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Show lit itmV f$MY tmi WHAT BECAME OF A. T. STEWART'S BODY ? XITHEN Alexander T. Stewart died. V on April 10, 1S'7I', In New York city, he was credited with being one of the richest merchants in the United States, for his wealth was estimated at more than $40,000,000. including real estate which, alone, was assessed at over S".lKKt,OoO. The bulk of his estate was bequeathed to his widow, with a million dollars as a personal gift to the executor, Henry Hilton. The Stewart funeral, culminating in the Interment of the body in St. Mark's churchyard, New York city, was one of the largest and most impressive ceremonies of its kind ever held in the city and then, some two and a half years later. Judge Hilton, the executor of the Stewart estate, electrified elec-trified the police with the announcement announce-ment that the grave had been rifled and Mr. Stewart's body stolen. Upon examination, it developed that an even greater mystery surrounded the affair than appeared upon the surface. During the early autumn of 187S, Judge Hilton, learning that the grave had been slightly tampered with and fearing the depredations of ghouls, had caused the Stewart headstone head-stone to be removed to another portion por-tion of the plot, although it was not thought wise at that time to disturb the remains. The knowledge of this change was confined to four persons, but notwithstanding this, the excavation excava-tion had been made with almost mathematical math-ematical precision, the earth having been cut away straight down to the leaden case which enclosed the coffin. This case had been opened, the lid of the coffin had been unscrewed and the body taken out presumably being carted off in wagon of which the tracks were still visible nearby. The most searching inquiries on the part of the police failed to reveal anyone any-one yho had seen the grave-roobers at work, for they had chosen a stormy night and it was not until several hours after daylight that the watchman watch-man had discovered the looting of the merchant's grave. The ghouls had left behind them only a newspaper, an iron shovel and a bull's-eye lantern none of which bore any distinguishing distinguish-ing marks, nor could they be traced by the detectives assigned to the case. It appeared to be Impossible that the body of a dead man could be carried across New York city without attracting attract-ing the slightest notice or that it could be re-interred or concealed without with-out detection but this is precisely what took place, for nothing definite was ever learned of the fate of the remains. re-mains. Judge Hilton refused to countenance overtures for the return of the body, declaring that neither he nor the estate es-tate would be blackmailed and, when a .reward of $25,000 was finally offered It was made with the distinct understanding under-standing that it was not for the body Itself but for information which would lead to the detection of the persons who had committed the depredation. The executor of the estate advised Mrs. Stewart to have no dealings whatever with the men who had stolen the body of her husband and (lie wiuow, wuu is auiu iu navtr ueeu extremely affected by the blow, followed fol-lowed this advice during the ten res mainlng years of her life. Some time after the violation of the sanctity of St. Mark's churchyard, the Impression was allowed to gain prevalence preva-lence that the body had been recovered re-covered and that it had been re-interred in the vault of the beautiful cathedral at Garden City, Long Island. But those who attempted to secure proof of this report found that they were blocked at every turn and the question of Who stole the body of A. T. Stewart and what disposition was made of it remains unsolved to this day. IDENTITY OF THE MASTER-SPY K7HO was the mysterious "H" " who directed the operations of the Germanic forces in the United States both before and during the period of the World war? Was this personage a man with a wide-spread knowiedge of American military procedure and an almost uncanny un-canny sense of foresight, or was she a woman, with all of a woman's ability abil-ity to worm secrets from diplomatic circles and untangle problems to which she held but the slightest clues? These, in brief, are the questions which puzzled and still puzzle the master minds of the United States secret service and the officials of the Department of Justice connected with the defeating of Germanic propaganda on this side of the Atlantic. That, even after the deportation of Von Bernstorff and Von Papen, there was some individual who directed the movements of the pro-Germans in the United States and Canada is apparent from the very nature of the plans which they attempted to carry through plans which included the attempted importation of a large number of dissatisfied dis-satisfied Hindus, the securing of the plans of the battleship Pennsylvania, the placing of time-bombs on several large United States transports, signaling signal-ing to sea from a number of Atlantic ports and the financing of the famous "peace movement" to which a number num-ber of prominent Americans were induced in-duced to lend the power of their names. lint in spite cf tie fi-- that gov- i eminent operatives engineered the arrests ar-rests of several men ana at least two women who were Intimately connected connect-ed with high official circles in Germany, Ger-many, the trail to the master-spy concealed under the cloak of the single letter "11" was sufficiently well bidden never to be completely uncovered. uncov-ered. The closest approach to the actual location of this personage was in the arrest of a self-styled baroness In Tennessee, immediately after this charming woman had succeeded in penetrating to the innermost secrets of Fort Oglethorpe and a number of other important posts in the eastern section of the country. In the presentation pres-entation of the government's case at the ensuing trial, the United States district attorney made the following statement : "When war was declared between France and Germany, the husband of the 'Baroness' was en route ti London. Lon-don. While in the middle of the Mediterranean, between Suez and Marseilles, he made arrangements to land at the latter port and go from there to London instead of continuing his voyage by vny of Gibraltar. However, the 'Baroness- sent him a wireless Just before he reached Marseilles, Mar-seilles, advising him that war was about to be declared and that It would be better for him to remain aboard ship. When the ship touched Marseilles, Mar-seilles, the baron offered $1,000 for an automobile to take him to the Italian Ital-ian frontier, but was unable to secure a vehicle. He continued his voyage and landed at Southampton on the day following declaration of war with Germany. He was interned immediately imme-diately and remained In camp for three weeks, during which the 'Earoness' intervened with a number of British officials and secured the release re-lease of her husband upon his promise as an officer and a gentleman not to lake arms against England during the war, a pledge In which she joined. "Shortly after his release from the Internment camp, the captain and his wife sailed for New York, cloaking their identity under the mask of ordinary or-dinary steerage passengers. The 'Baroness' has admitted that she had been In almost constant communication communica-tion with Germany, both by letter and cablegram, and that she had been on terms of intimacy with several members mem-bers of the kaiser's family." But while like Wolf Von Ingel, Ram Chandra, Robert Fay, Warner Horn and other German agents arrested arrest-ed in the United States, the "Baroness" "Bar-oness" admitted tic existence of a chief who directed all the movements of the Teutonic forces in America, she maintained that she herself had no idea as to his identity, for all her instructions had been signed merely with the single letter "H." Who was this "H?" Perhaps tbe memoirs of the kaiser or some of the other officials of thj German government govern-ment may eventually clear up this point, but, until then, It appears destined to remain one of the riddles of the war, covered by a veil of myB-tery myB-tery woven with true German efficiency. |
