mat before his
term Of office IS up he will have the
Stacker in custody and tina, he will be
gwen what court decides is his due.
II the ex-soldiers could say what
bergdoll's due is, he probably would
get something rather harder in the
way of punishment than usually is
melted out TO any prisoner for what
ever otfenSe. The Bergdoll case still
Is alive, 1t is understood there are
government agents in Switzerland
watching this man and waiting the
upportune moment when something
may happen which will enable thea
To put on his wrists what Eugene
AFam was supposed TO wear when he
walked between his captors.
\ fellow newspaper man has said
In treating of this case that the writer
of fiction could do worse than To take
the case of Grover Cleveland Berg
doll as a subject for a story and that
by SO doing he could crafty his desire
for action, no matter how strong the
desire might be, and still keep within
THAT truth which is supposed to be
stranger than fiction.
There seems to be something in
this The Bergdoll case has had ev-
cry kind of an element in it to make
for interest-treasure hunting, the
credulity of the treasure hunter, accu-
sationS of bribery, escapes of the kind
that Houdini makes with puzzling
ease. and lot of other things which
compel interest and keep excitement
moving.
Many Of Its Actors Disappear.
1t is probable that in no other in.
stance in good many years have SO
many actors appeared on any of life's
scenes as have played their p&rts il
this Bergdon drama, melodrama, OF
whatever 1t may be. There are som,
eX-soldiers who would not weep tear,
If the final scene was a tragedy. Per
haps this is brutal but it is true
The army officer who was stationed
at Governors Island, New York, when
Bergdoll was prisoner, and who
named the guard which accompanied
the Stacker on the hunt for the pot
Of gold at the foot Of the rainbow, Is
nc longer in the military service. He
is living the life of a farmer in one
&c the states Of this blessed union
Another officer Of the army, who mp
proved the request made by one of
Bergdolls counsel that he be allowed
to go to look for the gold which never
glittered, has been retired from the
service and is now somewhere in Eu-
rope. Certain more distinguished gen
tlemen of the government service who
had more or Tess to do with the grant
ing of permission for the trip to dig
up the hidden treasure are in retire
ment
One officer who met the Stacker on
his arrival in Philadelphia and as
sumed personal responsibility for his
safe return to the custody of the
wary-eyed and gripping handed otli-
Gals, is dead, meeting his death I'M
der somewhat tragic circumstances.
Anoth or man who was connected with
the case in an authoritative position
and who, unquesuona0iy unluStly,
was accused of having accepted a
brlbe. has been exceedingly i'll. He
will be retired from the service before
long after having spent something
like six months in hospital rs a
great sufferer from an acute form Of
rheumatism.
Guilty Only Of Great credulity.
Representative in Congress Peters
of Maine. who was the chairman Of
the congressional committee that con-
Quoted the investigation into the
escape Of Bergdoll and who signed
the minority report which cleared
certain men Of anything in the nature
of a conspiracy 10 assist in the escape,
has taken himself out Of political life.
He Is now sitting upon the bench.
There never was any belief any
where except among q few Of those
who wanted 50 TO believe that the
men who were connected with the
Bergdoll case, or at least in tile pot
Of gold part Of it, were guilty Of any
thing except credulity in an exagger-
nted form Therefore no one thinks
that because men have fallen III or
have lost their Jobs or have had any.
thing else happen 10 them, they have
met with misfortune as a matter Of
II simply is clear that
many Of these men have gone into
retirement
The Bergdoll properties are still
tied up by the alien property custo-
dian. Col Thomas w. Miller Every
effort that the mother Of the refugee
and her attorneys have made 10 re-
cover the properties has proved fruit
less and it is pretty well understood
ID Washington that means viii he