Evening Star Newspaper, December 17, 1922, Page 77

Part 48 Pages WASHINGTON, D. C, MAGAZINE SECTION - The Sundy Star. SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 17, 1922. I FEATURES i | MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES PERFORMS HIS MANY SEEMING MIRACLES WITH UNCANNY EASE THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EY —_— | The secming miracles perform= ed by the astounding man de- | | scribed in this story suggest the | strange powers of the human mind, @ are as et unknown cven to scienc ence cannot explain his marvelous gift, but § | ists of the highest standing , ouch for the authenticity of the cvents recorded here. The author ory, Charles Benedek, is an journalist and mag- of the first rank. He | | of the a Hunga during the war ected as corre- | | spondent of tie Vilag, the liberal | | daily of Budapest. ¥ A Bagger, author of the molable | | book “Eminent Europeans,” per- | | conally wouches for the reliability | | Mr. Benedek. | iugene BY CHARLES BENEDEK. HE greatest psy the old world today is the man with the X-ray eyes. In Vienna, his home, they also Kk of him the man for whom are no secrete. -He is the won der of scientists, the talk of the wspapers, the white hope of ail| .zencies engaged in ferreting out and | ¥ inderworld. ForRafael Schermann— Ly this name that astonishing person uze is known in his everyday rela- tionships—has very firm convictions on the subject of social obligations. He believes that he holds his mar- | velous gift of second sight as a sort | of trusteeship and that he must put its benefit at the disposal of the commonwealth. His exploits are veri- | fied by the rigorously scientific testi- | mony of a number of experts, psychologists of established repute. | The noted Prof. Benedikt of the Uni- | rsity of Vienna has written a book | ‘bout him. These scientists, how- wver, confine themselves to stating | the facts of the case. They frankly | admit that explanation is beyond | them. Rafacl Schermann’s latest triumph | S eved with a 40,000,000 kronen ac forgery that occurred in one of the jeading banks of the Austrian me- tropolis, an establishment on the tashionable Schottenring, well known | o visiting Americans. The follow- | ing account describes the case ex- actly as it appears on the police | ecords, but with fictitious names sub- | stituted for those of the characters: * K k% O\‘E day, a few weeks ago, the| manager of the bank summoned ulein Schwarz” he said, “will | vou bring me the cashier’s duplicate | of that Goldenwasser deposit receipt | for 40,000,000 Czechoslovak kronen?” | (about $13,500 at present exchangs rate). “There seems to be some little | mistake about his initials. I can't! make out the signature on his letter here.” | “Yes, sir.” | Half an hour later the manager was confronted by the perplexed girl. “Awtully sorry, sir; they can't find it. Herr Kraus wishes to speak to you about it.” “Tell him to come in.” The cashier entered, apologetic. “Funny,” he sald. (hat confounded receipt. None of the recelving tellers knows anything about it. We have searchied the whole office; there {sn't a trace any- where. And still the money must have been received. It is entered on the ledger ag it should be. This man oldenwasser—who is he, ‘anyway? The 40,000,000 Czechoslovak kronen was his first deposit with us, and now he withdraws it after two weeks. Very queer.” There was a consultation, a renewed search and another consultation. This Jatter brought more clearness than satisfaction to the directors. Thera seemed to be no room for doubt. The bank had heen defrauded. Herr (ioldenwasser's deposit, sure enough, | excited and “We cannot find | was di |entry on the ledger. cuting crime, the terror of the | i beautiful form in her fingers. uppeared on the books in the most impeccably regular fashion, And there was nothing Intrinsically sus- L} one which, a few days before, had directed the bank to transfer the 0,000,000 to the Anglo-Austrian Bank. The sum was remitted, ac- knowledgment was received. And now it developed that the original entry was fictitious. The deposit had never been received. Perhaps Mr. joldenwasser did not exist at all. There was but one thing to do. The detect: s arrived from head- quarters and began their inquiry with the usual aplomb. They looked at Herr Goldenwasser's letter and shook their heads. They also looked at the entry in the ledger and shook their heads some more. One of them atched to find Herr Golden- wasser. o\ “There is no such person as Herr Goldenwasser, leather merchant, at the address stated on the letterhead,” he reported on his return. * k ¥ ]\lm.\'wmu: his colleagues hajl " beiter luck They examined the The manager gists & TS |sald it was in the handwriting of | testimony of the handwriting. It had | The | been examined minutely by an expert So did several other | from headcuarters, who said, on com- Miss F., an elderly lady of | paring it with numerbus other sam- appearance, | ples of Miss F.'s hand, that the iden- | was forthwith put through a highly | tity was obvious. the head bookkeeper. | Miss | cashier agreed. officials. | eminently respectable professional grilling in the manager's private office. She was punctual, conscientious, | unassuming, a model clerk, trusted by | manager. | her supertors, liked by her fellow- employes. She had been with the bank [ for twelve years. And now, | fronted with the forged entry, could only declare most emphati | that she had not written it and pro- | test with tearful vehemence nst the accusation. Yet theré was the con- | | Scientists of Europe Puzzled by Inexplicable Power of Rafael Schermann, Who, From Handwriting or Even a Paper That Has Been Touched by the Subject, Seems to Be Able to Visualize His Past History and His Future, as in Long Reels of Motion Pictures—How He Forced a Confession From ‘Anna Bu¢hmann, Who Poisoned Two Husbands — Psycholo- Subject Man and His Performances to Searching Tests. somewhat absent-minded expression of his blue eves. The manager of the bank greeted him eagerly, almost ex- uberantly. “So glad you've come, Herr Scher- mann. You are the only person in the world who can straighten out this mess.” Succinctly the facts were laid be- foro the newcomer. He was shown the letter in which the alleged Herr Goldenwasser instructed the bank to transfer his deposit to the Anglo- Austrian. He was shown the ledger with the fictitious entry. He looked at the two documents with an in- tensity that increased perceptibly until his face assumed the expression “I am afraid we will have to make an arrest,” whispered the commis- | sfoner of detectives to the bewildered There was a slight but ominous move toward the bookkeeper, but at this moment a little bearded man burst into the room. He was dressed with as much neatness as the ex-| treme age of his well brushed clothes would permit. His sharp features contrasted strangely with the kind, E | SUDDENLY SCHERMANN SEIZED THE HAND OF THE YOUNG MAN AND SHOUTED: “YOU ARE THE FORGER™! ¥ ¥ of acute pain. His mouth twitched, heavy drops of perspiration rolled down his forehead. At last he closed his eyes and. stood silent for a few moments, covering his brow with a trembling hand. . Suddenly he grab- bed the arm of the detective commis- sloner, who, with the others in the room, had been watching the per- formance in dumb wonderment. “Stop,” shouted Schermann in a strained voice. “Leave that woman lalone. She has nothing to do with | the forgery.” The little man sat down, crossed his legs and began to talk, frowning heavily, his eyes still closed as if turned inward, penetrating unknown vistas of the fourth dimension. “The forgery was perpetrated,” Schermann sald, “by a man. He imi- tated this lady’s handwriting. Itisa clumsy imitation, too. I cant see how he could deceive any of you. It follows, more or less, the curves of this lady’s hand—there is a superfi- clal resemblance—but the spirit, the abstract image of it, is entirely dif- ferent. Il tell you about it in a minute—it's the man who forged the entry who is the principal in this crime. ter is a dummg. I can see him. He is a stout, clumiy fellow with a fleshy nose and bleary eyes. He is irresolute—he has no will of his own. I wonder what his trade is. It's one requiring much sitting and great at- tention and precision. He may be an optician or a watchmaker. I don't know. But you don’t want him, any- way—not in the first place. ou see, he participated in the | fraud unwillingly. He first declined !to do it, but he could not resist the | personality of the real criminal. Him I don't quitc see—mot yet. But you | must hurry to get him; he plans to escape tomorrow. One moment! I do see him now. He is young and handsome and slimi He has clever dark eyes. He is!of good family. My God! I sce his family now—his {01a father and mother—they are sit- | ting in their shabby lttle flat, in ! tears, wringing their hands. They |talk of suicide. They knéw what ! their son has done. Get him, quick! | You must rescue the poor old couple! I'll single him out for you. | this office. But you can’t nail down The man who wrote the let- | He is in | the name of his confederate, and adde “Don’t hurt him, poor ass. He did not want to do it. He has no will. I made him write the letter.” A detective brought in the accom- plice. He was a stout, clumsy fel- low, with a fleshy nose and bleary eyes, and he actually was a watch- maker. | Rafael Schermann, the little man of | Jewish appearance who thus solved | the mystery of the 40,000,000 kronen | forgery in the Schotfenring Bank, i3 the most remarkable case of “second sight” that has come to the notice | of continental sclentists in a genera- | tion or two. The psychologists: who have examined him have returned the unanimous verdict that his perform- ances are absolutely genuine, also | absolutely beyord rational explana- |tion. These scientists are willing to | testify under oath as to his results, i but they confess they have no idea as | to how he achieves them. i * % % % ‘RAFAEL SCHERMANN is the most astounding phenomenon of our | time. He is not a handwriting ex- {pert in the accepted sense of the |term. He is not “scientific,” he has Ino system. But a person’s hand- | writing seems to fire him with an un- | canny, supernatural second sight. He | seems to be able to search out with | deadly precision not only the charac- im of the persons whose writing he | may see, but also the unexpressed de- | sires and intentions which lie deep in their minds. ‘When Schermann was in Zurich, a | year or so ago, public interest was the forgery on him—you must make | 3roused to the fever point by the | him confess—you must promise him |tria) of a certain Frau Buchmann. Immunity if he restores the money.” | who was accused of having poisoncd =72 E ' E | "‘E. the hand of & young man and shout- | /4 £ * % * % | JMMEDIATELY a line-up of all the employes of the bank was ordered. | Herr Schermann sat down at a desk and the clerks were asked to pass one by one. Each had to write down the sentence, “I have nothing to do with the forty millions,” and sign his Suddenly Schermann seized You are the forger The man jumped back as if hit in ! the face. And Schermann, still hold- | ing his hand, addressed him: “Your name is Ludwig Neumann. You have just signed yourself Louis Neumann. You have a passport—you just got it—on’ which your name ap- | pears as Louis Nauheim. Don't try to deny it. I have seen it. You want to go to Frdnce. And I see Your poor parents, heartbroken by vour crime. | They want to die rather than to live |in shame. For their sake we'll let you go if you restore the money. | Come.” But, the young man had fainted jdead awa; When he was restored to consciousness he guiped down a ,drink of water and said: “There's no use, Il tell you all about it. I'll feturn the money.” He did tell all about it, incuding Woman Pioneer in Movie Writing A A A £ BY SARAH McDOUGALL. F the many women all over the land who would like to excel as scenario writer® for the movies not onme in a thousand does anything worth while. Why? June Mathis tried to explain and she illustrated the explanation with some of her own experiences in the past nine years while she was on er way to her present comfortable perch at the top of the-profession. When she became editorial director for the Goldywn studios in November Miss Mathis assumed what is con- sidered the most important executive job held by any woman in the movies. “To be entirely satisfying to the feminine mind,” remarked Miss Ma- this, “a career must consist in tac- kling some corner of a tangle and working away at It until she feels the | thing unraveling and taking a more I a woman can ‘Keep calm and keep the ball in her own hands I think it helps rather than hinders to have a few men in the foreground who want it done their way.” With Miss Mathis it has been the movies all these years. Men have helped her and men have hindered her from the beginning. With her first great success, “The Four. Horse- men,” she emerged some seasons ago from a jumble that had been com- plicated by the attitude of some of the biggest motion picture men in the country. After that she did “Blood and Sand” and “The Rajah” and soon she will give us “Ben Hur.” When I went to ask this woman who creates pictures of great beauty and stirring drama to suggest what path others should pursue to arrive at the somewhat solitary heights, I found ‘her so deeply absorbed in a book that her secretary had to call my name twice before she looked up. And when she slowly raised her eyes from a huge page of print there was in them a look of startled surprise. Later she told me that we had jolted her across a chasm of centuries from a thrilling world of long ago. She was sitting comfortably on her feet in a large upholstered chair with a Tissot Bible spread open across her knees. ' Before her on the table was a barri- cade of the biggest Bibles in the world. “Ruth Gleaning” looked out from one colorful page, “Abimelech Slaying His Seventy Brethren” from |slant on the picture business, and he|day throughout picious about his letter, either—the |another. A pair of beok ends sup-{suggested that there was a hig house- studied under June Mathis, Who Wrote Scenario for AAAARAS A | ported a reference library of “Medie- | val Pursuits,” “Lives of the Prophets™ and dictionaries of Greek and Roman biblical biography. The foom where “Ben Hur” was being born again was large and even more sumptuously furnished than the average workshop for the movies. An oriental rug on the floor, a few Egyptian and Chinese works of art, a big sofa, several hos- pitable-looking chairs and two type- | writers. Her office 1s in the Capital | Theater building at 50th street and | Broacway. Ry narfo writer closed the big Bible and turned a pair of investigatory blue eyes on me—eves that looked as if they belonged to an exceedingly eraceful person. But Miss Mathis has had her fights. Before she began to talk about herself I should have guessed her age to be about thirty. | She must be older ‘than that to have | done all the things she has done. She is of medium height, not too slender and looks happy and healthy. Her first fight against what looked like unfriendly destiny. June Mathias told me, took place in the altitudinous town of Leadville, Col. There, and later as a schoolgirl in Salt Lake Clty, " it was her bad health she combated. For years people expected her to die almost any day. But because she was determined to live and have a €ood time she became a dancer. After her father's death she decided to suc- ceed him as provider for the family, and with that idea in mind she went to visit an aunt in Los Angeles, where she got a job on the stage doing song and dance imitations. She was with the Julian Eltinge company four years and for two years she played the lead in “Brewster’s Millions.” “The first time I thought seriously of the movies” she recalled, “was when I put them down as a menace to the drama. We were playing on the coast - in ‘The - Fascinating ‘Widow.’ The season was bad and We blamed the pictures., My preju- dice was intensified by a visit to a studio in a barn at Hollywood. The leading man was drunk and his neck was dirty. Everything imhpressed me &8s being shabby. Back in my dress- ing room I aired my views to the editor of a small paper who came to see me. He told me I had the wrong EISURELY the star woman sce- | “Four Horsemen,” Began by Denouncing Pictures as Menace to the Drama—Was Member of Julian Eltinge’s Company, in “The Fascinating " Widow”—Convinced of Possibility of Improving Screen Art, Spent Two Years in Study, Preparing for Work—Forced to Overcome Opposition When She Was Climbing to Her Pres- ent Position as Leader in Profession—Calls Shakespeare “Greatest Screen Writer.” | | and the drama had ‘been left out. He | agreed with fe. ! would be better, ARARARARAARAAARARRADADA X cleaning job ahead for the right kind, every night she went to the movies. of women. Instead of wasting my| Toward the end of her apprentice- breath scolding about bad scenarios, | ship she changed her name to vari- he said, I should be writing g0od|ous aliases and played extra or any- ones. That was the first time any one had suggested to me that T could | her and give her a chance to learn write, and the man was so serious|the camera end of the trade. and so complimentary that I Was|lived in a world apart and that world willing to be convinced. He argued was filled with things related to mo- that any one who could tell a g00d|tion pictures. Shakespeare loomed story should be able to write one. He | large in study hours, and he still took me to see the picture of Chan-|does; for she considers him the great- ning Pollock’s ‘Little Gray Lady.’ Ijest screen writer of all time. When- thought it was awful.' All the charm | ever she wants to round out a scene in flashback drama she can always | get a hint from him. ? “About the time when I felt 1 should have to go back to earning money. saw inatrade magpz! the announcement of a ‘With that California editor I visited the old Universal lot at Holly- wood, and he introduged me to a number of interesting people. There, for the first time, I sensed that, there were moving picture people Wwho were working from a very serious angle, and it dawned on me that here was something that was going to be a really great business. On the waty back I promised that editor that I would try my hand at writing. We decided it should be an Indiar story I had told him the first time I'saw him. That scenario has never been finished, but I recall it and, the per- sistent Californian with something akin to sentiment for giving ;me the idea that switched me into a new world.” G ine prize 4cenario competition, I did not{ win the prize, but I recefved a num- ber of .letters. One was from Mr. Ince asking me to write a scenario tor a popular actress. 1 was working | feverishly on that story when another letter came from the Metro i people offering me work In their office. I was with them seven years, and after the first fifteen months I became head of the scenario-writing department. The only reason why 1 should have been given preference over people who were older in the business was because I knew the fun- damentals. I never deny that I have a natural knack for story develop- ment, but I have always leaned & ood deal harder on study and hard work than on mere talent. * x x % GE{XJHEN the plan to plctdrize the Ibanez book was suggested all the men in the buslhess thought ‘it iimpractical. They were convinced that & war picture would not take. Besides, it would be tremendously * % ok * T the end of that season on the coast June Mathis left the stage. Predictions of better business and promises of better roles were of no avail. The movies were rather bad, and she had made up her mind that some day they would be good and she would help to bring about the change. That she decided, than growing too old to be a stage in-| genue. i qxpensive. I wanted very much to With a deliberateness that charac-| Write that scenario. ~Meanwhile. it terizes whatever she does, Miss|Went begging in every office-in the Mathis planned her program. She|country before a producer would take expected to become a writer of very|it Even after the Metro people got good scenarios. To do that she would the rights there was a question need to- know more about a number | Whether we ought to go through with of things. One of these was litera-|it. The more they resisted the ture. Another was story develop-|stronger became my conviction-that Ment. Amothor was history. Another|it would be a very big plcture. Al- was the movies. She brought her|ready I had made up my mind to do mother and her grandmother to New |it and I had spent most of my vaca- York and made a budget of their| tion talking with.Ibanes. finances. She could afford to lay off | “When the picture was finally under work and study for two years. Every|way I made only two stipulations. those two years she|One was that I should sit in on every tutors and almost|sct and the other was that Rodolph thing In any company that could use She | Tells of Her Struggle for Success H i 1 i | | JUNE MATHIS, WOMAN PIONEER OF THE NEWEST ART. Valentino should play the lead. He| Speaking of her hopes for “Ben was not widely known then, and I| Hur,” Miss Mathis said that she al- had never seen the boy, except in|ways thinks of it as “God's picture,” pictures.. I feel very proud .of himiand with a silent partner of such now, as I do of othiers who have been | promience she has no fear of failure. I helped -to prominence through my [She told me that when she took’ the lblctur:& I went to California and|draft of her scenario to Mr. Crlanger, | kept my resclution to see every set|who owns the stage and screen rights ! of “The-Four Horsemen.’ That meant'to the book, he surprised her by tell- standing out- in the rain and work-{ing her that he had sketched & ing for as long as thirty-two hours|scenario, which he would like to read on a stretch. to her. Miss Mathis listened to the “Because I had nursed it throughend. so much opposition I made up my|‘ “Now, wouldn't you like to hear mind that the.picture had to be a|mine?” she asked him, and, of course, great success. I had given up my|Mr. Erlanger was properly eager. It department job for that venture and happened that they were almost I meant that it ‘should go.in a big|identical, scene for scene, which Miss 1 edited it from beginning to, Mathis considers a good omen for her Again | forthcoming picture. As we sauntered across the hall and into her apartment I asked the star scenaria writer what she does for recrcation. “Why, 1 go to the movies, of course,” said she, b . Way. end and wrote all the titles. and again I had been told that it was a gamble, and it turned out to be a good one, Since then othér luflnsll baye been easier.” {her husband. It was a mystifying |case. Frau Buchmann was a mysti- | fying woman. The public prosecu- | tor, Dr. Brunner, asked Schermann to pass an opinion on Frau Buchmann® handwriting. Schermann took one o/ | the letters written by the woman and | read it swiftly. “This ‘woman fears paragraphs,” hr ! satd. “In her mind, as she wrote this. | was a dread of certain articles in tiic penal code. You see here, clearly. | suggestion of the mark we usc i | designate paragraphs. She is af | of being arrested and punished for terrible crime she has committc | Yes! There can be no doubt. She : {guilty. She poisoned her husband.” Dr. Brunner was hesitant and e: barrassed. “I am sorry. sir”’ he said. “Th letter I showed you was written thr.. vears ago. She was not even marris | to Buchmoan then.” “Impossibic. The woman who wro this letter was married.” “Married. ves. But to her first hu. - “Is Herr Hanhardt iving?" “No, he fsn’'t. He—I recall it now ihe died suddenly.” “I shouid like to ‘meet Frau Buch mann,” said the little wizard quiet Next day in Brunner's office Scher- mann was introduced to the woman She bowed to him with perfect self- possession. “Would you mind writing teo sei- |tences that I will dictate?” aske! | Schermann. o, certainly,” she replied. Schermann gave her paper and pen “First, please write: ‘I have poison mg husband. She did so calm! | with a perfectly steady hand. *Now ‘I have not polsoned my hus- She obeyed as before. “And sign your name.” Schermann took the paper and studied it. Then he looked directly at the woman. “You are the murderess, and you will confess,” he said. Frau Buchmann losts sher poise in- stantly. She sprang to her feet and passionately denied the accusation. | Schermann bowed and left the office. He started that day for Vienna. On his arnval there he found this tele- gram: “The woman has confessed. | She poisoned both husbands.” * ok ok % | QCHERMANN is an insurance clerk by profession and was employed as such by the Phoenix In: | Company of Vienna. His first case, | which estsablished his fame as a Ipsychic expert of transcendental {power, grew out of a burglary in a leather factory. He was assigned to the job as a loss appraiser. The |burglary was a most mysterious !affair, with apparently not a single | clue to work on. Schermann entered the shop and looked it over. Atonce he shuddered. People in the room were horrified to see the whites of his eyes turn up, his body convulse, his knees tremble. He stood there in a trance for a few seconds; then he walked to the head of the firm, who was watching from a corner. “Mr. X.” he said in a hoarse whis- per, “I know who committed the bur- {glary. Look at that young man near the glass cabinet. He is one of your {employes. I can't tell the police, be- | cause there is no evidence to convict {him, and If he denies the crime I'd be {liable for false prosecution. But | show mé a piece of his handwriung |and T'll tell you whether he will con- | fess or not.” The manager was astonished and incredulous, but he was willing to try. He called the suspected clerk into his office and dictated to him a few lines which he was to take down in longhand. Schermann stood by and watched the handwriting. Sud- denly he spoke to the clerk. “You are the burglar,” he said calmly. “And I know now that vou will confess. Now, come across won't you?” The young man dropped his pen stammered incolereutly, sank into u chair—and confssed. On' that day Schermann’s career a: insurance appriiser ended and his new one as amateur private detective began. But he is more than that—a reader of minds, crystal gaser, sooti- sayer. The prodigiouss Herr Schermann iy not difficult of approach. Every aft- ernoon between 3 and 5 o'clock there is a ‘pilgrimage of troubled folk tq - his humble abode on Untere Welss. garberstrasse, _where he presides among his books and papers, thrown all over the place In a disorder not unlike that of Sherlock Holme:' cele- brated apartment in Baker strest. Tg (Continued on Second Fage) e