Show THE CHALLENGE Henry Villard Makes an Important Statement About Boecken Special to TIE HERALD Examiner Dispatch NEW YORK May ISMr Villard has made the following statement with reference refer-ence to Richard Boecken the yonng man who challenged him to mortal combat Boecken is the son of a prominent German official at Berlin and grandson of the late Professor Boecken the celebrated philosopher philos-opher and nephew of Professor Rudolph Von Gneist well known as one of the most distinguished German priests and parliamentarians mentraus Young Boecken came t this country about two years ago with letters of introduction from his relatives rela-tives to me I tried to befriend him in various ways but he showed an incline then to crankiness and vagabond habits from the first He woula not accept any settled position offered him but preferred to rove about the country as a peddler He tried to become a member of the Oneida community and finally became associated with the Socialists and Anarchists His father occasionally sent me small sums of money for him which were at once remitted remit-ted to him He never had a cent of credit with me On the contrary I advanced money to him several times to relieve him of his distress When I read the challenge I sent a copy of it to his father suggesting to him that I would have to give his son the choice of going to a lunatic asylum or being shipped back to Germany I received re-ceived a cable reply from him five day ago approving of my suggestion Accordingly Accord-ingly he has been arrested for the purpos of returning him to his relatives |