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Show Cupid Meets Waterloo in Attacking Modern War Prisoners' Camp Barbed Wire Stockade Impregnable to Little God of Love; Story of Cormoran's Sinking Is Told. TI 1 HKK prisoners of war ht$. held at Fort JJouRlas wrote into the history of the (iernnn navy a fear. wM'.'h is conceded by t iios' who know the uaith Pacific to be on a par wiih the cruise of the Deutsehland and with the work of a number of the commerce raiders. I den tenant J. Yon El pons, he desires that he he no longer called a baron, since being" a iiemenant in the tier-man tier-man navy Kies him the privileges of . a prisoner of war, was in command ' of the, expedition. He was accompanied accom-panied by J dei i tenant. Frank and 1 $. A. Oerharlt, both of whom are prisoners pris-oners of war lie re and who arrived with the first companies of the ("or-rnoran's ("or-rnoran's crew. They left the Cor-mora Cor-mora n in a 3 5 -foot sail boat ana for liftenn days wandered in the south Pacific, beating storms ami mountainous moun-tainous seas in search of .the coal ship which had been sent out to fuel I the Cormuran, and were finally forced j to land in liuam because tho pro i-! i-! sions pave out. j While the three men have received , commendation from the German rov-! rov-! ernment for their feat. It developed yesterday that anions the prisoners at Fort Douglas are some who are looked upon as the keenest of the German spies. John La tenderer, who was secretary to J. K. von Brfnken, connected with t lie German consulate In Sh ii Francisco and who is being" held 1 here wil h Alfred von Bopp of the German consulate and H. von Schaok, some of whom have been sentenced to Fort Leavenworth for plots against the Cnited States, was one of the prisoners brought .to Fort Douglas on Wednesday. Mr. Latendorff made the mistake of bavin? all sorts of drawings and photographs pho-tographs of coast defense works in his home in Mill Valley, California, and as a result will spend a vacation at Fort Douglas until the end of the war. Has Choice Cigars. It also developed yesterday that the Baron Wil helm Buscher munch, who was traveling- from China to the United States under an assumed name, has been taken to Fort Douglas. Doug-las. It was further learned that the baron Is really the life of the party. In that ho lias an ample supply of first-class cigars, which he does not hesitate to divide with Latendorff and with some of the prisoners with whom he has become acquainted dV- ina the time he was being held in the Presidio at San Francisco. The baron also Is an epicure In the matter of drinks and even though lie Is a German It was discovered at the Presidio that he does not like beer, but Insists upon a small bottle of wine with his meals. Whether or not his taste will be satisfied at Fort Douglas has not been learned. Efforts are being made in ?an Francisco by a number of interested parties to have the prison sentences against Von Bopp, Von Schack and other plotters suspended, so that they may be placed in the war prison camp here. Whether the federal courts will release these prisoners to the-army is not known as yet. Von Bopp was at the head of the German Ger-man plotters on the Pacific coast and was responsible for a number of dynamite explosions and other outrages. out-rages. I-atendorff is regarded by those who had charge of him In San Francisco Fran-cisco as the most dangerous man In the entire outfit. During his Intern-, ment In the Presidio he became peevish peev-ish on more than one occasion and had to be disciplined in a moderate way. "Overbearing" is the term used by those who know Datenriorff to describe de-scribe him. No trouble was experienced experi-enced from the other prisoners. Became Volunteers. The achievement of Lieutenant von Flpons in taking the small boat from the Cormoran to Guam is the boast sch word t of the Cormoran. now held as a prisoner of war at Fort Douglas, Doug-las, discovered that his coal supply was running low he called for volunteers volun-teers to man the small boat and go in search of the missing coaling ship. He selected Lieutenant von El pons. Dr. A. Gerhard t and Lieutenant Frank. They started from the boat on a Sunday morning and. according accord-ing to the account of the trip which is in the possession of several of those who made the trip from San Francisco Fran-cisco with the prisoners, on Mon Jay ran Into squalls ami storms which continued for three days. The lieutenant scoured the ocean for the coaling ship for eleven days and 4 hen the provisions began running run-ning low. About this time another storm broke and after fighting it for two days, during which time vhe provisions pro-visions had become almost exhausted, it was decided to put into Guam for assistance. j Story of Explosion. ! The story of how the captain and ! the crew of the Cormoran blew- up tiie vessel at the declaration of war between be-tween the United Slates and Germany, Ger-many, in order to prevent the vessel from falling into the hands of the United States, came to light yesterday. yester-day. Captain Zueksehwerdt had received re-ceived instructions from German v to prevent the boat from falling 'into i the hands of this country even if it had to be destroyed. The ship at that j time was interned at Arpa. The cap-i cap-i tain began working when diplomatic j relations were broken off by the j United States with Germany. The : machinery of the vessel was filled in ! part with gn soline. The boiler was ' partially filled with gasoline and the bilges were also filled with gasoline. The Baroness von Elpons is still at the Wilson hotel and will call on Colonel Colo-nel Arthur Williams, commanding officer of-ficer of the war prison camp, " this afternoon to make arrangements as to the time when she will be able to see her husband. At San Francisco she was granted time without restriction, but as yet nothing has been done in regard to what will be her visiting hours at the prison camn at Fort Douglas. Captain Norrls Stayton, who brought tiie prisoners here from San Francisco, returned home last night. The non-commissioned ofiieers and members of the guard of the coast artillery will return to the Presidio on Saturday night. T is an old saying that "love I laughs at locksmiths," but it has I remained for the barbed wire X barrier of an American war prison camp at Fort Douglas to change Cupla s smne ot triumph into a frown of defeat. Just how impotent the wiles of the little god are against barbed wire and unsentimental military rules as applied to prison camps has been discovered dis-covered already by Baron I. von El-pons, El-pons, the distinguished alien enemy who was among the new arrivals at the local war prison Wednesday afternoon. aft-ernoon. The baron was snatched from the side of a beautiful bride, the Baroness Baron-ess von Elpons, almost in the height of their honeymoon, and though she proved her love and loyalty by . following fol-lowing him to Salt Lake and taking up her residence at a local hotel, the insurmountable barbed wire stockade of the Fort Douglas prison camp and .the unbending rules of warfare stand impregnable barriers between them. Mental Telepathy jLove. Bride and groom are compelled to love by long distance mental telepathy telepa-thy medium "for the period of the war." And this is anything but pleasant pleas-ant or satisfactory to the baron and the baroness. Of course, as the baroness is not under detention in any respect, she has the same privilege that any citizen citi-zen has of visiting Fort Douglas and viewing the prison camp from the safe distance of the "dead line" drawn around the camp and marked with ominous white signs bearing the warning, "War Prison Camp. Keep Out." There are sections of the "dead line" from which the interior of the prison camp may be seen quite plainly and prisoners inside, when they take their outside airing and sunning in the mornings and afternoons, after-noons, can be plainly seen, and even distinguished. In this wav the baroness may be able to get a long distance glimpse of her husband occasionally, oc-casionally, but the rules of war forbid for-bid her going any nearer or communicating com-municating with her husband in any manner save through censored correspondence, corre-spondence, all of which has to go under un-der the eyes of the unsentimental censor of the prison camp. Cupid's Waterloo. No one cares to write love letters when he knows that they must pass through the hands and under the eyes of a censor, so in this case Cupid has apparently encountered his Waterloo. The baron misses the companionship companion-ship of his bride most keenly, it is said, and this is his chief worry and displeasure at being a compulsory guest of Uncle Sam In the prison camp at Fort Douglas. If he might only be with hia wife he wouldn't mind it so much. The newly arrived prisoners of war got themselves well established in their quarters on the first night of their, stay and seemed to be as well contented yesterday as could be expected ex-pected under the circumstances. They have set about making themselves them-selves comfortable for a "long stay." All the war prisoners appear to have the idea that they will be residents behind the barbed wire of the prison camp for a long time, and every bit of work and preparation which they can be seen doing is being done as though it were a foregone conclusion that It was designed to last for a long period. The prisoners apparentlv expect ex-pect the "period of tiie war" to be no brief period. They are fixing up their war-prison homes and yards as though they expected to reside in them for several years to come. Sword Is Interned. The sword of Lieutenant Henry Bock, S. M. S. Cormoran. which was I among the effects brought with them by the prisoners Wednesday, has been taken in charge by the prison officers "for the period of the war." It is the only instrument of warfare that was saved from the Ill-fated raider Cormoran, it is said, and it was saved because the lieutenant, possibly with a good Idea of what was to happen, hap-pen, had sent it and other personal effects of his on shore before the Cormoran was sunk in the harbor of Arpa, Guam. Nothing that was on the vessel at the time of the explosion that sunk her was saved, only the men who saved themselves. It is learned that five, sailors and two deck officers of the ship drowned before they could be picked up, and some of the men and officers of the ship were in the water for more than half an hour before they were picked up. Explosion Unexpected. The story is that in just four minutes min-utes after an American officer came aboard the ship and notified the commanding com-manding officer that the officers and crew were prisoners of war there was an explosion, and the ship sank in less than five minutes. No one expected the explosion save those officers who had arranged it, realizing that it was inevitable that they become prisoners of war, but determined de-termined not to let tiie United States get the use of their ship. After the explosion officers and men stood on the deck as long as they could with safety, then sprang Into the water. In battling against the water most of them were compelled to shed even their clothing in order to keep up until they could be picked up, and the result was that most of the sailors, when they were finally picked up and taken ashore, were absolutely naked. They lost everything every-thing they had, and the only things that were saved were those sent ashore by the officers before the explosion ex-plosion sank the ship. |