The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1922-06-14
GOVERNMENT STILL is DETER
MINED THE DRAFT DODGER
SHALL BE PUNISHED.
AGENTS ARE AT HIS HEELS
Case of This Arch.SIacker Makes a
Remarkable Meodrama - Many
Of the Actors Have Disappeared
From Public Life.
BY EDWARD 8. CLARK

ef, WHoIu eS-SerFlCe men love not u
bit, and 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 saying that before his
term OF office is up he will have the
Stacker in custody and that he will be
given what court decides is his due
If 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
meted out to any prisoner for what.
ever offense. The Bergdoll case still
is alive 1t is understood there are
government agents in Switzerland
watching this man and waiting the
opportune moment when something
may happen which will enable them
to put on his wrists what Eugene
Aram was supposed to wear when he
walked between his cnptors.
a 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 4 subject for story and that
by SO doing lie could crafty his desire
Tor 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 Bcrgdol case has had ev-
cry kind of an element in it to make
for intcrcSt-trcaSure hunting, the
prnIn1itr nf hn
SationS Of bribery. escapes of the kind
that Houdini makes with puZzling
ease and Il 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 Il good many years have so
many actors appeared on any of life's
scenes as have played their parts in
this Bergdoll drama, melodram;l, or
whatever il may be. There are some
cx-soldicrs who would not weep tears
If the final scene was Il tragedy. Per-
haps this is brutal, but it is true.
The army officer who was stationed
at Governors Island, New York, when
Bcrgdoll was Il prisoner and who
named the guard which accompanied
The Stacker on the hunt for the pot
VI gold at the foot of the rainbow. is
no longer in the military service. He
is living the life of Il farmer in one
of the states of this blessed union
another officer of the army, who ap-
iiroNcd the request made by one of
HcrgdOllS counsel that he be allowed
20 80 to look for the gold which never
Elittcred, has been retired from the
service and is now somewhere in Eu
rope. Certain more distinguished gen.
Ilcmcn OF the government service who
hah more or less to do with the grant.
lng OF permission for the trip to dig
up the hidden treasure are in retire
mcut
one officer who met the Stacker on
MS arrva! in Philadelphia and MS.
sulHrd personal responsibility for his
saic return to the custody of the
wary-eycd and grpping-handed Off
Gals, is dead. meeting his death un-
der somewhat tragic circumstances.
Another man who was connected with
flIe case in an authoritative position
ami who. unquestionably unjustly,
was accused of having accepted
h:ihc, has been exceedingly ill., He
viii be retired from the service before
long after having spent something
like six months in hospital as a
great sufferer from an acute form OF
rheumatism.
Guilty Only Of Great credullty.
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 conspiracy to 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 few of these
who wanted so to believe that the
men who were connected with The
Bergdoll case, or at least in the not
of-gold part of it, were guilty of any
thing except credulity In an exagger-
ated form. Therefore no one thinks
that because men have fallen i'll or
nave lost their jobs or have had any
thing else happen to them, they have
met with misfortune as matter or
retrlbution. 1t 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 to re-