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Newspaper Page Text
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SbHHBHBBB3bb iSSKf'Sk SBOBBfififiBfififiH) m. $"fifififififififififiSA,- &9SBJBieSHBBK3 ..SS'"3HllBfinfifiB WvflfiBfiBaBfiHBfinfeistsK HB9BHsH9BBBBi ' "asis HlSsjiBBfi S HfiBBEHHfikfifiSBHHfiHfr lBi3iBMMfififfe AgwPwP g'J fifiM JfifiVPfifiufinSBSHBBBf SSSfiSBInS 83iBEi858 flaiBi8JifiMfiBg iifiBfffifiHSfiKHfiE& jL BBfifiHB' v ?Sw 1 P'lr f fiBF fififilgfir?- 'JFmMwWiBffiWtffHffir BR yjTWmwjmSlmWT'T-WmrmtW W i iTffiliSlTrMiMfiff 4fififir VsKlffiiHaeHHffiHfifflw-' " aJ WMHi vmUSBaWSSaKBBBKFi 1HI:gvnMnF ggMBBBaitgMpWiB mSmWBmBBM . Tie Ace Txt Lorecf lfa to TAer Defis and Jfa7e Pxwss o Empires the Fees That Wts Ob of the Causes of the Massacre of a Whole Jitasiaa Army Corps. This Was One of lime. Storefs Favorite Photographs of Herself. Taken While She Was Connot ing High Officials in Petrograd. (Continued from Last Sunday) CHAPTEB V THE sudden 'denunciation of the young Mme. Storch and her arrest, as described on this, page last Sunday caused, a. great tensation in the gay company which she had gathered about her at Toledo. Spain. The army officers, diplomats and international adventurers who had been her guests at the bizarre enter tainments in her villa, the majority of whom openly trailed their devotion at her dainty feet, became panic-stricken. They did not dare to display even the slightest interest in the captive beauty. Mme. Storch protested that she was the victim of the jealousy of the French officer whom she had fascinated and who had -denounced her to save himself from the consequences of his own infatuation. Even at this time in 1913-the war depart ments of Europe had been forced to adopt the principle that "spies have no sex:" It was known in these departments that Germany had enlisted a shifting battalion of charming young women for secret intrigue in all the capitals od 'the continent But very few had been caught, and even when caught it was difficulty to over come influences brought to bear in their behalf. Such as were successfully unmasked were given scant mercy , It seemed as if the young, pretty and fragile Mme. Nezie would have to pay the penalty for such affairs as those of Captain Cammara and Colonel AlmB, who died for her, as heretofore narrated. France sent its agents to Spain to prove Mme.' Nezie had drawn valuable -military information and official documents from French and Spanish officers, for the benefit of Germany It was shown that the General Staff at Berlin had learned all the details of the proposed in crease in army classes by a lengthening of the compulsory service from two to three years, a plan just then being put into effect by the French Commander-in-Chief, General Joffre. Many of the details of this plan were a secret, yet Ger many knew them before they were revealed in France. The French claimed that Mme Storch bad obtained this information from officers whom she infatuated, and had passed it on to Herr Max Steinhauer, the chief of the German Intelligence Bureau. They insisted that if she could be re turned to France under arrest they might obtain from her a clue to the German secret organiza tion which, it was known, flourished in Para. Just as Mme. Nezie and Count de Beville, who was arrested with her, were about to be deported representations in her behalf were made to King Alfonso and the Minister of the Interior of the Spanish Cabinet by Senor Jose Pascuale, a wealthy banker of Madrid. Pascuale had never 'met Mme. Nezie. He moved in a wholly different society None of his friends knew her, at least not with any intimacy. But Senor Pascuale was powerful in government circles. - The Min ister of the Interior himself signed an order for the young woman 's release. The Minister found it advisable, though, to stipulate that Mme. Nezie and the Count de Beville should leave the soil of Spain within forty-eight hours. N Just the other day Senor Pascnale found it urgent for him to leave Spain. The allies had discovered that he was one of the chiefs of the German Foreign Secret Service Mme. Storch, still protesting her innocence of espionage, lost no time in obeying the order of the Spanish Ministry to leave Spain. Her reti nue of followers included a young man who' is to figure prominently later on, thp Count de Cleremont, who also was arrested when Mme Nezie and Count de Beville were trapped in the United States. Among the "little things" which came up for the beauty '8 attention upon her sudden depart ure was a. florist 'a bill for orchids and violets, madame's favorite flowers, which amounted to 7,800 pesetas, or close to $1,560. When Mme. Storch was arrested in the United States it was found that 6he had spent huge sums each week for orchids and violets. When the Russian Ballet Princess Fell Into Her Wicked Net With Count de Beville, Count de Cleremont and other gay spendthrifts of her satellite court. Mme Nezie left Toledo between suns, within the forty-eight-hour period, going to San Bemo, the principal resort on the Italian Riviera. Here she established herself temporarily to await in structions from those invisible agencies which ruled her life. In the meantime her exit from Toledo had not been without its aftermath. 'Among those who had attached themselves to Mme. Nezie was a beautiful young Russian, the Princess Souben koff, of Petrograd. The Princess Had Deen OK this page from week to week has fceen told the history of the career of Mmo. Nezie Storch, one of the most valued and highly paid spies in the German Secret Service. After -six years of successful activity in all the great capitals of Europe, Mme. Storch was trapped recently in the Biltmore Hotel, in Hew 3Tork City, by agents ofthe United States Department of Justice. Seven years ago Nezie Storch began her sinister career as a German spy under the direction of her German masters. . To Paris, to Petrograd, to London, to Berlin, to Madrid, to the Ital ian Bivieri wherever diplomatic secrets were to be beguiled out of legation.ofticials or military information was to be procured from army and navy officers, there Mme. Storch was sent ' Her childhood experiences in the harem, her years of gay ' life among the profligates of the most licentious society in Europe and her establishment in Paris by the German Foreign Office in an expensive setting of servants, equipages and admirers were narrated in previous chapters. Her enlistment of the pretty dancer, Mile. Mata-Hari, as a spy and the latter's execution by a firing squad; the debauchery of Mile. Susy Depsy and this young woman's tragic fate as a spy; her intrigues with Baisuli, the Moroccan bandit, and the tragic deaths' of two of Spain's proudest noblemen, who had become her lovers and dupes, were also related, and a further chapter is added.to-day. From week to week on this page will-be told the story 'of Mme. Storch's career, which left an' international trail of scandal, . suicide, ruined lives and'executions at the hands of firing squads in all the great capitals of Europe. .. . H Y, J Jl. - a member of the famous Russian Ballet who had caught the fancy of the dashing young Prince Sergius, scion of one of Russia's wealthiest and most powerful court families. She had been lifted out of the ballet and carried away in a ro mantic elopement by her enamored' prince There was a great commotion in Petrograd society when it learned that Prince Sergius Sou benkoff had stolen his ballet girl and actually married her. - The new Princess Soubenkoff . who had danced on the table at many an uncon ventional party along "Morganatic Lane," as Petrograd '8 street of ''left-handed loves" was called, was most chillily received in more sedate palaces. The Fate of the Unhappy Princess Beaten and Turned Out of Doors Prince Sergius obtained a leave of absence from his regiment and took his charming bride to Paris and then to Spain. Suddenly this was early in 1914 the Prince was recalled by his regimental commander The Prince left his Princess in Spain, promis ing her that he would appeal to the Czar in per son, in the name of youthful love, to let him bring her to St Petersburg under the protection of imperial favor. Alone in Madrid, with only a professional duenna as her chaperone. and with the tastes for pleasures that would especially appeal to an emancipated dancing girl who had been since her childhood a spectator of the sensuous indulgences with which the gay aristocrats of the Russian cap ital whiled away their lives, the young Princess fell easy prey to the temptations that surrounded her. She found a kindred spirit in Mme. Nezie, who already had had a larger experience of the world, and became Mme. Nezie 's closest intimate. When their career at Toledo was interrupted by Mme. Nezie's sudden arrest, the Princess was dismayed. It seemed as if she were lost. In her distress she appealed to her husbind at St. Petersburg, and urged him to come to her at once. The gallant young Prince left for Spain as soon as he could obtain permission from his commandant Prince Sergius was very wrathful when he learned the true state of affairs. He was more so when the gossip and rumors which the arrest had precipitated informed him somewhat of the extent to which the Princess had strained her faithfulness to him. The culmination of an ex citing scene in the chateau which had been Mme Nezie's was characteristic of the temper of the Russian husband. He left the- young Princess n hysterical, crumpled heap on the floor, bruised and smarting, with great welt across her shoul ders raised by his riding crop The Prince returned to Russia, his romance faded and his Princess but a sorrowful memory She fled to San Remo. where she appealed to her friend. Mme Nezie to take her in. But she con fessed that her husband would send her no more remittances, and that she would learn from him no more news of the mobilization plans of the Russian General Staff Then Mme Nezie laughed at the forlorn little Princess and turned her out of doors to the mercies of the roues and adventurers who retreat to St Remo when other resorts are closed to them ! A year afterward Prince Soubenkoff. whose regiment was cut to pieces in. the trap into .which,,. Hindenburg lured the" Tenth Russian Array Corps, returned to Petrograd from the front one of the few officers who escaped the massa cre. Prince Sergius was crushed and despond ent He knew, as did other gallant Russian offi cers, that there had been treachery at home, else Hindenburg would never have been able to am bush a whole army corps in the Mazurian Lakes. One of the first familiar faces he saw on the Nevski Prospect after his arrival from the front was that of Mme. Nezie. It was only a glimpse the Prince caught of the olive-tinted face framed among the cushions of a speeding limousine, with sables and ermine wrapped close about it Yet that one glimpse was enough. He remembered his wife 's downfall at the hands of this young woman and the latter's narrow escape at Toledo from o spy's fate Pnnce Sergius looked around him i he quietly investigated the career df Mme. Nezie in Petro grad. A Russian colonel was hanged, the gen eral of a division was torn from her boudoir and shot at sunrise; the Minister of War was sent into chains for life and his young wife suffered disgrace, and Mme Nezie escaped from Russia just in time to save her neck. Her Corps of Beautiful Spies in the Czar's Turbulent Capital It was not until the middle of the Summer of ' 1914 that Mme. Storch was ordered by the Ger man Secret Service to go to Petrograd In the meantime she remained in semi-ODscurity at San Remo. It is apparent her German masters wanted the scandal which broke at Toledo to dio out. before it entrusted to her another important mission. The Austrian Archduke-Francis Ferdi nand and his wife were assassinated at Sarajevo June 28. It is significant, in the light of after events, that the record shows that Mme. Storch arrived in St Petersburg during the first week of July, or more than two weeks before the Aus trian -ultimatum to Serbia. When Mme. Nezie arrived at St Petersburg. a it was still called at that time, there was great commotion in the city. Never had there been so much gayety Even the tense undercurrent of emotional stress with which the outcome of the Sarajevo assassination was awaited seemed to add to the reckless unrestraint of the city's aris tocracy Rasputin's boasts of his conquest of the Czarina, a new "love affair" of one of the grand dukes, the origin of a new necklace of dia monds around the delicate throat of Mile Ksheshinskaya, the Czar's favorite -dancing girl these were the things that seemed uppermost in the whole city's thoughts. Into such an atmosphere Mme Nezie. who was always the centre of much curiosity as a runaway harem girl, and whose voluptuous beauty was remarkable in any company of daz zling women, fitted easily and quickly Soon she was the centre of a new circle of admirers, the Mat. SonkhomlinoBA War Mme Storch Who Afterward Wi Plana to Germany most eager or wtiom wei Tt e war cloud broke deni ess. . For a time the lussian capital. OJ evidences of a vast whii led to the ver Generals were hampe sent astray The offid ance upon the young tided many of their misd of their commanders pi! The stern Grand in-Chief, began to inve city. He sensed Germs boudoirs? of the young seemed to have gather every European capit hunted out and shut up One night at the stro military figure of the peared at the door of a : nightly revel was at its 1 table there sat a danngli tcte-a-tete with an officd obtained by some devio absence from the front In every one of these , Duke saw a menace to the presence at theirtat