Evening star., 1926-12-27
VASSAR PROFESSOR
ROBBED IN RUSSIA
Customs Men Take Woman'S
Papers-Passengers on
Train Get Lingerie.
BY JUNIUS b. WOOD.
By Radio to The Star and Chicago Dai
News. Copyright, 1925.

By Radio to The Star and Chicago Daily
News. Copyright, 1925.
REVAL, Esthonia, December 81
Mrs. Halle F. Flanagan, associate
professor at Vassar, where she is the
director of the experimental theater,
and who is now studying the Euro
pean. stage under travelling scholar
ship given by the Guggenheim
Foundation of New York. has ar
rived here after the weirdest expert
ence which has befallen any recent
visitor to temperamental Russia,
The climax of her studies had been
a private Invitation to a performance
in her honor at the famous Lenin.
gard Ballet School. In her six weeks
association with the Russian theaters
and opera in Moscow and Leningrad,
Anatole Lunatcharsky, commissar of
education and director of dramatists,
afforded unlimited facilities to Prof.
Flanagan for pursuit of her studies,
of which the Soviet Society of Gull
tural Relations Abroad, assumed di-
rection.-
On her arrival at the Esthonian
frontier, at the village of Kingisen,
on the day following the unforget-
able Leningrad performance. jealous
customs officials confiscated her pro-
fessional notes on this and other
theatrical performances, two Ameri-
can letters of credit and various au-
tographed photographs presented by
officials and artists in appreciation
of Americas participation in Rus
sian stage development. Her fellow
passengers helped themselves to SOU
venirs from her unguarded baggage
while she was taken to the police
office.
Plow Through Suit Case.
NJ. Semeniov, director Of the former
Imperial Ballet School, founded 200
years ago, staged a special ballet per-
formance from Russia to the United
States in honor of the visiting Ameri-
can professor, Flanagan" Semeniov,
who is hailed as a greater master of
the dance than Mordkin, declared the
tribute was dedicated to the United
States, first, because of Americas un-
abating interest in Russian art and,
second, on account of the assistance
of the American relief administration
in Leningrad following the war.
The customs officials plowed through
the professors papers in her suit case
without result until they discovered
one photograph fraternally inscribed,
ITO our American cousin" This the
unsmiling officials considered as proof
of Russian nationality, although the
stranger held an American passport
and was unable to speak Russian.
Why are you leaving your own
country?" an official peremptorily de-
manded while his aides continued to
scatter the contents of the Americans
baggage. When they dug out the let
ters of credit totaling $4,000, less the
drafts drawn, the entire staff scared
into bolshevik hysteria, never having
seen similar documents and conclud-
ing that they were tabooed bonds.
Letters of Credit Seized.
Nobody ought to present that
much money" said the y-whiskered
officer presiding at the rump court,
"and certainly you cannot take it out
of Russia"
The papers, including Prof. Flanni.
gan's undecipherable English notes.
were seized after the train had been
held an extra hour beyond the usual
two-hour frontier stop.
The American, with only sufficient
small change to permit her to COM
with relatives in Iowa. was
then permitted to proceed. When the
experience was repeated to the Soviet
consul here he emphatically declared
the local officials had exceeded their
authority and promised that the pa
pers would be restored. It is doubt
ful whether the personal articles.
chiefly silken lingerie, which appealed
TO ner Fellow passengers, are still
within the jurisdiction of the court.