Newspaper Page Text
PAGE SIX. m 1 fcr GERMAN NOTE IS HELPJO PEACE Officials at Capital Pleased De spite Lack of Terms. NEXT MOVE UP TO ENTENTE Allied Embassies in Washington See Only Move to Influence Opinion in Germany and AbroadWilson Wait ing for Text of Note. Washington, Dec 27 Germany's reply to President Wilson's note is regarded here as having advanced tHe peace movement another step, de spite the fact that it disappoints in not meeting his suggestion for an a\owal of terms. The reception Germany's reply re ceives among the entente allies, whose statesmen have publicly de clared against such a program, now becomes the point upon which a fur ther move is hinged. The German note probably is the prelude to a series of carefully con sidered delicate moves in the great game of world diplomacy, and possi bly leading to an approach for a real discussion of peace terms on grounds which all the belligerents may feel can place them at no disadvantage. Wilson Is Waiting. This is the official view of Ger many's reply so far as it has been formulated on the basis of the unof ficial text The official copy has not been re ceived and President Wilson was keep ing his mind open. Neutral diplomatic quarters, too, re garded the note as a, step toward peace, and rather leaned to the view that Germany might follow it with a confidential communication of some sore outlining her terms. The view of the entente embassies, frankly expressed, was that the note was not an answer to President Wil son's communication, but rather document for circulation in Germany and in neutral countries. It was everywhere agreed that the principal sticking point was the lack of a definite statement of terms such as President Wilson asked and such as Lloyd-George declared the allies would require. TEUTONIC POWERS ASK FOR PARLEY Berlin, Dec. 27.The text of Ger many's answer to President Wilson's note has been transmitted to James W. Gerard, American ambassador. The answer, which also contains the reply of Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey, says: The high minded suggestions made by the president of the United States of America in order to create a basis for the establishment of a lasting peace have been received and considered by the imperial govern ment in the friendly spirit which was expressed in the president's commu nication. "The president points out that which he has at heart and leaves open the choice of road. "To the imperial government an im mediate exchange of%views seems to be the most appropriate road in order to reach the desired result. "It begs, therefore, in the sense of the declaration made on Dec. 12, which offered a hand for peace nego tiations, to propose an immediate meeting of delegates of the belliger ent states at a neutral place. "The imperial government also is of the opinion that the great work of preventing further wars can be be gun only after the end of the present struggle of the nations "It will, when this moment shall have come, be ready with pleasure to collaborate entirely with the United States this exalted task." The answer of the central powers concludes with the usual diplomatic terms of politeness. SAYS ALLIES CANNOT STOP TO TALK PEACE Paris, Dec. 27.In addresses at the National Congress of the French So cialist party, Arthur Henderson, the British cabinet minister, and G. H. Roberts, member of the British parlia ment, both affirmed, amidst enthusias tic cheers, that the war must be fought out until full guarantees have been obtained for a lasting peace. "In my opinion," Mr. Henderson said, "if France and ourselves were to enter into negotiations under exist ing conditions we should be nations in bondage. Nothing less than that is the price our enemies would exact for peace today." Emile Vandervelde, the Belgian So cialist leader, said: "Our comrades who have remained in invaded Belgium, endure German domination with admirable firmness. Nothing lsut encouragement reaches us from them. So that it would seem that the persons most hostile to war are those farthest from it" l"H"l"I"!"!-M-.I-I..l..M A Puzzling Case Setting a Detective to Catch a Detective. By ETHEL HOLMES They say a woman can't keep a se cret. I can testify to the fact that one woman I have known could keep a beciet so well that she guided me, a detective with a leputation for shrewd ness, to the detection of the real crim inal, I having been set upon her to expose her. And this she did without revealing to me the fact that she knew him to be the man I should have been after. One day I was directed by my chief to call upon the president of the Third National bank. I did so, and he said ,to me: "Mr. Williams, we have a woman in our employ whom we suspect of em bezzling our funds. The case is a sin gular one, and I must give it to you so far as it has already developed. There is a mystery connected with it which is very puzzling. "We had in our employ a man whom we esteemed very highly. One day he failed to turn up at the usual time for the day's work. His wife was tele phoned to know if he was ill. She re plied that she was about to telephone the bank for information concerning him. He had not come home the day before nor during the night. She was terribly worried for fear that some thing had happened to him. "The person among our employees who had last seen the manWalter Pixleysaid that Pixley had told him that he was going to see a man who owed him a hundred dollars. He had hurried away from the bank to catch his creditor at his office before the close of business hours. We learned from Mrs. Pixley the name of the debtor and sent a man to him for in formation concerning her husband. The party said that Pixley had visited his office in company with a veiled wo man, who had waited for him with out. The money had been paid him, and he had been seen to go away with the woman. "This information communicated to Mrs Pixley threw her into hysterics. "The next phase of the case was the report of one of our bookkeepers that funds were missing from the bank. My informant, Mr. Carter, told me that he had suspected Pixley for some time, and as soon as Pixley disappeared Car ter had made an examination of cer tain books kept by Pixley and had fallen upon proof that he was a de faulter. Carter is an expert ac countant. I have always had great faith in him. He brought me his proofs of Pixley's guilt, which I examined, and, although Pixley had been doing all he could to render the accounts confusing, Carter convinced me that he was a defaulter. "Now I come to the third act of the drama. Mrs. Pixley, who had undoubt edly been deserted by her husband for another woman, came to me and beg ged for some employment in the bank. She claimed that as a girl she had at tended, a commercial college and had studied bookkeeping. I pitied her and gave her the position made vacant by her husband. "The end of my story and the point at which I wish you to take it up is *a report this morning from Carter that more funds are being taken from the bank and that he suspects Mrs. Pixley of being the thief. You see from what I have told you that the case is a very complicated one While I do not pro pose to lay out a course of action for you. I would suggest that you watch Mrs. Pixley. This of course you can not do in the bank. You can only do it outside of the bank." I confessed to the president that the matter did look rather puzzling. Had Pixley not deserted his wife for anoth er oman I would have suspected that Mr. and Mrs. Pixlev were in league to rob the bank. And yet, Pixley having done so, it did not seem likely that Mrs. Pixley would work on the same ground as he. I told the president that I would first find out something about "Mrs Pixley When I had done that I would proceed to the next step in the premises. I sent a party to Mrs. Pixley's home to sell her something, to draw her into conversation and to ask her at what institution she had studied bookkeep ing. My emissary returned to me with the information that Mrs. Pixley had looked at the questioner concerned, but had given the Merton Business college as the place where she had received instruction. I at once went to the Merton college and asked to see a rec ord of the students. The maiden name of Mrs. Pixley did not appear as hav ing been a pupil there, and Mr. Merton declared that at the time Mrs. Pixley claimed to have been there he did not receive women students. So far so good. I had nailed Mrs. Pixley in a lie. this tended to confirm me in considering her as guilty. But why she should steal from the same bank as her husband was a puzzle. The only reason I could think of was that she was enabled through sympa thy to secure a place there, which she could not do elsewhere. Another complication bothered me. Mrs. Pixley was reported by her fellow employees to be a pretty good book keeper. She must have received some training in this respect, but why snould she have lied as to the school where she had studied? I made no progress after nailing the lie upon Mrs. Pixley and at last deter mined to make her acquaintance and by pi elending as a friend, or to be smitten with her, to get the secret from her. Under pretense of being a bank examiner I became familiar with the employees, she among the number. I treated her with deference and sym pathy. One day when she was leaving the bank after business hours I joined her and walked with her. Passing a restaurant, I told her that I was going in to take a lonely dinner. Would she help me out with her company? She consented, and, selecting a table in a corner whore we could converse with out being overheard by fothers. we dined together I commiserated with her at having such a husband, expressing wonder that any man should desert so charm ing a woman. She seemed to feel very bitterly toward him, but, of course, if she were a thief,as well as he, it might be a part of her game to feign this. I asked her if she suspected who was the woman with whom her hus band had gone away, and she said she felt sure of the person. I got nothing out of her, but was impressed with the belief that there was a good deal in her, whether for good or for evil, though I did not feel that it was for evil. After dinner I escorted her to her home and left her at the door, at the same time receiving an invitation to call upon her. Despite all my efforts I found noth ing to implicate Mrs. Pixley, and there was no evidence at the bank to prove that she was purloining its funds, though the president had put Carter on the watch for this. After a time Carter said that, whatever was her way of taking money, it was so sub tle that it was beyond his penetration. However, the cash on hand was con stantly deficient, and Carter suggest ed that Mrs. Pixley be simply dis charged without any reason being giv en her. The president communicated this to me, and I suggested that he put the matter off. I had become con vinced that Mrs. Pixley had a secret. I was steadily gaining her confidence, and I hoped in time she would let out something. To this he assented. A couple of days after this I re ceived a note from M*s. Pixley, as fol lows: Dear Mr. DetectiveYou are on the wrong track in shadowing' me. Conceal yourself under the steps leading up to the bank tomorrow night (or, rather, the next morning) at 1 o'clock and wait till I come M. D. P. I cannot tell why, but I was not so much astonished at this as might be expected. I was certainly rejoiced, be cause I knew important developments were to come. At the appointed time I went to the bank and waited in the shadow of the steps. Ten minutes later Mrs. Pixley went up the steps. I joined her. She tapped at the door, and it was opened by the watchman. We went in behind the counters. Mrs. Pixley opened a safe, took out some heavy account book, which I laif1 THE PRINCETON UNION: THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1916 II gjwi^jttiadttifa^ on a high desk for her. "How is it that you can come here at such a time and open this safe?" I asked her. "The watchman is in my secret. I am allowed the combination of this safe, which contains only books." And here began the revelation. I am something of an accountant, this being one reason why I was put on the job. Mrs. Pixley spent two hours with me over a set of books, showing me that Carter had manipulated them to conceal certain peculations. And the entries bearing upon them were so dovetailed into certain entries in a set of books that had been kept by her husband as to make it appear that Pixley was the defaulter. And I could not see how Pixley could have shown that he was innocent in the matter. I looked aside at Mrs. Pixley and asked: "How about the woman with whom your husband decamped?" "I was the veiled woman who went with him to col'ect the money owed him, but I didn't go away with him. One day he discovered how Mr. Carter, to conceal his peculations, had manipu lated these books. He came home so broken down that I, fearing he would make a poor showing under an inves tigation, concocted this plan whereby I might have an opportunity to study out the problem for him. The watch man, Callahan, has always been my husband's friend and at the risk of losing his job has admitted me here at dead of night. I have had an expert accountant with me at times, and to gether we have unraveled this conspir acy and can make a showing such as I have given you." "Where did you get your knowledge f bookkeeping?" "I studied it after my husband left. The person you sent to find out about that caught me unawares. But at the time I did not know she came from you." "Mrs. Pixley," I said admiringly, tak ing from under my coat my badge of office and handing it to her, "I re sign in your favor. If I am worth $10 a day as a detective yon are worth a hundred." As we left the bank I handed a twenty dollar bill to Callahan, but he declined to accept it The next morn ing I called on the bank's president and was obliged to confess that my work had been done by the woman he had sent me to watch. Carter's books were examined without his knowledge Pixley was summoned home by his wife and put in Carter's place. Mrs. Pixley was given five shares of the stock of the bank, worth $8,500. and her husband is as chipper as before he was lugubrious. No, sir, I don't believe that a woman is any more liable to divulge a secret than a man. especially when it be comes her interest to keep It. At any rate, such is my experience. |S|pa^Mt|lH|b!telteKlliBlllilE "T^OR 40 yearsn .Weekly 1 6LEND0RAD0. Wishing the Union and R. C. Dunn a Happy New Year and may the fol lowing year be a success to all. Misses Anna and Esther Holmberg of Minneapolis arrived home Saturday evening to spend the holidays with their parents here. Philip Magnus, who is employed in St. Cloud, came home Saturday even ing to spend the holidays with his parents and friends in Klondike. Mrs. T. W. Thompson passed to the great beyond Friday noon at the Northwestern hospital at Princeton, where she had been for the past few months. She leaves besides her hus band and three children, a large circle of friends who will miss her loving smile and cheery disposition which she carried to the end. Tuesday after noon at 1 o'clock the remains were laid at rest in the Lutheran cemetery at Glendorado. Rev. Gullerude conducted the final services. Miss Gertrude Clepper, teacher of school district No. 33, south, left on Saturday for a two weeks holiday vacation at her home in Rices. Agnes Carlson of St. Paul came home Friday evening to spend a cou ple of weeks with relatives and friends at this plaee. Henry Ryberg of Center City is vis iting friends here and his smiling face is always welcome in Glendorado. Hon. Ed Indrehus, who has been in St. Paul the past week, arrived home Saturday to spend the holidays with his family here. Word was received here that Chas. Christian, jr., of Biwabik, passed away December 15. Pneumonia caused death. Mrs. Christian was formerly Mae Guss of this place, and we extend our sympathy to the bereaved widow .and daughter. I Miss Tillie Ford, after a visit of Oldest and Best EVER RELIABLE ThePrinceto Union (Established in 1876 by R. C. Dunn) Thousand i Adjoining Counties. It has ever been a Consistent Advocate of what it believed to be for the Best Interests of Mille Lacs County and the Rum River Valley in Particular, and the State at large in General. The Union has never been a Knocker but has Always been a Booster. Its policy has ever been to build up and not tear down. The Union is Owned and Controlled Solely by its Pub- lisher, and he Wears no Man's Collar and takes orders from no man or set of men. While the Union Covers the Local Field Thoroughly each week it is more than a mere Local Paperit is a Newspaper of Statewide Reputation and has made Princeton and Mille Lacs County Familiar names in the Northwest. Owing to the Enormous Increase in the cost of paper and other Printing Material the Subscription Price of the Union Should be Increased to $1.50 per year, and it may become ab- solutely necessary to make the increase later, but for the pres- ent and until January 1st, 1917, the Subscription Price Will Remain at One Dollar Per Year to Minnesota subscribers onlyoutside the State, to cover the extra expense of mailing, $1.50 will be charged. There is no Margin for Profit at $1.00 per year, and all subscriptions must be paid in advance. Wishing each and every Reader of the Union a Happy and Prosperous New Year, we remain Truly yours, R. DUNN, Publisher. nearly three years in the state of New York, returned home Saturday even ing, for an extended visit with her aged parents of this vicinity. Thomas Hubbard made his usual drive east Sunday afternoon. Rev. T. B. Clark held services in the M. E. Church Sunday and a large con gregation attended. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Crooks and family were entertained at a Christ mas dinner at the E. B. Bachelor home. Arthur Hubbard, who is employed at the Sam Walker home in Santiago, spent Christmas at his parental home here. Mrs. Huldah Hubbard had the mis fortune to lose a big yearling last Fri day. The animal was pushed into the stock well by the herd. Worms Make Children Fretful. If your child cries out in sleep, is nervous, puny and listless, he may be a victim of worms. Begin treatment at once with Kickapoo Worm Killer. This candy laxative in tablet form kills the worm and removes it quickly and easily. Don't permit your child's development to be retarded by the continued draining of his vitality by worms. Get Kickapoo Worm Killer at your druggist's, 25 cents.Adv. BLUE HILL. Miss Edna Olson has returned to her home after spending a year with her uncle at Ponca, Nebraska. Nick Knutson, Ole Gilbertson and John Meyers spent a couple of days last week in Minneapolis. Anton Olson went to Minneapolis last week, Thursday, to meet his daughter, Edna. He was accompanied by Kaster Fall. Neely Griffin, who was acting the part of Santa Claus at the school en tertainment at the Campbell school, came near being badly burned when the cotton which composed his make- isMggswai^raat^ jgi of Homes in Mille Lacs and the Union has been a Welcome Visitor up caught fire. The fire was quickly put out and Neely got off with a few burns. John Kisner and wife spent Christ mas at Zimmerman with Mr. and Mm Fred Briggs. Mrs. Chas. Brande left last wee Thursday, for an extended visit to, her two brothers, Wm. and Fred Dunn/ at Fulton, S. D. She will visit other relatives and friends at Mitchell, Alex andria and Ethan before returning. Chas. Brande accompanied his wife as far as Minneapolis, and spent a couple of days seeing the sights. John South spent Christmas day with Mr. and Mrs. Hartman camp. Wm. Sweringer and family and Gro ver Jensen and wife and daughter] spent Christmas day in Greenbush, with the Wm. Welden and Frank Wel den families. C. W. Taylor sold a fine colt to Otto Borneke recently. Clarence Taylor has been baling some hay and straw for Isaac Bayler. With this issue of the Union we end another year of correspondence. We have failed in many ways to make good, and our "hen track" writing confuses the linotype man, but we will try to do better in the future. And we wish a happy new year to all readers. (You're all right, ChasLino.) We are in the market for poultr, and offer top prices. Springers 14% a pound, and 14c a pound for hea hens. Rabbits, $1.40 a dozen. To send Produce Co. 1-ltc Notice. Lona Fendell Stock Company wil appear here on next Tuesday, Jnuai 2, instead of Saturday and Sunday The play will be "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine." Don't forget the date, next Tuesday, January 2. A diamond ring will be given away above Tuesday. l-lt^g =t \i I i W, ~*t