davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-10
CHAPTER VIII

Out at sea. at night, we de-
stroyed or heaved overheard the
remaining contraband of our
rivals, and put guards armed
with crowbars over our own.
We left Finnish waters with
out serious mishap, homeward
bound. An emissary of the
Party awaited me on the locks
as the Fredenhagen passed
into the Kiel Canal. handed
our smuggling profits to the
Party courier.
My ship went to Bremen. Be-
fore she left on her next voy-
age. | had aboard, again
Through Party funds, almost
1000 bottles of three-star cog
nae for "Koskinen e. Niminen."
Each round trip to Finland
lasted three weeks. Each trip
the volume of our contraband
increased.
On the third trip not only
the bunkers, but also the life
boats, the bilges. the forepeak
and even the spare water tanks
were crammed with bottles. all
carefully wrapped in burlap.
The success of our previous en-
terprises had made our chiefs
cast prudence to the winds.
The Central Committee of the
small illegal Communist Party
of Finland under Milo Virta-
men modified the larger part
of its organization in Helsinki
to take this record consign-
ment off the Fredenhagen.
About a hundred men and
women boarded the steamer, and
left it with bottles packed into
sacks or strapped around their
waists. Three such expeditions
were made in the course Of a
single night. In the early hours
of the morning, the leader of
the Finn transport column
asked me:
"How many bottles have
you got left?"
Plenty" ] said. Better
have them off the ship by
daybreak."
The Finn growled in disgust :
Whoever heard of financ-
ing revolution by selling
boOZe!"
Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-10
Spoken in Earnest

He told me to stay in Berlin
until the next day because he
wanted me to take to Otto Mar
quardt some material which
would not be ready before morn.
ing. He then asked me about
my party work. / told him that
l preferred assignments which
called for more action than shut
ting between towns as a courier.
did you ever kill a man? ?"
Neumann asked abruptly.
NO." ! said.
Swell, then, how would you
do it,"
I'D shoot him."
Neumann grinned gloomily.
wrong" he said. "If you
shoot at a man and only
wound him, what then? He'll
go to the hospital and tell the
police all about II, Is that
right?"
Maria Schipora interjected:
Usually a man is shot at
night. At night it's dark. In
the dark one can't see"
Ito Be Continued)
Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-10
On GPU Paw Roll

/ realized then that Maria
Schipora was on the pay roll of
the G. P. u. We quickly be-
came friends. l harbored admit
ration for Communists engaged
in international work. She spoke
simply. And she was swift and
avid. Her lips were full and red.
She grasped my hair and kissed
me.
"Comrade Eberlein always
comes late" she said.
Eberlein did not come that
day. Instead a tall, gloomy,
ascetic-looking man, in his early
thirties, arrived, and / handed
the Hamburg letter to him. The
stranger Immediately began ply
ing me with questions about the
excellent intelligence servic e
which the North German Lloyd,
the Hamburg-America Line and
other shipping companies had
established in the fringes of
Communist waterfront organiza-
lions.
l gave him what little infor-
nation l had. When the woman,
who listened attentively, men,
toned the callers name, Felix
Neumann, l was electrified.
When the functionaries Of the
Red Hundreds spoke Of Neu-
mann. it was in whispers. He
was the head Of new oySaniza-
ton of T-units, terror groups,
the skeleton staff of a future
German Tcheka.
Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-10
Chosen as Courier

In the intervals between
weekend maneuvers in the
heath southwest Of Hamburg, |
was singled out for service in
the courier corps of the Ham
burg organization.
At first / thought this serv-
les ratber. dull, hqSasSe ii WAS
simply a matter of relaying
messages between the known
leaders and their Russian mill
tary advisers, men like Otto
Marquardl, who took good care
not to be seen in the company
of German Communists well
known to the police. But the
weekly trips to Kiel, Lubbock,
Cuxhaven and Bremen, and
two journeys to Berlin, gave
me an insight into the doings
of an underground elite whose
existence had barely sus-
lpected.
Outstanding in this political
underworld was the figure of
Johnny Dettmer, whose reckless
daring could we'll measure up
with that of the pirate heroes
of my boyhood. Dettmer was a
blond, blue-eyed giant of "a,
quick-tempered, clever, and with
the strength and agility Of a
panther. He was one of those
h onest, political desperadoes
who are invaluable fighters in
riot and upheaval, but who in
variably come TO grief once or
derby conditions have been es-
tablished. II was Ernst Wolf
weber. one Of the Comintern
chieftains, who remarked to
me in later years Of Comrade
lDettmer:
Eve need men like Johnny
to win he fracas, but after
the revolution we've got to
shoot them"
In the early Fall of 1923
Johnny Dettmer was gun
runner for the Red Hundreds
of northern Germany. Otto
Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-10
Whole Party Drunk

explained that the German
Communist Party, by using
dozens of ships, had made q
good fortune out of such
smuggling enterprises. 1t meant
rifles and hand-grenades for
quite a number of proletarian
companies. And doubtless, ]
limited, the Communist Party OF
Finland was making a fair
profit as well.
The Finn agreed. He sent q
boy TO reconnoiter the location
of customs patrols on nearby
docks, then armed FIVE local
Communists with five bottles
each, and told them to rur
.athwart of the customs officials
to distract their. attention from
what was going on aboard the
Fredenhagen.
The five did their job we'll
Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-10
By JAN VALTIN

ton into the truck, and covered
the whole with rotting fish. The
truck, manned by two taciturn
youngsters, departed as soon as
1T had. been loaded, heading
toward the highway of Stettin.
Johnny told me this story in
Low German, his native tongue,
which he was in the habit Of
using. Low German has a tough
and earthly flavor, and nuances
of rollicking disrespect impossi-
BILE to translate. AS it is, Johnny
is beyond bearing me grudge
for doing insufficient honor to
his beloved waterside dialect,
for, in 1884, his head came off
under the Nazi ak.
entered upon my duties as
a courier for the underground
organization of the party at the
end of September. My first trip
was from Hamburg to Berlin. /
was instructed to deliver a
sealed letter to an address at
I104 Moeckernstrasse. There, in
a coy apartment, l was received
by a good-looking olive-skinned
young woman. l recognized that
she was Russian from the way
she spoke German.
Her name. / learned subse-
Iquently, was Maria Schipora.
But the message which / carried
from Otto Marquardt was not
for her. 1t was for Hugo Eber-
lein, a member Of the central
committee of the party, who was
then in charge of Communist
contacts in the German army
and navy.
Maria Schipora served me
benedictine while l waited for
Eberlein. She kept on urging
me to drink. After three or four
drinks, l began to fear that this
Russian woman might be a spy
for the police. ! rose and said
brusquely:
IL do not like this. Who are
you: What's your business"
v She leaned forward over the
table and laughed.
You came to meet Com
rade Eberlein?" she asked.
YES"
"WhO sent you"
/ refused to answer.
II know Marquardt WELL"
she said. We've worked to-
gether for years"
Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-10
Out of the Night

Marquardt and an unnamed
superior of Hugo Marx sent
him to Kolberg, a small town
on the Baltic between Stettin
and Danzig. There, in a tavern,
he met a youthful Soviet Off
Ger and a German Communist
named Lukowitz.
came to know Lukowitz well.
He was a grizzled,> sloW-moving
man, former tugboat captain
who later became one of the
party chiefs in the Lubbock dis
trict. Scattered in third-rate
hotels in Kolberg were about a
dozen other Communists of
Dettmer's caliber. All of them
had had seafaring experience.
Lukowitz sometimes took them
out TO sea in three motor
launches which had been pur-
chased by the Comintern-seem-
ingiy to no purpose at all.
The three launches Liese,
Anita and Sturmvogel - were
staunch old boats, built of oak,
SO to 40 feet in length, fitted
with old gasoline motors and
capable of making seven knots
in friendly weather. q saw the
boats in 1880. Reconditioned
they were then used by the
Comintern bureau in Danzig for
the smuggling of Communist
literature to Poland, where the
party was illegal, by way of the
lower Vistula and the port of
Gdynia.)
Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-10
Pretending to Fish

All next day they drifted,
pretending to fish. In the fol-
lowing night the launches ran
shoreward. They landed their
Icontraband at a point between
Kolberg and a fishing village
called Deep. There was a clus-
ter of huts and shallow chan
mel running a little distance
inshore.
A truck was waiting beside
a heap of rotting fish. They
loaded the arms and ammuni-
Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-10

Having slipped across The
border of Holland into Bel
gum, the author reached Eng
land as a Stowsway and does
the same on a cargo steamer
10 America where he Jumped
ship az San Pedro, Cal. After
various Jobs on the West Coast.
including work as movie extra.
Vaitin returned 10 Antwerp as
an abie-bodied seaman in 1925
and made contact with Alexan-
der Bandura anarchist king OF
the waterfront there.
Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-10
Knew Something Up

Johnny Dettmer and his COM
rades loafed in Kolberg for a
week, justifying their presence
by appearing TO be interested in
the purchase of boat. Then a
courier from Berlin brought a
message for the Soviet agent m
Kolberg. The Russian summoned
Lukowitz. Lukowitz rounded up
his waiting crew and between
them they manned the three
launches, knowing that at last
something was afoot.
They left the Kolberg fish pier
at daybreak, keeping a steady
north-northwest course. Dett-
mer was aboard the Anita, Luz
kowitz on the Sturmvogel.
IOffshore they spread out so as
not to attract the attention OF
passing craft.
1t is SIS miles from Kolberg to
the southern tip of Bornholm
With the high shores of the
island in sight. they cut their
motors, brought sea-anchors out
and drifted, a lookout man on
duty on each boat.
They waited until II at night,
watching the lights of passing
westbound steamers. At IL a
steamer which had crawled VI
slowly from the east flashed a
signal after it had reached a
spot FIVE miles south of the
southern extreme of the island
The signal was the letter l.
Observation-Disclosures, repeated at in
ltervals until Lukowitz answered
with similar flashes. Then the
steamer turned south and the
launches followed until they
were out of sight of Bornholm
The steamer was a small
tramp ship. 1t showed no flag
but all knew it was a Soviet
vessel. AS the launches APP.
proached, sailors lowered a graf,
ing covered with canvas tc
screen the steamers name. The
launches made fast alongside
and Lukowitz spoke few words
with a man who leaned over the
steamers rail.
Heavy bundles tied UP il
pieces of tarpaulin were lowered
into the launches. Each bundle
contained 10 obsolete rife.
which had once belonged to tn,
ITsarist army. Then came small
barrels full of cartridges burieC
in -four.
Three hundred rifles were
transshipped in less than al
hour, and after a curt salute tn,
launches drew away from tn,
steamers side. The launche,
waited until the Soviet ship hat
disappeared in the night, head
ing toward the Kiel Canal ant
a legitimate port of call.
/ Lukowitz instructed hi
crews:
!, "Should the coast patrol
stop us-over the side with
the stuff"
Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-10

We heard them run, the GUS
toms men in pursuit. There
came the sound of bottles be-
ing splintered on the cobbles'
Meanwhile, the Helsinki COM
rades emerged from freight
sheds and with the aid of every
Communist in the Freden-
lhagen's crew managed to get
the remaining bottles ashore. |
went to the office of "Koski-
men & Niminen" TO wait for the
money which belonged to the
German Party.
/ waited fully nine hours.
The Fredenhagen steamed for
Viborg-without me. In the
afternoon a Finn came barging
into the office, splitting and
cursing.
where's my money!" de-
manded.
Money, hell" he ranted.
do you know what your
precious master Bolsheviks
are responsible for? I'll tell
YOU! The whole Communist
Party of HelSinki is stone
drunk"
| raced to the station, ours
ing my own carlessness and the
monumental thirst of the Firms.
/ boarded the east-bound train
and arrived in Viborg in time
to catch my steamer, the
Fredenhagen. After four days /
was discharged in Bremen. No
reason for my discharge was
given. | FASTENED to Hamburg
to report to Walter and Hugo
Marx. They had already COM
plete report of what had &C.
CURED at Helsinki. News of the
fiasco had left them upper
Iturbed.
In September the Party be-
gan to organize its able-bodied
members into military COM
Ipanies of 100 men each-Hun-
dertschaften. There were II
such companies in Hamburg,
and several hundred Of them in
all the Reich.
Each formation consisted of
five detachments of 20 men.
Each Sunday the hundreds
marched out for military train
ing in lonely stretches of forest
or heath. Young Soviet Rus
sian officers, most of whom
spoke German, directed the
training. Five or six such of
fcers operated in the Hamburg
area. They had come to Ger
many in the guise of sailors
aboard Soviet vessels, and "acti-
visits" from Albert Walters
corps had struggled tn e m
ashore at night.
l was detailed to the seventh
lproletarian company of the
Hamburg area. This formation,
chiefly composed of seamen
proudly called itself the RED
Marines" and Thaelmann con.
sidered it one of the best shock
brigades along the North Sea
Coast.
Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-10
Walter
'Sneuzappopin'
Has Brief Stay

THE First Nights: A what
chamaycallit n a m d
"Snookie" put the finishing
touch on the season Tuesday
night. It's a farce about comic
strip artists and got Mr.. Whip
pies vote for the most embar-
RAISING of the year. Olson and
Johnson backed it, inspiring
the sidewalk adlibbers to re-
name it "Smellzapoppin"
The reviewers took a look at
a Greenwich Village venture
Monday night, a deadpan trifie
titled "When Differences Dis
appear" The author and pro-
Queer were both in the cast,
and every once in while the
audience could hear them,
which did their play no good.
Awful was the word the
travellers brought back uptown.
THE Magic Lanterns: Myrna
l. 10y and VIM. Powell, who
are a valued trademark be-
sides being a starring team.
kick up entertainingly again
in Love Crazy" The flicker is
wilder than a Broadway rumor,
and twice as funny. Powell
dolls up as q woman. but the
story itself is never draggy. :.
Shining Victory" doesn't look
any better in photos than it
did as a local show few
months back. Geraldine Fitz-
gerald and James Stephenson.
two top liners, are licked by
their roles Million Dollar
Baby" never gets as funny as
il promises to. II shows May
Robson fetching 81 100000
from Europe 10 Priscilla Lane.
Miss Robson had been in the
Old Country 81 years. having
left here the year the pictures
jokes were new I'll Wait
for You" argues IL you put a
tough yegg on the farm. where
he can get fresh air. he'll come
back to town and make lamp
shades.
Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-10
Elsie
Robinson
Sail On! Sail On?

KING down the trail rrOm
- the old fence line, with
the thrushes calling far back
in the pines and fox yipping
somewhere down the gully.
Dust spurted In soft, fra
grant puffs beneath my
mocassins.
Light slanted. amber dark,
between the great, reddish
trunks lay pooled. honey
bright, on the cleared meadow
below.
Dear peace! The quiet,
rooted. well-loved things.
Then. abruptly. it swooped
on me again. that darkness Of
doubt that's binding Us all
around these days. RootedI
No, nothing was rooted any
more.
Anything. everything, might
go at any hour.
Peace? Where was there
place for it in this nightmare
end Of q world?
Where was the order the
progress of which we'd been
so proud!
What code was there left
for a decent soul to followf
A ND then. suddenly-yes.
IA this il true-the purpling
mountains were gone and the
dimming fields and l was
little girl in country
school again.
A frightened little girl. !
"reciting a piece" on a Friday
afternoon, with Jimmy Higgins
picking his warts and Jean
Stewart snickering and Miss
Burner waiting impatiently
for me TO get started.
Nobody else in our class had
ever recited Joaquin MillerS
Columbus! But now that I
was here-I began to whimper.
And then. without knowing
how it happened, the great
words caught me up, they
were blowing through me like
bugles. was beyond the school
room. beyond the world,
Behind him lay the oruy
Behind the Gates Of Her
cutcs;
Before him not the ghost Of
shores,
Before him only sho~less
seas.
The good mate said: 'Noo
must We pray,
For 10! the very stars are
gone.
Brave Admiral. speak. vhat
shall ! sdy?'
Why, say, Sail on! sail oni
and onP"
sail on What terrible
words they must have been.
More terrible than anything
we can now conceive. For
they were literally without
hope or horizon. lost in an
ignorance deeper than any
night, beset by scurvy, storm
and soaring sun, and their
own monstrous fear. Fear
mounting into mutiny. For
what sane man was there who
did not know the earth was
fiat? And yet, that lean
and haunted creature on the Z
bridge could cry. Sail ont"
A ND so II came to that last,
"A awful night:
Then, pale and Uorn, he kept
his deck,
And peered through dorA
ness. Al, that night
OF all dark niohtsi And then
a speck--
A light a light a light a
i, eiahti ,4 "a
II greip, a storht flag M
furledi
II greW to be Times burst
OF ddUn.
He gained q World; he odvs
that World
It's prundest lesson: Ont
sail onP"
ION! SAIL ON" Those
three words broke the trail
to America and set the course
for Americans ever to follow.
There Is no other way through
the bat-black nightmare OF doubt
and decentralization than that
simple command, "ON! SAIL
ON"
1871, King Features synd.. Int
Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-10

Carroll,
beauty marry The these glamour and
"oomph doctors when marmonialy inclined should
how lucky they to get such
type husband have noticed cinema and stage
ccs married TO doctors call by and do
medcos their husband doctor as
playing golf Doctor should have
for the living room" etc. etc
7 OUIS EDWARD SISSMAN. One more champion from Detroit
IL the City Champions" 10 years old champion
speer He the title when he could spell chysanhemum and
remaining competitor couldn't Contestants all
youngsters and the words stamping those eliminated
follow the and Judge whether not
speer championship caber Sacramento harangung mien
hacyon burcaed exclamation Euhanasia mpugn pusanmou
paucity, acetyene.
Dorothy Mcguire Astonishing acting adoescent Plays the
child bride in the hit play Claudia II is strange there have
plays and films about child brides is subject
very interesting feminine portion of the population Child
brides usually make of matrmony their parents friends
and relatives let them alone.
TO the possible effect on youthful
"A many cinema depicted wearing the
Howoodans would only producing films that gory bandits
gangers Particularly gangster played
by a who admired and loved by young people
Every beautiful than good" said
Belamy Brooks suppose Mr. Brooks meant they had to
choose between the two.
and half This Summers styles will bring the weight of
feminine attire down Is
Have you arrangements your backyard air raid
shelter yet? Price backyard raid shelter accommodating
from six to eight people from 5000 to $500
tE CAN ourselves by fact the President cannot declare
w without contemporary.
Not much reinsurance there sir AS commanderncef OF the
and navy the President order military naval action
that will put the country a state of
plane carrying Ga passengers capable Of making the trip
from New York Los Angeles in hours and 30 1912
possibility,
Living costs only per cent United States price
control administrator Leon Henderson This does not
agree with the living costs department at house How about
the little lady charge Of the budget hacienda? Does
she think living costs only up per cent?
prrbu,sd Syndicate Inc
Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-10


Times being they the United States fortunate
having and women who are willing 10 take
hatred coffng rather than in silence shrink More
power then-EVD)
LIVER have your car worked by a feminine auto
IL mechanic? There's female engaged in New York
CITY The bic town brckayerS and three
Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-10
THE Story TeIlers: F. A.

THE Story Tellers: F. A.
l. Voight in the Independent
Monthly. London. has this
message for Hitler boosters:
Young men in Germany and
Russia are neither sad nor gay
and do not dare dream. They
are often fanatical. doctrinaire
and have the fixed seriousness
OF the prematurely old. Totali-
tartan systems claim to be
youthful precisely because
they are destructive TO youth
fulness. 1t is a kind of muir
der, the murder Of young peo-
pie who yet go on living"
Some Of the noisier soapboxers
won't care for Harry Hopkins
American mag piece. Hitler
Won't Win" because he fights
with facts-which is a rabbit
punch in certain speechmaking
circles Barney Gallant.
who was a pioneer in Gren-
idge Villidge when a man was
disgraced by a haircut. gives
up on the sector in a Cosmo-
politan piece, The Vanishing
Village" Required read
ing is Looks open letter TO
Lindbergh. II is from Ralph
S. Westling Of Westport. who
calls himself IAN Unknown
American" II pictures the
kind of American that's slipped
Lindbergh's mind-or any way
he hasn't mentioned that kind
lately II seems like the
good old days. having Mencken
and Nathan bracketed in the
Mefcury's index again. - I,
Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-10
On the Side
By E. V. During

Then are s'arcs uho wH not choose,
Hatred, scofipg and abuse,
Rather than the silence shrink
From the truth tbcy NCcds must think,
Then are slorcs ,Cto dare NOT be
IN the right rjth heo and three.
Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-10

electricians Oi the aheseOlN weaker sex.
Remember the song. you are welcome
tonight at the ball 1t is given by the
lady truck drivers, a fine organization
withal" New York has IS feminine truck
drivers. Also - female house painters,
one of whom calls herself an exterior
decorator
The city has plenty of feminine dentists;
no less than Els Feminine dentists have
exceptional control Of their feelings; about
the only time they lose their temperS IS
when referred to as lady dentists.
pY 1919 Henry Ford had paid $3.50 for
~ every dollar originally invested in his
business. or 355 600 per cent on the invest
ment,
New York is the worlds greatest city
but one out of every eight persons living
there can't make a living and has to be
helped by government relief.
Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-06-10
TYPEWRITER Ribbons;

TYPEWRITER Rib on 5
l. Arnold DAILY: Golf is like
a love affair. II you don't
take it seriously. it's no fun:
il you do take IL seriously. ii
breaks your heart Kin
Hubbard: Next to picking up
a safety razor blade with a
boxing glove on, the hardest
thing is an easy payment :.
Oscar Wilde: Experience is
merely the name men gave to
their mistakes r. Cour-
mont: Women would be more
charming IL one could fall into
their arms. without falling
into their hands.