Page:The web (1919).djvu/344

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about the war, and hence received a visit. The informants turned out to be church members and apparently desirable citizens. The female suspected fell into hysterics, cursed the Frenchman who lived next door and the Englishman who lived several houses beyond, and declared she had bought Liberty Bonds and had up flags enough to be left alone. The German himself demanded to know by what authority he was visited. The League man told him there was plenty of authority all right, and that he did not need to specify. The suspect took a good hint, and from that time neither the man nor his wife was guilty of any public utterance of any sort whatever on war matters.

One Herman F. H—— claimed that he was a "secret service man" and showed a badge and some handcuffs, but still talked very pro-German. He said among other things that the American people would wake up—that the Kaiser would show them something—that we could not win the war. His nearest friend was an army sergeant by the name of Paul S—— of Fort McArthur. These two would talk together in German. The doughty U. S. sergeant was also of the belief that our army had no chance and said the soldiers were all dissatisfied. They were both investigated. The sergeant was put in jail at Los Angeles. Military Intelligence took over the rest of the case—and M. I. D. has never been noted for its mercifulness.

An over-zealous woman in one instance reported suspicious activity on the part of a family which had a great many mysterious packages delivered at their address. She said they had quantities of large pipe which they would fill with guns and ammunition, also boxes of rifle cartridges. Investigation proved that some of the mysterious packages were only lunch baskets; that the trucks were hauling large pieces of well-casing and sometimes small articles of grocery or hardware were slipped into the pipes to save space. They had no packages of ammunition at all, and the packages of cartridges were only pasteboard boxes containing shelled walnuts. Jumpy times.

A man by the name of M—— came from Chicago, and closely following him came a report that he was wanted by the Chicago police. Operatives located the man and thought he would look well in the uniform of the United