The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 5, 1899, Page 20

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1899. L ) Adv THEM FOR THE Suc- -CESS oF THE SPArISH AgmaDA Here is th B A bran y dem wn to official V ized to accomplish Wil be bensen, T and du with a care nce to that with t is trained and p: It { ) a spY oar latur wn to me » hanc nomenc tactics; demie I rt ‘'of the man; and the special sclences and classic I and > the al edu- resumption to call cation. Very well! study the r's life I w cipient of and res la obbe It y 1 b 1d wrote a up serenely ts to my fat complishme tents, I W afterward him from the “top of h n'to of his toe.”” In that mes with a touch of boyish b row I could *t the trigge 1d could “burs dispatching the tion that I had lea 2ft of logs, knew how to pick my w: the age 1 vado, on snowshoes, how to win runuing races, etc., for fear of encouraging a wrong interpretation of what I prided as feats, outside of afternoon tea sipping and what they call fashionable society EXPERIENCES PROVED VALU- ABLE. Still, it i a curious thing to reflect that I have had rt of benefit some S0 reward of public praise is spy in 8 The secret ser- of which one hears little, but which gence, ve i and even brav- ficers of the more active departments also lost to f the se of their duties, and best spies during tl sh war are because our officials in Spain were au- nd means at hand, and in many ;, reported only results. s written for The Sun- Stampenbourg, a Dane, who was he war b merican agents there. 1 that th iter was at liberty to he met with the interesting ad- rned in this verything I le: from additional sources of If-teaching, in th work that I n I eame to iging in the new part of known as Salamanca, I experienced a feeling of safety such a well armed man h right to feel wilderness d been in tight er before had T v to such an in- s of deta when the ran into New York police Spai ntered my apartmen any tim out ever, 1 belie ceeding - in finding proof neutrality. 1 brought not clothing, not an iota of baggage from ca across the Spanish border. verything was bought Germany, even my pens and note paper. 1 hau no documents or creder with me of for good : things are any kind 8 y atal to the bearer t. But T had a source, a valued friend in the government ser- of a cou that is well liked in Spain, and v 2nev I was asked for credentials, outside my 1 his address. A few flashes ac e and the whole thing wa THE CIPHER BOO 1 entered my observations in a rather voluminous folio volume, and made not the least pretense at hiding it. On the contrary, I sometimes left it open on bs table, so that the “nina” (the girl) might have a peek into it and gossip about it. She was as unlikely to solve its contents as any expert in orthog- raphy, for it was written in a cipher of my own invention. If there is anything sclentific experts know little about it is the possibilities of the runic alphabet, of the queer hieroglyphic code of whi¢h the ancient Norsemen avalled them- selv some two thousand years ago. Most experts know Sanskrit, all of them know Greek, and a few of them know Arabic, but very few indeed have even a smattering appreciation of rune histo: This quaint old code I de- veloped into a system by mixine it, ac- cording to my own key, with the lan- guage that is now spoken in Iceland, 80 that my writings were a puzzling linguistic stew of modern Icelandic in runic letter. To further ensconce my- self 1 prefixed every word with its eauivalent in the various Scandinavian tongues, cutting up the words and com- bining them according to a fixed tem, 50 that no one in the world could deétect what I v writing about, even if they might have been able to solve the runes. ARRESTED The! s, many of which you have 5 s, T believe, were sent coworker I had ay in a quiet corner of the d that Spain likes, and through y th itents were translated of the American Gov- ernment, from neutral ground flashed across the ocean to their destin- ation Once I came near losing this handy little notebook of mine, which so re- mbled an edition of Audubon, for it seized and “arrested,” together with my things, at my lodgings. Two sawtoothed villains of Spanish police stood inside the door and “nafied” me as I entered. I was not surprised, for T had planned their appearance, and 1 was eager that they should arrest me and find me . innocent, for then I could work with more liberty and less suspi- cion would be leveled at me. T carrled a formidable looking bundle under my arm (I had bought it for the purpose at the Plaza de Cebada) and they arrested that also. They fell upon it like a pair of buzzards, to find only—vegetables. “Good sound Spanish vegetables that I was to photograph,- Senors,” I sald, “and to report upon to the Sclentific So- cietv of Drontheim.” Whether they believed it or no I know not. It is nevertheless certain that they could make nothing out of papers or my baggage or my veg- bles. They let me keep my things, though one of them lugged away a ha- tata, or sweet potato, for a clew, I returned, as I thought, to hand over the batata, but no, it was safely locked in the desk of his chief, With much mili- tary adroitness and courtesy he hand- ed me a still more courteous note from the latter dignitary, in which I was asked to permit his venerable glance to dwell for a moment on the strange book reported as having been ‘“discovered’” at my lodgings. I sent the man back with the book, reminding him that a whole nation of learned men would hold him responsible for its loss. I also held forth a falr potato, saying: “Ferdinand Banditto! or whatever your name, an- other batata. annther clew, eh?”’ But JoHN WILBENSEN - - HELOOKED OMINOUSLY AT ME AT FIRST GLANCE - entures of a Secret Service Ag@mt. of the United States, the Spaniard smiled and sniffed ana bowed, and said the book would do for a clew, The glance of his chief dwelt on that book for mnearly a weck (this is the length of the “official moment” in Spain), or, at least, I heard nothing to the contrary; in fact, I heard nothing at all about it, and two letters I wrote asking its returnremained unanswered. This made me a trifle nervo Doubt- less the book was passing through the purgatory of the united scrutin of the best expert minds of Spain, and I began to wish I had not been so ready to ex- pose it. Through my friend Lieutenant Co 1 T obtained an interview with his father, the admiral, and at the latter's request the volume W handed back to me, bearing evidence of the not very clean hands of those who had been to work on its contents. In the margin was written the amusing note, “El ruso es dificil”—Russian is difficult. DISGUISED AS A VAQUERO. 1 appeared before the admiral in the full dress glitter of a junior officer of the royal navy, for I had formed young Correa’s acquaintance in the' service. Three days later I was cased in the rough leather chaparrals of one of those sombrero-topped sons of the “campo,” the cowboys of the Spanish tablelands, glimpses of whose pictur- esque coursing one may have for a look through the city gate, the somber Puerto del Toledo: My American cowboy days came back to me. The land looked like Arizona, though it smelled differently, and I was soon at home in the rather cumbrous saddle on the tall Andalusian steed I had picked for the trip. ‘I was in re- ceipt of orders commanding me to find out the feelings of the people toward the government, and if they were likely to be influenced by any move of the Carlists, who were then beginning to show their teeth. What these vaqueros thought mattered little, but I was de- termined to re-enter the city gate my- self a full-fledged vaquero, so as to be able to go everywhere in “lower Mad- rid” without suspicion. Poor as these sons of the ‘“‘campo’ are, they always meet with respect whenever they show their sun-scorched faces in the capital. In the Plaza Mayor and the Moreria quarters they are frequently regarded with a sense of admiration, such as the sight of a bunch of cowpunchers would arouse in an Eastern American city. In a week I was able to penetrate that part of lower Madrid which has been pungently, if not fittingly, named “la cloaca de Espana”—ghe sewer of Spain. Leaning on the arm of my friend Pedro, who had taught me most of the argot of the campo, I made a specialty of the fair , and through- the gossip of servants, seamstresses, flower maidens, old peasant women and young artisan matrons I learned even more of the true heartbeats of the Spanish people than through the less acc ible medi- um of the men of their cl I pre- tended to be an ignorant vaquero and feigned a fine surprise when told that war with Amer existed. The family we were visiting struck up and began to jabber as with a thousand tongu of the bloody defeat of “los Amer canos” and I got up and drank with them for the success of the Spanish “armada.” In my heart I said to my- self, thinking of the departed fieet, in the new famous words of the parents of the now famous words of the parents of veran” (“They will never return”). HOW THE PEOPLE FELT. The populace and the middle classes seemed to have great faith in the gov- ernment, but at the mention of Don Carlos’ name every one was on the guard, and preferred to en instead of talking. That is an ominous sign in Spain, for they are as talkative there as German fishwives and Parisian poli- ticians. There was present an un- shaken faith in the invincibility of the Spanish navy on behalf of these peo- ple, very few of whom had ever seen a single one of its ships, and, living in the center of the country, unfitted for personal obsarvation, they take blindly what the papers give; the p. pers—three for a cent—of the “cloaca.” The blow of defeat, the destruction of the squadrons of Carvera and Mon- tojo by American gunfire, struck home with its mightlest force, not in the castled circle of the high in power, but amid the “‘gente de panuelo,” the strug- gling herds of the populace, from whose forefathe crew of the invincible Armada was picked. In tlis city of the four winds, of cafes and theaters, but no cathedral, no factory buildings; in this inferno of a satanic climate, the month of July saw the panic of the ig- norant, the misled, the paupers, as they wept and howled after the defeat, and cursed the Government they had so worshined as the destro,er of /meri- can power. Though the press censor- shi~ in Madrid was the strictest in the kingdon tHe truth of the things the Government was trying to hide leaked out in some inexplicable way, though without causing any actual uprising of the people except as reported by the —papers. Had General Toral ‘resisted to death,” instead of capitulating after the first storm of Shafter's army, the news of his inevitable defeat, coming at the very heels of the destruction of the Spanish fleet, would have caused a rebellion, an uprising of the entire peo- ple, if not a revolution. The Carlist agents were probably better posted on American movements and our power of organization and initiative than any spy in the kingdom. ‘I had a passing acquaintance with some of Don Carlos’ men, especially in Paris, during my “shadowing” there of Mrs, de Lome, than which a more thankless job I have never undertaken. She was in constant receipt of exact and valuable information covering American movements, but how she suc- ceeded in getting it always remained a mystery to our secret service, though it was felt to a certainty that she was in intimate connection with American parties of authority. She is a remarka- ble woman. She knew how to get the facts and she knew how to make use of them in a manner so as to elude de- tection. ADMIRAL CAMARA’S BLUFF. ‘When the old battleships Numancia and Vittorla were being fitted at Cadiz, and the Pelayo was darting about the coast in a way to puzzle even the Mad- rid papers, there were great mobiliza- tion centers at Cadiz and Barcelona, and accordingly I spent some time in either city. Several large merchant “THEY FELL UPON IT LIKE A PAIR OF BUZZARDS, TO ONLY VEGETARLF.S vessels were pressed into service as transports, and an eager eye was kept open .for such American vessels of the marine class as could be captured and fitted up for the same purpose. Several gunboats were dispatched to overhaul the American pleasure craft then sail- ing the Mediterranean, but I ferreted out the news in time, and Washington was posted before any of the privatears left port. The yachts were notified with admirable skill in transmission, and they avoided the Jdarts made at them b; gunboats. It was with reference to my experi- ence the navy that I offered my services as junior officer to complete the slower steamlng Spanish in the personnel of the craft commanded by my friend, Lieutenant Correa, who rateer flotilla. with was | but the same charge of this ation refused ver of excuse I rec from the Ministerio de Guerra, to, I applied for a commission in the —namely, that men and officers were plentiful, but transportation facilities and the quota of engineers were lac! ing. This was as good .a piece of new: as I might ever have got if I had joined a more promising adventure in the cruise of the privateer flotilla, and I made quick use of it. Our Government aiready knew that aniards intended to make Porto stronghold, and the news that re without the necessary means out their plan w welcome, and 1 was ordered to keep a keen eye on subsequent moves in Spain tending to a betterment of these means. I knew Camara's fleet left for Suez with a but partly completed staff of engineers and without being at all properly prov ioned with stores and ammunition such as would be required for the trip to Manila, for which point the admiral was reported to be headin~ There were also other clews that tended to substan- tiate my belief that the trip was a mere “bluff,” and I communicated every cir- cumstance of the case to my superiors. The Navy Department of the crown detailed several special agents to Eng- land to secure not only engineering ex- also to make bids for such els and material as could be quickly secured. I was among the first of the several spi who detected this move., and through Scandinavian channels, highly in’' sympathy with British feeling, I noised it abroad in Europe simultaneously with forward- ing the message to this country. As is known, Spain failed in her attempts to purchase British material, and T do not know of a case where an English engi- neer accepted a Spanish naval commis- sion, though there was an officially pro- moted rumor about several enlistments. . While I cannot say I was under ac- tual suspicion in Spain, there were times when I had aporehensions that I was being keenly watched. On one oc- casion I barely escaped imprisonment, if nothing worse. Tt was during my first visit, early in spring, at Cadiz, where everybodv, low and high, joined in the great religious festival EI San- tisimo Cuerpo Cristi with a spirit as if victory and not defeat had followed the Spanigh arms. A NARROW ESCAPE. This pompous feast and procession is of far more importance in Spain than Derby day in Britain and Easter here. It is a mixture of Papal, municipal and military elements, and its massive and imposing splendors are closed In a grand finale—the indispensable bull- fight at Plaza de Toros. It was here that I, in° trying to extricate some American tourists from a difficulty with the police, incautiously laid ~myself open to suspicion by revealing a knowl- edge of English, and I was instantly “shadowed” as a dangerous man to the house where I was to spend the even- ing. I had vital work before me ‘in Madrid, and it was absolutely neces- sary that I should leave Cadiz without a trace of suspicion clinging to my per- son. There was a large party, and to get out of the difficuity I proposed a sport, the origin of which I claimed for do- mestic Germany. The wine had flowed in plenty. The Spanish blood was up, they w to ca n WAS A SPY IN SPAIN DURING THE WAR. Sent to Europe to Gather Information. and so also was that of the senoritas present. In less than half an hour all the young ladies had changed clothes with the young Dons. I was so happy as to secure the dress of the sobrina (or niece) of my host, as she was the damsel I was especially entertaining. It was painfully close about the waist, I remember. I[n the ensuing excite- ment and hilarity this sport aroused I saw fit to send a messenger to my hotel with orders to ship my things to Madrid. I had no difficulty in hiding my freshly shaven face in the beautiful mantilla that went with the costume, one could tell me from a Securing some overclothes tibule, I watched my chance made my exit when no one was and missing me. A quiet man in a long tunika standing at the gate. inously at me at first glance, him in the prettiest of Castilian voices for a cab, which he whistled up for me was He looked om- I asked politely enough, and away I went. The little damsel in the big mantilla began to wonder, as the cab took her away from the house, how the other little damsel, the sobrina, was getting along in the swallow-tail and trous I had left her in. I mi d the spectacle of seeing her departure from the feast in my habiliments, and, though I did not fit her clothes so very well, they hid my identity and saved me some trou- ble. A couple of days later, as, seated in a Madrid cafe near the Mueso del Prado, I distinguished the approaching of the band of the Royal Guards, an austere- looking gentleman, sitting with me at the same table, almost upset his wine goblet as with a lunging gesture he burst out: ‘“Maldita sea su alma de ellos—Caramba!’ (Cursed be their souls —the devil!) He handed me the paper with his index finger on a column in which my Cadiz experience was treated with all the suspicion and jumped at conclusions of which only a Spanish editor is capable. The old gentleman said something about the special dam- nation to which all American spies were destined, but, although 1 leaned over the tanle. to k said, I had difficul tter hear what he in understanding him, for the big, proud band of the Spanish crown pulled by the palace with a power and a zest of martial music that made the windows The triumphant din of the * Real” smothered the vituperations of the ‘old Madridian. We raised our glasses in unison in a mute viva for “El y" (the King). My most dangerous work was dur- ing the time that I made Madrid my headquarters. This was in obedience to my superiors, and I was instructed to learn as much as possible regarding the advices received by the Government from General Blanco. You know the Captain General of Cuba was at no time cut off from com- munication with the Madrid authorities, and he was as well in constant touch with all parts of Cuba, and never even for a day was without word from Gen- erals Luque and Toral at Santiago. This vas true even when the Americans and Cubans were supposed to have com- pletely cut off communication. Still, in Madrid, very little was known regard- ing what was being done in the United States. The American censorship of dispatches was very strict, and only re- ports regarding the gathering of great bodies of volunteers in the Soyth ever reached Paris and Madrid. Our Govern- ment allowed such dispatches to go through for a purpose I suppose. One of the dispatches which I secured in Madrid was that from General Pando, at Holguin, saying that he was about to start with 7000 men to the re- llef of Santiago. This dispatch was rushed to Washington, and before Gen- eral Pando began his march, which he afterward retraced, the American com- mander in front of Santiago knew of the intended movement. —_————— “Why do you always close your eyes while seated in a street car?” “Because I am so tenderhearted that T cannot bear to see the poor women stand up.”’—Stoddard B«'otes.