The Washington times. [volume], June 02, 1918, FINAL EDITION, American Weekly, Image 32

About The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
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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,
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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