Page:The web (1919).djvu/378

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us consider one Graboski, who had a friend, Grabinski, who tipped off the A. P. L. that Graboski was not a carpenter, but a chemist with a doctor's degree from a foreign university. This amiable masquerader was believed to have been instrumental in blowing up the plant of the General Electric Company at Schenectady, New York. In view of his information, Grabinski was dealt with leniently, but Graboski was followed to his boarding-place and was there found in bed listening to the conversation of the occupants down stairs. He was taken before the United States District Attorney as a preliminary to his internment in a southern detention camp.

Much more proper than contrary is the conduct of a German bearing the homely name of Schmidt, living near Trenton, New Jersey. Investigation was made on report of a neighbor. By the time the operative called, Schmidt had a service flag in his window. Many different subjects were discussed, including music. Old man Schmidt had no more investigations after he declared himself:


Yah, ve Chermans ist fond of musik. I like musik, und mine vife, she like it to. I haf der old violin vot I brot mit me from Chermany. I blay him a liddle alvays—old Cherman tunes—vot ist all I know. Maybe you hear me sometimes—last year, vot? No? Vell, I blay him not any more now. You see, der boy—mine son—you don't know him—he never live mit us here—he vork in Chicago—he ist in American Army already. Und I luf to blay, but all vot I know ist shust Cherman tunes—dat's all—so I don't blay any more. I hav der old viddle avay put.


Trenton, New Jersey, staged a draft raid with two hundred A. P. L. men and a detachment from Philadelphia under the leadership of the Assistant Chief of that city. At the Trenton Fair there was a crowd of 75,000 people. The raiders set out in fifty automobiles and broke up into small parties. At four o'clock in the afternoon the dragnet went to work, and no one was allowed to leave the grounds without credentials. Even the fences were watched. All operatives, whether from the Department of Justice or the A. P. L., worked with courtesy, and there was no more difficulty in getting out of the grounds than there would be in getting into