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Show 1 gPfHEN ONE COBBLER, CAPTURED A TOWN I jiff QjfjEjjPE-Amazing Exploit of Frederick William Voight,. Whose Daring Deed Made-ttie Kaiser's Army the Latxghjtng Stock of the World . I Iff ' fcif "5? -- Ml If iWH IS ilw ptefWi 1 1 few - few vM II! ft! mSm If xAt ifelMil III r7 sraTWY'w II ' ' ly' I; I Purchased Her Husband's Handsomest I ; Uniform and Donned It I' 1 YHEIT the German village of Koepenick was I ; VV captured single handed by an unknown I man a few years ago and all tlie astound- lr ing acts performed that are hereafter narrated I the whole world was incredulous for a day or so I.' and then a laugh rolled up, beginning in Gcr- I ; many and spreading all around the globe. I ! It was merely m the due course of things that H the man wan sent to prison for four years. Even H the world looked on this very light mindedly, J and it increased liis popularity, if anything. He 2jl: left Germany on his lelease and came to the $M United States by way of Canada to evade the il ' immigration laws, which forbid the entrance .5J of an alien who has been convicted of a crime. -1 j At last his presence became known, his story m J ' was revived and he was made much of in New HI ! York, inco his adventure was one thoroughly jM in consonance with the spirit of the Adven- irM turcrs' Club he was elected an extraordinary dtl ' member and the following account of his cx- bB ploit was prepared, transcribed and translated III by Preston Stone. 3 Voigt wos later found by the United States authorities and deported, but the members of the Mk Adventurers' Chib will make a special effort to Tjv procure his return to American soil unhindered. ! Voigt is now fifty-four years old, his celeb- Sm I rity has brought to him quite an income and it ill is doubtful if he returns to his cobbler's bench. jjll By Captain Frederick William Voigt. TJM I (CVipjr'Kht. 1010. by the Now York Herald Co All richta referred.) "Ill S n clllltl I J)lai'cd al)0,lt l,le hoofs of the lioises IL A of cavalry garrison, and among the first f lljIngs tuat I I'emember are tactical move- tf men Is. My boyhood was filled with impres- IjM slons of the Franco-Prussian War, and so, rJfg though I was never under arms but once in my life, ,ft and that when I took Ixoepulck single handed, and ,11 thougli I never wore a uniform except on the same 11 occasion, I was quite as well qualified to carry a Mk rifle, swing a sabre or command a post as tens of J I thousands of the men who do it for the glory of the 31 FfUherlaud. Somehow the army always struck me Jff ns something funny; and by funny I mean the Gcr- jB man kind of funny, which T realize Is a very different rM klnd of fuuny from tuat of tlie other parts of the mm world. M One day quite a number of years ago I was stand- ing looking down on the Steckclhb'm-Fleth, in Hum-M Hum-M burg, where the narrow canal, ilankcd by the tower-(B tower-(B ing old buildings several stories'hlgh, passes under fl a narrow bridge. Over the noise of the city's din I jB heard the icgular trend of marching men and the flf- cllul: of accoulrements moving in unison on the bodies jW of nu armed force In motion. Turning I saw a deft de-ft tachmeut of infantry swing up to the bridge in com-m com-m maud of a sergeant. 1 Just then there issued from a doorway nvo dandified I young officers;, vho approached tlie bridge from the I opposite directlou. In other words, rhc detachment In 1 'w Its formation filled the bridge space and there was not time or space to evolve it. The two hoy oQicers would jy be brought Into direct collision with the detachment If X each pursued his course. Did the ofllcer step hack iulo the doorway and allow the detachment to pass? Did the sergeant halt his men, 'boul face them and return to a wider space? No. The sergeant halted his , command, brought them to "present arms" and ! backed them about one hundred feci before the saun- icrtug young dandles, and the precious pair weut on their way. 1 sadown and laughed till my siiC3 I pained inc. On another occasion Buffalo Bill's Wild West American Amer-ican show was playing lu Berlin, and the first public appearance they made on the streets was one busy market day, when there were throngs of all sorts of traffic. Into one of the squares rode a sub-manager of the show at the head of a body of troops of various nationalities gathered to work with the show performance. per-formance. - Their entrance was heralded by a bugle call very ilmlliir to that announcing the approach of a German I 'cneral. Instantly the misguldedpcople all about me oot off their hats aud gazed on the man whom a f single glance only would determine to be not a German Ger-man general. They kept their hats off till the caval- cade had loft the square. Such things as these made me anticipatory of some opportunity Ho turn tlie whole 83'stQm of, soldier worship into ridicule. Now, the Germans are not noted for being the most abstemious people In the world, and among my friends I bear the reputation of being less abstemious than most Germans. I am fond of conviviality, and ouco or twice my employers liavo decided, that It Interfered Inter-fered too seriously with the 'work I was doing for them and have urged me geutly to labor elsewhere. The Idea Comes. October of the year 100G was a beautiful month and I was working In Prussia near Berlin and had saved some money. The beautiful weather, however, called ' me out of doors and I began a little nature worship iv'iu some friends that resulted in my being dls- j missed from my situation. The philosophy of alcohol Is a peculiar one. I blamed my misfortune on the 'III111111 v J Told Her That She Should Consider Hct-self Hct-self Highly Honored to Have Her Husband Arrested by an Officer of the Guards Sent Directly by the Emperor army, the ridiculous army, and it occurred to me that my opportunity had,'come. The Idea of the method came to me from my friendship friend-ship with the widow of a defunct captain of infantryr I had learned that she was in need of money, and, taking some of my savings, I purchased her husband's handsomest uniform and donned It It fitted me beautifully, beau-tifully, and, as I am a man of some appearaucc aud a sufficient military presence, I made nn excellent showing show-ing in it The fact that I had been drinking only carried out the verisimilitude. If I had been absolutely sober no one would have credited me with being a true captain cap-tain of German infantry- Xot far away was the military station of Ploelzcn-see, Ploelzcn-see, and, wearing my uniform of the First Keglment of the Guards, I went there, called on the commander, and informed him that I had been sent by the Emperor Em-peror to get a company of his men to execute a special mission of a confidential nature in Koopcnick, a vll-higo vll-higo of the district Without question the company was oidcred out and turned over to me. But I took seven men only with me to Koepenick. Our progress to the village was an ordinary matter mat-ter and attracted little attention till 1 marched to the City Hall and summoned the burgomaster, or mayor. He came before me -with fear and ireiubllng, but with a certain kindly Indulgence I told him not to be afraid, that I would execute my orders with all possible pos-sible kindness, no must consider himself under arrest ar-rest and must turn over to me the keys of the city offices, including the city funds.- This ho did. amazed dumfouuded and stricken with mortal grief that his long years of an honorable aud upright life and all of his excellent public service should have brought hlra only to such nn opprobrious finale. Ills wife protested aud pleaded, but I told her that she should consider herself highly honored to have her husband arrested by an officer of the guards sent directly from the Emperor to Koepenick. She could not see that It was any more pleasant to be disgraced from the throne than irom the police station, and really I was very sorry of my joke, to say nothing of being made extremely uncomfortable. If some one had offered resistance then I would have known nrcvlscly how to proceed, and if I had told my men to do so they would have shot the villagers down In rows. A weeping nonian, however, and some hun dreds of sympathising women neighbors are a moro difficult problem. If the officer In command had been a real captain instead of a make-believe one he would have found the task no more agreeable or any less puzzling. Owner of the Village. The unfortunate official was too busy reviewing his virtues to find his vices and I may say that he finally decided that he had done a number of things .which hitherto he had thought very commendable and which he now decided merited him, arrest that he forgot the personal aspect of the matter until ho was marched away to confinement, and then he pleaded with me to be allowed the privilege of committing suicide. This was carrying even a joke too far, and my gravest concern was that he would find some' method of taking his life and I would have his blood on my hands. So concerned was I that even after I had ordered him removed from -ray presence '(and all my orders MfWl JillltSi A Sort of One Man Uniformed Parade from One Wine Room to Another .were given with "the majesty of a German captain, which is saying a very great deal) I followed and personally searched him, removing even the" little machine with which he clipped his nails, for fear that he might cut his throat with It in some ingenious manner. man-ner. ' 3Iy entrance into the town had had the effect of suspending all Its activities. The people stood about "gape, conversing in low tones. I could hardly keep from laughing In their faces. They could bave"over-whelmed bave"over-whelmed me and myhandful of men with the greatest of ease, but the thing that stood before tbplr eyes was the uniform the all sufficient uniform and what it represented. The most amusing thing of all wos a conference which J held with one of the foromost men of the place. lie presented himself with two or three others and asked for an audience. (With proper dignity dig-nity I declined to see moro than one burgher at a lime; and, Instead of his coming in to voice an angry protest In behalf of his Incarcerated fellow townsman, towns-man, an official who had always had his indorsement and support in fact, to whose family ho was con-, nccted by marriage the fat wretch came to ingra- . tlate himself with me. ne advanced, saluting profoundly, and after I had spoken to him he said: "Hcrr Capltan, as one of the citizens of the village it ls-iny pleasure as well as my duty to express to you, the honorable and distinguished representative of the glorious Kaiser, the gratification we feel In being relieved from the oppression which the ITerr Burgomaster has been exercising over us these many years. We have rebelled for a long time In secret against his maladministration of the local government, govern-ment, and we have long suspected his dishonesty In the handling of the town funds, bat no one of us felt himself to be in a position to take the Initiative. You have relieved us from all that embarrassment and unpleasantness, un-pleasantness, but we will now do our share. As soon as you point the way ve will help you, and we avIU send him to as bad a prison and for as long a time as possible. Just whatever you want, you know. It Is an outrage that the unspeakable scoundrel could have imposed upon us for so long a time as he has." Too Much of a Bargain. "Dlcrr burgher," 1 answered with quiet dignity, "I have come here merely in the pursuit of my duty, and I hope that 1 have done it thus far according to the will and Instructions of him who sent me. Tho most that you can do is to look after his family, especially his wife, who seems to be very deeply affected." "Oh, no, no, Hen- Capltan; don't allow her to fool you. She Is a hard one and a cunulng one. She was merely trying to move you by bawling around here. H She is as bad as he is; in fact, some of tho people think she is much worse and that it Is she who has planned U everything wicked for him that he has done and has H urgety him on to do It We are more likely to drive her Jm out of town than anything else." H This being more than I had calculated upon I gave JM strict orders that she should not be harmed or annoyed H In any way. W So far as the town was concerned, I might have H stayed there for some days and might have lived In a H lordly manner and been made very much of without H any one of them questioning my right or authority or H without- the news spreading to dangerous quarters. U That I knew very well. I would have been a fool W If I could not sec that The thing that I must look H out for was the system of the army. Tho seven men H must be accounted for. The routine of reports must 9W go in. Any hour after the first twenty-four the system H was likely to detect automatically that something woa m wrong, go I decided to mako myself scarce. W Having taken military charge of tbe town's affairs, W I must set them running again, which I did by having H all things go on as they bad before, by myself con- H ducting the petty routine quite as the sensible old . fellow I had locked up would have done. H Since I was In for it and might as well be killed for H a goat as a kid, I had the city funds turned over to H me, and to my surprise they totalled nearly five thou- W sanJ marks, which I countedover, with due car and W gave a receipt in the name of the Crown, then pock- W ctcd them. W Having seen my political prisoner properly started W to his just punishment and my seven men ordered W to report to their regiment when they had carried H out my orders concerning hlra, I had the town secre- iM tary brush me down neatly, and, without turning my H eyes to right or left, strode out of town and sought H '.he nearest railway station. H To escape I need only make my way quickly into H Berlin, find a place to change my uniform for civilian H clothes aud return to my cobjjler's bench in my na- mW tlve town. They would never find the Captain of Koepenick and the whole country might wonder and mW laugh its fill. H j He Goes Too Far. H Excellent excellent! But the presence of so much mW money In ray pocket was a bad thing for me. When H I was safely away I began to enjoy my own joke so H hugely that I organized myself Into an individual celc- H bration, a sort of one man uniformed parade from one H . wineroom to another; and even this would have been H perfectly safe, but I neglected to get the uniform off H according to schedule, and then matters grew very H dangerous. Still, though all Germany was ringing H with the exploits of the Captain of Koepenick by this H time and the Empire was on the qui tIvo for his ap- H prehension, I passed unsuspected as long as I behaved H like a captain of infantry, for the reason that they were H not looking for a fake captain, but for a real one who j had lost his mind or was drunk. I qualified in the lat- H ter respect quite well by this time, and if everything H el90 bad gone well still I might have escaped. The H rolonels and generals of tho army were raking down H the file numbers to account for every man on that VW memorable day, and it did not take long for the system l to render its decision that no man of the army had dono the deed. jW Now the ponderous machinery of the investigation V9 swung over to the other possibility and my danger was $9 I did not know it however, and went singing gayly H from one merry gathering place to another, spending WW the money of the municipality of Koepenick with an VW open hand. There Is no place In the world where one mU can carry on the sort of Individual demonstration In mm which I was engaged, attract less attention, have a mm better time and spend loss money than in Germany, mm and I bolicvc that I set sonicthing of a record. W But all tilings must have an end. The captain of mm the Imperial Life Guards began to act like a cobbler, mm and they jailed me like a cobblervand I paid tho fiddler for my joke. H There were consequences not recorded. I had ex- perienci's before my imprisonment, during It and mm since which 1 am not at liberty to relate. Some day Vmm I may do so. One thing, my adventure had the effect Vmmm of causing the enactment of laws which removed the ymm civil authorities of tho Empire out of the reach of in- Vmm terfcrencc by the military, and if I did nothing clsc,-I mm did a good deed there. H MOVING MARBLE IN ITALY. jlU HAND labor Is the rule in the famous marblo 1mmm quarries of Carrara, ltalj since the distances tmm separating quarry from quarry and tho declivi- vmm tous nature of the country preclude the use of ma- Vmm chinery. The methods of the lb.zatnra, or workmen l who convey the marble over the roadless steeps that "stretch from the quarries to tho wagon track, aro interesting. H . When a great fragment of marble, detached by a Vmmm blast, has stopped rolling, it is roughly squared into mm a block weighing, say, forty tons. Then tho work- M men Set about getting it down. IH A series of stout posts has been firmly driven into tle mountainside along certain lines of descent offer- l ing tho least resistance. The lizzutura, by means of crowbars and screw jacks, raise the block on to a soaped skid of hard beechwood. Previously they have fmM secured the block by means of threo long hempen H cables, with which they take turns around the posts. j They pny out sufficient rope to allow the ponderous H mass to slide over the soaped skids by its own weight, H but not enough to allow it to gain too much momen- H turn down the Incline. H During this descent, besides the men tailing on to J the ropes, two or moro men nre seated on the block. IH A man following closely In the wake of It hands jH them the skid just passed over, which they resoap H and hand to a man who keeps just in front of the H moving mass, to put it down Its path, and so pro- JH vldo a continuous "way." This last mentioned worker H has the most dangerous task. Should one of the H cables part at a critical moment, or should a mistake H bo made in paying out or slackening them, ho will in- H cvitably be crushed. H It Js an amazing fact that in former times the lizza- H lura used only one cable to hold back the load, until H the authorities, rightly regarding theirs as a -lerllous occupation, enacted a law that not less than threo H cables should be used. It is said this work is rcspon- H sible, on an average, for three deaths a year, a re- jH markable figure in the circumstances, and showlngj H that the finest discernment judgment, coolness and jH skill are displayed by the llzzatura, who work luj H bands numbering from twelve to fifteen men. H |