Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 10 December 1937 — Page 24

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PAGE 224 ___ .

Kaiser's Ash-Tray Found After 1 9 Years

Story of Attempt to J Abduct Kaiser Is Bared.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich, Dec. 10 (NEA) .—VWhen Leland S. McPhail looks at & little silver ash-tray in his home here he is apt to chuckle a bit. That ash-tray, whose exact whereabouts were a stery for 19 years, has: a history. . ~~ That it was in this country was well known. That it was in possession of one of eight mad, devil-may-care American soldiers of the World War was strongly suspected. But now it can be told—former Capt. Leland |S. McPhail of Grand Rapids has the ash-tray. And his chuckle is ornly a pale ghost of the ¢osmic laugh that swept across the A E. PF. and the Unijted States in the early January days of 1919. The silver ash-tray which MecPhail now holds once belonged to Kaiser Wilhelm II. its part in the most impudent, mad-

soldiers: to kidnap bring him to their | President at Paris. 5 All 19 Years Older

The eight are all| living today, 18 years after they |captured the ash-tray in lieu of the All-Highest War Lord they sought. Capt. McPhail, for years man- _ ager of the Cincinnati Reds baseball om, is now in’ business in Grand Rapids. : Col. Luke Lea is living in Nashville, fully pardoned after serving _ more than a year in the North Carolina Penitentiary connection with a bank failure Asheville. Capt. Thomas P. Henderson is one

of the leading lawyers of Franklin, . time, putting in several telephone

Tenn. . | , Lieuf. Ellsworth Brown lives in Chattanooga, and Sergt. Dan Reilly is a superintendent with the Ten= nessee State Highway Department. Sergt. Owen Johnson is a prosperous merchant of Franklin, Tenn, Sergt. Egbert Haile lives in Texas and Corp. Marmaduke Clokey is in the auto tire business in Knoxville, Tenn. They are all 19 years older now, but the little silver ash-tray binds them together as comrades of the maddest. mertiest exploit of the World War. :

* Chuckles Begin Again

For years they kept silent on the details of that improbable exploit, and the little silver -ash-tray with its grinning silver Dor was silent, too. Then, to help a newspaperman friend with a son in desperate reed of an expensive operation, three 6f them told the story. The lid, tight on the story for 19 years, was off, and when the newspaperman, T. H. Alexander, wrote it in a Saturday Eveg Post article, the chuckles that once swept the whole A. E. F. began all over again. : " In the winter days of 1919, between Christmas and Jan. 5, Col. Luke Lea and the other seven were jr Luxembourg with the Army of Occupation. The Kaiser, abdicated, was in Amerongen, Holland. The Peace Conference was on in Paris, with a great hue and cry in everyone’s éars about trying the Kaiser “like any other criminal.” : The eight American soldiers decided to go and get him. Their first attempt, - during the days around Christmas, 1918, was blocked when armed Dutch guards halted their cars at the frontier of Holland.

Start for Amerongen

They tried again. On New Year’s Day, 1919, they went up through Belgium, and trading on Lea's former membership in the Senate, secured passports from Ambassador Brand Whitlock. Thesé credentials enabled them to pass the Dutch border on Jan. 5. They picked up a Dutch boy as an interpreter and started for Amerongen. Near the house of Count von Béntinck,. where the Kaiser was staying, a bridge was washed out, and they had to dicker their way across a rickety ferry. That obstruction made impossible a quick getaway even if they shad been able to abduct the Kaiser. It spelled ruin for their audacious plan. A quick council-of-war was held, and it was decided to go on, interview the Kaiser, and to persuade him to go with them to Paris. = : - Wouldn't Be Lured They arrived at the house early . @n ithe evening, bluffed their way’

past a sentry, and parked in front of the house. The officers went in

and demanded to see the Kaiser. | Count von Bentinck received them |

politely, asked their business. The . Americans sparred for time, re- - fused to talk to anyone but the All-Highest himself. Von Bentinck and the burgomeister of

E 5

YE)

pas % CRE =a SS % Now it can be seen! For the first time, Capt. Leland S.. McPhail is photographed here with the little silver ash-tray that once belonged to Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, brought home by Capt. Mcphail and seven other American soldiers when they pulled the breathtaking effort to kidnap the'Kaiser in 1919. They missed by a hair.

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

ITALY TO CARRY | WPA AIDS IN STATE ONTESTSBECUN | PEE | 70 MAKE PURCHASES UNDER MARCONI | Hopkins Orders Buying to

Be Done Immediately. Il Duce Pays Tribute to Noted Inventor at ~~ Senate Rite.

ROME, Dec. 10 (U. P.).—Premier Benito Mussolini, paying tribute at a memorial service in the Senate to the late Guglielmo Marconi, revealed that the great inventor had been busy with military experiments before his death. Mussolini also disclosed that the experiments will not be dropped, but carried on from where Marconi left off. Declaring that he had witnessed =

He Sermons =. a suburb of |. with the smile of a born showman, and one booted leg tucked “He kept me regularly informed| DEAUlY under the stirrup leather, little Kenneth Graham of Salina, of the Tesults of a iif riments Kas., not quite 4 years old, is shown above in one of the daring Everything Marconi left Sperimen | feats of horsemanship which thrilled spectators enough to stop the nt broom [Sit Whace P| International Horse Show in Chicago with applause. On his swashol oo NE Aor: was not | Duckling little black pony, Bullet, Kenneth went through ‘his réperp ’ toire of trick riding with the grace and agility of a veteran.

revealed. A girl whose baking is superb

The services were attended by Marconi’'s widow and relatives and I Has autos parked along her curb dpition d i,

members of the diplomatic corps,

Indiana WPA officials are to spent about $100,000 on essential commodities within the next five

in the selection of a Christmas gift guitar.

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including United States Ambassador Case William C. Phillips. : : Mussolini revealed that at the | time of his death, Marconi was : | studying practical use of the waters i {of the sea for power, and the de‘velopment of microwaves, which study will be continued by the National Council of Research.

CONDUCTOR ASKS DIVORCE.

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 10 (U. P.).—Karl Reidel, Wagnerian conductor of the San Francisco Opera Company and the Metropolitan Opera Company of New York, today had filed suit for divorce from his wife, Steffanie. He charged de-

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calls. The American soldiers were close enough to the imperial presence to chuckle. For the little bear holding the pipe has looked on at hear him addressed as “Your Majesty” in the next room, and to hear his brief responses. But he refused to be lured into their presence. Meanwhile, probably in response to the telephone calls, several hundred Dutch soldiers were gathering outside the house. The Americans felt the water getting hotter by the clock, and .at 11 p. m. they bowed their way out. ¢ Fully expecting to be detained by the soldiers or the crowd that had by this time gathered, they got back into their cars and sped away. Discovery that the ash-tray

had been taken caused an alarm,

but 36 hours later they | were back with their outfits in Luxembourg.

Whole World Laughed

There was an investigation, there were reprimands and rebukes, but meanwhile a whole world was laughing at the in of the eight American soldiers Toe hd tried bare-handed to kidnap the Kaiser. : ¢ And as Capt. McPhail looks to-

day at his little silver ash-tray he is entitled to his well-earned

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