Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1924-01-26
Romantic Past
Stripped From
"Red Dancer"

The name of Malta -Hari has per-
haps been forgotten in America, but
not over here. The history of the
Red Dancer" who was shot as a
spy is urid enough in all truth; is
has taken one dramatist and four
novelists, each gifted with senti-
mental imagination, to make the
story of the woman's life romance
and tragedy. tinged with the golden
coiors of love and passion and
beauty.
Now the true story OF Mata- lIan
has come out, and the reality, as is
so often the case. is pitifully far re-
moved from romance and beauty.
Famous as the woman was in Paris
before the war there was no fete
worthy of the name at which Malta
Ha1 did not danCe-she had no
mystery attached TO her origin.
Malta Hari was one Gertrude Zelle,
neither u Jewess nor IL Bayadere.
but a Protestant Dutch- woman and
the divorced wife OF a Dutch West
India major.
4 physician who attended Hata-
Haffi previous to her execution has
Just published in La Cnronique
Medicale" a precise account of the
last days of the dancer at the prison
OF st. LaZare. from where. one fog
gy morning, she was escorted to the
Forest of Vincennes to face dozen
rifles ut sunrise The authenticity of
the dispositions and their yeracity
are unquestionable; DR.. Leon Bizard
attended her from the time she
walked into st. Lazare until she
left it to repose forever In a pine
box. The long talks which he had
with the woman. who apparently for
the first time in her life barred her
soul to others to sec. have adequately
given, the lie to the suggestions of
dramatists and novelists, who made
her q SECOND That's
Lived as Bride in East Indies
When Malta Harl was the wife of
Major Mcleod they we're together in
Sumatia. 1t was there that she
learned those incomparably graceful
contortons which twenty years ago
set the~~whole town talking and
brought her nearly as many lovers
as there were noblemen in France.
She was not an Oriental. had never
been in either India or Bangkok, but
was born in Holland. There she
lived until she went as McLeod's
bride to the East Indies. There she
left hlm, and drifted back to Europe.
dancing in the various capitals, at
tracing attention wherever she
went by the grace of her body and
the strange, half exotic expression
of her face. Finally she turned up
in Paris. and in Paris she stayed.
living the lurid, passionate life that
hnatly brought her to the firing
squad.
Legend aided by the novelists.
had 1t that Gertrude Zelle took baths
in friss 70 a., a
her figure. This is utterly untrue.
according to DIR. Bizard. who CLAIMS
she never took 1t milk bath, and
only rarely a bath. Her only re-
quest ever was for the use of the
telephone. and that was refused her.
Bizard says. Occasionally she would
want some water, commodity
which IS rather scarce in the
decrepit old prison. She never re-
ceiVed tue carloads of letters from
her admirers as popularity believed
All the time she was in her cell at
st. Lazare she wrote three letters.
ana all three we're returned to her
At the record office she wrote three
others which she gave 10 the
registrar. telling him: Don't mix
the envelopes. 1t would make Il fine
mess"
She died without con,pla ming.
without fear. oh, these French
men, she sighed to Bizard. IF this
killing me were going to make them
win the war. could understand.
But can't row."
To the sister who accompanjed
her with two gendarmes 10 her death
she retortec proudly; Forgive? !
could not ever forgive the French
Ring Legend Is Exploded
Another tale which excited the
imagination Of the French has beer
uispelIeo by the medical deposition.
A ring was believed to have been
taken from Mata Harris finger after
hcr death and given 10 the last lover
or the dancer--a blinded British Of
fcer. who is believed to have be-
come a monk In a convent.
All OF that, declared Sister Leonide
TO the doctor, was pure invention.
Zelle had countless rings on her
fingers when she died. and "sbe had
too much respect for me TO ask n
service or that kind" the nun added.
So all Of the romance. all of the
glamour which had been cast over
the life OF Mata- Hari. who was a
sinner IL there ever was one. and an
unreino4seful sinner, has been. torn
aside. For time the French rather