Page:The web (1919).djvu/256

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men were getting too much cold tea on their shore leave. A. P. L. took it up with the Naval Intelligence, and within a week a man was taken in custody for selling such beverages to men in uniform.

Mr. Charles D. Milkowicz, or some such name, was alleged to dance in happiness at the report of any German victory. It was his custom to fire any employe in the factory where he was foreman, if the employe[?] showed any pro-American tendencies. Once he said regarding the U. S. flag, "Get that damned flag out of the way." He used to wear an iron cross stick pin up to April 6, 1917. He was a member of the German Club, and used to buy silver nails for the Hindenburg statue which they maintained at that club, such nails retailing for a dollar a throw, all for the good of the Kaiser. A. P. L. started an investigation which showed that this man seemed to be uncertain whether he came from Russia or Germany and was equally indefinite as to his age. He was not registered as an alien enemy, and was charged with falsifying his questionnaire as well as violating Section 3 of the Espionage Act. The Assistant U. S. Attorney handling alien enemy matters in Massachusetts refused to act in this case. So far as known, the attorney is still in office, and Mr. Milkowicz is still in Boston.

Mr. Hans D——, a German waiter in Boston, belonged to a German club where considerable advance news of German operations circulated. Mr. D—— said he sent money to Germany; said that Germany would win the war; drank to the health of the Kaiser on hearing that an American ship had been torpedoed. In short, Mr. D—— ran quite true to form in all ways. A photograph was found which looked like him in a German uniform—he must have been a German officer, because they found in his possession a half dozen spoons which he had stolen in New England, in default of better opportunity in Belgium. At least he was prosecuted for larceny and was fined $15.00. Later his reputation was found to be so bad as a propagandist that he was interned on a presidential warrant.

It occurred to the fertile brain of Mr. Julius Bongraber that a varied spelling of his name might prove useful to him in times of draft. Sometimes he wrote his name as Graber, sometimes as Van Graber, and sometimes as Julius V. Gaber.