Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 67, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1915 — DEATH TO ALL SPIES; WOMEN PAY PENALTY [ARTICLE]

DEATH TO ALL SPIES; WOMEN PAY PENALTY

Execution of English and German Girls Told in Dispatches—Many Others. From time immemorial the spy has been one of the most dangerous factors with which military men have had to deal. Death is the punishment when caught. Although methods of communication have been greatly increased, the spy appears to be more dangerous today then ever, and daily executions have followed captures in the war zone. Women have paid for their daring with their lives. The number is unknown, but they are said to be numerous. Following are two dispatches, each of which tells its story of war: Amsterdam, Holland. —A message received here tells of the shooting of an English woman as a spy in the German barracks at Courtrai, Belgium. The woman, it was said, was dressed in the garments of a priest when captured by the Germans. Petrograd, Russia. —A German girl spy was caught a few miles outside of Petrograd. She has been court-mar-laled and shot. Her clothes were lined with admirably executed plans of Kronstadt and other military stations.

To what extent the spy has been busy is indicated by the references in English newspapers to the extraordinarily good information possessed by the Germans concerning the movements and even the contemplated movements of the British troops. At the outbreak of the war it was declared that there were thousands of sptop in England. In France many Germans have been executed as spies. A recent dispatch told of the execution of fifteen Germans who were found in an insane asylum in Lorraine. All the doctors and most of the attendants had deserted the institution with the approach of the French army and their places were taken by the spies. By clever use of flags the spies were able to direct the German artillery fire, at a distance, against the French. Fewer reports have come from Germany regarding spies. It Is said, however that many Russians have been detected in Germany. The' Russian espionage system is in many ways superior to all others. Russian spies In Austria have been’of great assistance to the Czar’s army chiefs. In all. the countries at war passports have been stolen by spies and the signatures studied so that the holders can produce passable imitations. Spies have even been caught with their own photographs pasted over others in passports and with the official stamp on the photographs counterfeited. When the spies are captured and sentenced they meet death bravely. That is part of their creed. Soldiers loathe the task of shooting women, •>ut such is the law of war. All accounts, however, state they face death without flinching. Detective—" Did the burglar drink any of the liquor on the sideboard?” Householder—-No; the liquor was Dugan. He’smarried to a suffragette art dasn’t go home with his breath