Show BS DF A rl STO tor TO asce wynn LAW vi 0 balc ma the spy plot that failed IT T WAS during the early days cays ot of the world war that a rough lookin looking 9 man who posed as ag a belgian began to frequent one of 0 the branches of the carnegie library in pittsburgh ne ile was poorly dressed wore a scraggly beard and seemed to have all or of the time in the world usually he went to the reference department part ment of the library and spent ape t hours in reading books that had reference to america ile ete paid particular attention to the maps and one night was seen to be tracing some of these from one of the geographical works in the library miss frances langfitt the assistant librarian noticed the man and her suspicions were aroused so while the fellow spied around the shelves the young woman did a little spying on her own account night after night she sat there with a green shade over her eyes apparently engrossed in her work but in reality keeping tabs upon the belgian who was not a be belgian ian one night she watched him replace abood a book on the shelf and when he had departed she hastened over to that part of the library and obtained possession of this particular book it contained a coastwise map and gave evidence of having been traced before the next nest day had dawned the patriotic young woman had informed the department of justice of her suspicions of the man who bad been visiting the library operative henry that will have to be his name for the purpose of this article was placed on the case at once lie traced the man and found that he was a stranger in the city ne ile located the house where he had a room and discovered he was going by the name of jacob hannon hamon the fellow must have sensed the fact that he be was being followed b because he be ceased his visits to the library about the same time an undersized man with a decidedly german accent began to frequent the library when interrogated he gave the name of emil mayer this man pursued pretty nearly the same tactics as the other but on the surface there did not seem to be any connection between the two one day he was followed to his room and later in his absence a search was made of his effects there was nothing absolutely criminal but the detectives did find a number of papers and tracings in themselves they seemed meaningless but if it were possible to put them together they might have meant much at nil all events the work of shadowing harmon and mayer continued without interruption two and two were put together and the conclusion of the authorities was that the library had been made the rendezvous of german spies tor for nearly a year of course it goes without saying that there was nothing in the library that was nas not open to the public at any time but the conviction grew that narmon harmon and mayer were doing the preliminary work which was afterwards verified by bolder and more audacious men who stole into navy yards and laid the foundations for destroying plants operative henry had several conversations with miss langett and he be compared this with the reports rc orts which were brought in as a result of the shadowing of the two germans up to this point they had never been found together in the meanwhile an attempt was made to learn something of the previous history of the two men one of them it was learned had been visiting a number of the seacoast towns in new england and it was also alleged that he had not complied with the alien enemy registration laws one night united states agents started to follow the two men and then for the first time they joined one another in a little back room in the northwestern part of pittsburgh they sat at a table and produced a conist coastwise nise map which they began to study that was the signal tor for the detectives the suspects were mere arrested and in twenty four hours had bad been placed in a detention camp what became of them no one will tell the mystery has gone into that limbo which Is the repository of so many war secrets but to this day there are persons in pittsburgh who are satisfied that the timely discovery of the librarian cut off the connection between these men and the german war office sonvico |