The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 17, 1898, Page 26

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JULY 17, 1898. 25 SECRET SERVICE SCOUTS AFTER SPANISH SPIES Chief Wilkie Tells of the Clever Operations of His Men in Running Down Downing and Other Informers in Spanish Employ. eclal War Correspondence of T he Call. | posed to put up a fight, for he was in the act of putting on his coat and had ASHINGTON, July ~The | one arm through his sleeve and the Sec Service the | other only half through, so that he present war has been mostly | couldn’t have used either to advantage. yvering I grabbed him by the collar and ex- s of Spain plained our errand briefly. Instead of fight he wilted like an icicle on the Washington pavement in July. Enter- ing his room we found his effects, the cipher he was to use in telegraphing to his Spanish employer, some de- lr}')'«»d correspondence—in fact, every- thing necessary to make out a perfect case. He never recovered from his ollapse. = He had brains enough to see that it was all up with him. We turned him over to the soldiers, who | took him to the military prison and | there, after a severe attack of melan- (v.h“],(,a‘ he committed suicide by hang- And he [ ‘D& <3 at that | Chief Wilkie is a young man, under of their | 40 vears of age. He is the son of take tnis | the late distinguished journalist, Franc = (h]‘f‘\\ukxe, whose articles in the Chicago LS ’Tl.l‘nes when Wilbur F. Story was w h_" alive were largely instrumental in the as if | success of that newspaper. John Wil- | kie followed in the profession of his " | father. For a number of years he 5y Heatly the | was city editor of the Chicago Tribune. 4 given | He left journalism to become mana- himself | 8er of Low’s Exchange in London and went from there to the Secret Service. st v!}:og long ago Secretary Gage asked T ey of | Wilkie to do a bit of special work for the key { him. The work required much shrewd- ness and nerve. Wilkie performed the task so quickly and satisfactorily that Gage almost took Wilkie's breath away from him by offering him the high position he now holds. Wilkie had had no thought of the place and was skeptical of his ability to fill it. But Gage was confident; and that the selection was good has been abundant- ly demonstrated by the short time it has taken the young Chicagoan to practically break up the Spanish spy system here by capturing its chief op- eratives and exposing, so completely, the identity of its chief that the latter, according to the present outlook, will have to leave his snug harbor in Can- ada and quit this hemisphere. During times of peace the secret ser- | vice is engaged in looking after crim- employed in dis thwarting t to get inf s in thi certain cret ent : has been by I en to the earet Service tht most have ricans are showing t vi two be dded to tir “In a into th 1 it to John Wilkie, rvice of Amerl v be informed 1y, fi to him m d all that 1 yme m n es its y Chief ate of- was taken up by | m,” Chief Wil- | ne week. I e Downing, a | iser Brooklyn, | h spy service. iving in Toron- » pay his first call | Spanish legation iin earshot and heard | between them. | uctions Down- | Downing left | met him as if by r a match to light d with him to the | od look at him, fol- learned his as- g ster and later | jnals who take to counterfeiting for a train. Then he |jiving. That pursuit in itself is spicy z Downing had left | enough in variety. But the demands of W the 5 o'clock |\war lend additional bite to the spley Il description of him | quality of the service. Shortly after e "-““’.I"“v:“i‘ the Spanish legation left Washington O i e house. whors Be Loft]5he Waer Bepartoent réceived numer- "‘”‘;‘\_ followed him about | °US Teports concerning Spanish spies L bk to his houce. Atter an | and asked Chief Wilkie to look after o he came out and walked to |them. President McKinley placed five thousand dollars to Wilkie's credit and | later fifty thousand dollars more to his office receiver the let. | credit to carry on his operations. He 1e hands of one of my | Was thus enabled to secure a large and i was brought at once to | COmpetent force to cover the country When he dropped a let- h employer in Toronto the othergoperatives followed | thoroughly; and with the knowledge back to his boarding-house. I |that there is plenty more money where » Jetter and upon reading it |the last came from. x with the War Depar A week or so ago “Billy” Pinkerton, decided upon a military |the famous Chicago detective, - was s were sent for, and tak- | Seen to come from Chief Wilkie’s room es with me, we went He and straightway the report went forth was still there [t Pin ton had been engaged to ed till the extinguished |assist Wilkie in running down Spanish told us that he had gone to bed. |spies. The report is wholly incorrect. chief continued, “we |In the first place the Government is nt door. The mis- | prohibited by statute passed by Con- se thrust her head | gress just after the Homestead riots vindow and declined to |from employing the Pinkertons. In the I threatened to .break |second place, instead of going to Then, very much |help Wilkie with advice, Pinkerton she admitted us. Leaving | went to clear his skirts of all suspicion liers below I took two of my |of being in any way connected with i bidding the landlady go be- |the Spanish spy system. Prior to the t up to his door. I bade the | war Pinkerton was in the employ of knock and tell Downing that | the Spanish legation, and by his detec- friends from Chicago wanted to |tive ability many filibustering expedi- She could leave the rest to |tlons were foiled. It was therefore not did so. Downing bit at |unnatural to think that he might still we could hear him dress- | be retained by Spain. It is but just to Pinkerton to say that he demon- hall was dark and we stood on | strated to Wilkie's complete satisfac- of the door. When he opened | tion that he is a loyal citizen and has he was in the best possible |now no connection whatever with for capture had he been dis- | Spain. 0000000000000 0000C000000000000000000 ONLY ONE WOMAN NURSE With the MANILA VOLUNTEERS She belongs to the Iowa regiment and was specially sent with them by the citizens of Des Moines. 2 {s one woman nurse at . She is Miss Della e Towa volunteers + their own. | Iowans, “and there is not enough of her | to go around.” Of a truth there is not much of her | from the standpoint of size. A wee regiment in the | morsel of a woman no taller than the ted ¢ ould like to have |average child of 12. Light footed, her t “she belongs to us,” say the | steady of hand, with a face as brown %ann‘- iy (] YA I ngn A iy as a berry and eyes browner yet, a coil of jet black hair topped off with an officer’s cap, and there you have her. And it’s much easler to imagine her than to get sight of her in the flesh. “The_sergeant will conduct you to Nurse Weeks,” said the captain. ‘We plowed up the sand to the little cottage at the Children’s Hospital, I read them all. From mothers, wives and sweethearts, each in a dif- ferent handwriting,” each couched in different terms, from cities and vil- lages scattered over Jowa, but with a common sentiment running through them all. Each one asking that should her loved one be in need Nurse Weeks would attend to him. Every one send- Then the city of Des Moines rose up. In twelve hours $500 were collected. The next day Miss Weeks left for San Francisco. The Iowa boys gave her a welcome that startled the seals at the Cliff House. Her being there may not be official. But she has saved many lives, and the “quality of mercy is not strained.” No SOMETHING NEW IN SCULPTURE THAT IS EXCITING P~RIS. The statue of Balzac, by Rodin, in the new salon, has created more discussion than anything in art of recent years. After one view the Society of Artists that ordered it promptly declined to accept it. manufacturer declared the work a masterpiece and offered to pay Rodin his own price for it. At once a wealthy Paris Rodin handed back the society its first payment of 10,000 francs and will finish the figure in marble for his new patron, whither the very sick are moved. A tall soldier, a slouch hat pulled down over a face unnaturally white, stood next to her. She raised herself on her tiptoes and patted his arm lovingly. “One of my boys,” she said, “who came near leav- ing us, but he pulled through and is going back to eamp to-day.” “I didn’t pull through; you pulled me through, and the big fellow awk- wardly put his arms around her and kissed her forehead. “Mother told me to,” he said, shoving a crumpled letter into her hands and beating a hasty retreat. ‘We sat down and read the letter to- gether. Not a long letter, not one that would find a place in the “Complete Letter Writer.” Just a few broken, disjointed sentences that came from the mother’s heart when she heard her | boy had passed the crisis and was ral- lying. “I get dozens of letters every day from people I have never even seen. You can read them while I go in and attend to my boys.” THE PHILIPPINES — SHOWING HOW THEY COMPARE IN SIZE WITH THE UNITED STATES AND ENGLAND. | ing up a prayer for the safety and well | being of Nurse Weeks. She cannot answer them. They do not expect it. But they find comfort in writing to her. “I have never seen them,” she said as she gathered up the letters, “but we are not strangers. We know each other through the boys. “There is one now,” pointing to a sol- dier sitting in the sun, ‘“‘whose mother tucks in a little note for me with every one of his lette: He ought to be in now. It's his first day up and he’s been sitting up long enough. Would | you mind calling him?” I walked over and gave him the nurse’s message. We made our way slowly toward the cottage, for he was | still painfully weak. Some of the lit- | tle children from the hospital were in the yard on reclining chairs, enjoying the sun. | in sweet, childish treble, said: “Ou sick, soldier?” “Yes, my little lad “Me so sorry,” and she puckered her little brow, then, with sudden, sweet inspiration, held up a battered looking doll. “Ou kiss dolly; she make ou better.” He bent gravely and kissed the doll. Then, with uncovered head, left a kiss and a tear that glistened beside it, on the wan face of the little child. Inside the cottage I found Miss ‘Weeks making broth. For, in addi- tion to nursing, she cooks the little ne- cessities that help to coax back life. Two soldiers who are detailed to help her stood by. They obey her lightest word with a military decision that is prompted by something more than fear and respect. And it is this something that is Nurse ‘Weeks’ reward for her days and nights of toil. For it is toil, ceaseless toil that would make stone-breaking seem light in comparison. Back and fdrth from the cottage to the hospital tent at the camp, days and nights of stand- ing with a few hours grudgingly snatched for sleep, constantly caring and attending to the wants of the sick. 2 This something? _Gratitude rooted deep in affection. Every man in the regiment, from the officers down, would lay down his life for Nurse Weeks, She gets no remuneration for her services. She wears the Red Cross on her sleeve, but it is the Red Cross that is the insignia of all in the Hospital Corps. She is not connected with any Red Cross Society. When the boys, Towa over, were gathering in Des Moines ready to start for San Francisco, Della Weeks deter- mined to go with them and help take care of them. She had had ten years’ experience as a trained nurse, she was of the right age, almost 35; she knew many of the boys personally and had nursed under Major Matthews, the chief surgeon of the regiment. Signed by the Governor of Towa and the leading citizens and physicians of Des Moines her application to go as a nurse meandered through a sea of red tape to Washington, whence it slowly meandered back again, unsigned by the “powers that be.” It came on the very day that the boys were leaving for San Francisco. One of them sat up as we passed and | one has questioned her right. Other regiments would like to have such a nurse among them. The edict went forth against women nurses at the camp when the Red Cross ladles proposed such a thing. Perhaps it was just as well, for in the hurry- kurry of its first days the Red Cross might not have had the opportunity to choose wisely. “A woman of the right sort of stuff is needed in every regiment. If we could all get women like Miss Weeks to assist us we could accomplish ten times as much.” And the South Da- kota surgeon looked longingly at the Towa camp, where Nurse Weeks was reading the riot act to some boys who had celebrated pay day by eating of pies not wisely but too well. “You should have been here on Thursday,” said the Jowan doctor, a little later. “You could have seen what the boys think of Nurse.” And though I had not seen it I had been ‘ods; PARIS AGITATED OVER RODIN'S “LATEST” His Strange Statue of Balzac Has Divided the Art World---Some Declare It Is a Masterpiece, Others Call It a Gargoyle. Special Paris Letter to The Sunday Call. | N Paris every one prates of art. | The word rolls off from the lips of a Parisian with a frequency incon- ceivable to the practical, thrifty American. We who have ceased to burn candles in our best front rooms and have progressed beyond the omni- | bus for city transportation have never- | theless very vague ideas of this exact- | ing Parisian divinity. | From the French point of view genius is of no avail without art, while art is | of much avail without genius. Israfel | would sing in vain for a Parisian au- dience, unless indeed his celestial edu- cation had comprised Parisian meth- and Gabriel, well, 1 tremble for him and his trumpet! He will surely not have a single Parisian at his day of judgment gathering should he nct study a while in Paris and learn the artistic method of awakening the dead. The American newly arrived in Paris is apt to be somewhat mystified by the frequency of this little word “art,” but will probably set out to discover its | signification without revealing how much he knows or dces not know. He goes, for example, to a high-class con- cert. In the course of the programme a lady appears very decollete and very charming, but who sings in a voice that he can hardly hear. Deep in his big American heart he pities her. He feels sure that she is making herself ridiculous and wonders why some friend does not tell her that she cannot | sing. He is making up his mind to ap- | plaud for her just to smooth things 'over, when lo, a thunder of applause and yells of “bravo!” success. ‘“‘She has no voice,” he ventures to re- mark to the individual beside him. Tis true,” replies the enthusiastic Parisian, but she is “tres artistique.” And so our American wanders forth, still uncertain about the meaning of “‘art.” However, he need not belittle his intelligence in the least on that account. At present Paris itself is agitated over the very same thing, and “Qu’est- | ce-que l'art?” is the question of the hour. The house is divided against it- self. The thing that has brought about this state of affairs stand: white and shapeles: des Beaux Ar it Balzac. This pile of plaster not yet done into marble, was ordered by a certain society of litterateurs, but scornfully refused when submitted by the sculptor. Immediately an intense controverss ensued, the result being a wholesale advertising of the statue and the sculp- tor. | All through the exposition the statue | has been the main attraction, and it is | interesting to watch the crowds tha gather about it. Certain artists and their followers are wild in their pra: declaring it a work of genius and the inauguration of a new idea in art, while others are equally ardent in thei denunciation. The uninitiated will in Q0000000000000 00CQ told of it, Three boys belonging re- spectively to Companies H, D and N had been given up by the doctors. Nurse Weeks said that while there was life thers . B hope. The doctors said they could «o nothing, but good nurs- ing might be of some avail. She saved the boys, and on Thursday the three companies, H, D and M, drew up in military order and saluted Miss Weeks. Then Chaplain Williams drew forth a pair of soft tan kid boots, extending to the knee, and a cap and collar with the regimental insignia. He present- ed them to her with the complimgnts of the boys, and they gave her three cheers and a tiger, too, that might have echoed back to Iowa. Nurse Weeks’ title is “Volunteer Nurse.” She was the first “volunteer nurse” to come forward in this war. All the other nurses are under the Re=d Cross or Hospital Corps. But during the last war all the women nurses were volunteer nurses. “Aunt” Becky Young was the first of these, and though she is now a woman long past the four score years, she has written a letter to Nurse Weeks, whom she calls her successor. Nurse Weeks prefers to do her work independently. She can go wherever duty calls and not get entangled in red tape. The city of Des Moines sent her for the welfare of the Iowa boys and she will stay with them as long as the war lasts. ‘When they go to Manila she will go, too. How, she does not know. She has the passage money to go to Hong- kong and thence across seas. Per- haps that way, perhaps another. Aunt Becky Young crossed the Potomac. The lady is a every case agree with the soclety that refused it. They see in it only a head emerging from a sack, a snowman or a specter. ““We have seen pictures of Balzac and he was not like that,” say the realists, who are, nevertheless, howled down by the assertion that a sculptor is not a photographer. “Let photography depict a man as he appears to be,” say the artists. “It | is our business to depict him as he is— | to represent his character, his genius, his soul.” And so what constitutes the privileges and the limitations of art a never ending discussion about the pedestal of the Balzac. Certain it is that the thing conveys only a suggestion of a human figure. It is as weird as a Notre ‘Dame gar- goyle, and if artistic at all is surely wonderfully so and beyond the com- prehension of the ordinary intelligence. It should either be smashed to pieces at once or set up and adored. It is either one thing or the other, the warn- ng of the most abject degeneration in art or a heaven-born inspiration. Those who see in it the latter do not forget that Wagner's operas were hissed from the Paris stage, that the pictures of KEugene Delacroix were laughed at for the “pink” horses that he painted, or that Puvis de Chavan- nes was at first the jest of the Pari- sians. In these recollections they take their consolation. It has been stated that Balzac 1is made to appear as though he were wrapped in a bath robe. This costume is explained, however, by the fact that the novelist always wore while at work a loose, monkish gown. Rodin, the sculptor of this unique affair, has long occupied a leading place among the artists of France. This, it seems, is not his first eccentric- | ity. At last year’s Salon he exhibited a statue of Victor Hugo, represented as | a heroic figure, sitting in a boat sur- rounded by angels and rowing the boat himself with one long oar. Even then, T am told, were heard the prophetic whisperings of this year’s revolution. The Parisians did not understand the Victor Hugo, but they adored Rodin and were not yet prepared to crucify their divinity. Py e Even in the artistic world one hears complaints of the anti-American feel- ing. The American artists have re- ceived less recognition than ever at this year's Salon, but that the Spanish- American war has had anything to do with this state of affairs is rather hard to belie ’Tis true that some promi- nent American artists were quite un- mercifully “skyed” or relegated to ob- scure side rooms, but let us rather ac- cuse the Salon committee of poor ar- tistic judgment than of indulging themselves in such petty acts of pre- judice. Our revenge will be all the greater, for the former accusation will hurt the Frenchman far more serious- 1y than the latter. But after all we have the “biggest” thing in all the exposition. This is the | bronze quadriga by Macmonnies, des- | tined for Prospect Park, Brooklyn. | GENEVIEVE GREEN. V000000000 0000009 THE WAITER'S WAY OF PUTTING IT. To a waiter belongs the proud dis« tinction of uttering what is probably | the most ungrammatical sentence ever | evolved from the brain of illiterate {man. One afternoon an old man took | his seat at the table and gave his usual | order to a new and rather case-har- | dened knight of the napkin. | “Waiter!” he piped, as the dishes | were slammed down before him, “this | beef isn’t sufficientlv underdone.” With a smile of contempt the waiter bore the viands back to the kitchen window and returned a moment later without having changed them, and the contemptuous smile was more notice- able. “I'm sorry, sir,” he said, * no beef what’s underdoner. —— e FOUND THE ENDS. 'we ain’t got An Irishman who was out of workK went on board a vessel that was in the harbor and asked the captain if he could find him work on the ship. ““Well,” said the captain, at the same time handling the Irishman a piece of rope, “if you can find three ends to, that rope you shall have some work.” The Irishman got hold of the end of the rope, and, showing it to the cap- tain, said, “That’s one end, your honor." Then he took hold of the other end, and showing it to the captain as before,, said, “And that's two_ ends, your honor.” Then, taking hold of both ends of the rope, he threw it overboard, say- “And, faith, there's another end ta, it, your honor.” He was immediately engaged. MISS DELLA WEEKS, SPECIAL VOLUNTEER NURSE, IOWA VOLUNTEERS. Miss Weeks is the only woman volunteer nurse that will accompany the Manila expedition. She has been & trained nurse for ten years and has lived all her life in Des Moines, Jowa. She knows every one of the soldier lads in the Towa regiment. When they were ordered to the front she applied to the Government for an appointment as nurse to accompany them. Offlcial red tape kept the application on flle till the regiment left home. Then the citizens of Des Moines arose as one man to take a hand in the matter. A purse of $500 was raised in one day to equip Miss Weeks for the journey, and the next day the citizens escorted her to the overland train and sent her flying after the regiment on its way to San Franclsco. She was ordered by them not to leave the boys till they returned from the war. All her expenses are paid, and all she has to do is to care for the sick and the thousand and one little dutles a good woman . can find to do in a soldiers’ camp. To the Towans there is only one woman in the army, and that’s Nurse Della Weeka She will be sent to the Philippines via Hongkong and will be the first to greet her boys when they reach Manila.