San Francisco, in which one Hindu leader shot another and was himself shot the next instant in the court room by a deputy marshal in attendance—a fact which perhaps lingers in the public memory even in these exciting days. The Hindu plot, reduced to its simple and banal lowest common denominator, consisted in a more or less useless intrigue with certain more or less uninfluential citizens of Hindu birth. One phase of the activities was the purchase with German money in New York of several hundred thousand rifles and several million cartridges, which were to be shipped in a vessel from the Pacific Coast to meet a certain other vessel far out in the Pacific for transfer of the cargo. That cargo was to be delivered where it would do the most good to any Hindu gentleman disposed to rise against the British authority. It is a long and rather dull story—how everything miscarried for our friends the Germans and the Hindus. The rifles never were delivered; the conspirators were brought to trial; the conspiracy was ended. And at the end, in a court room, and because he himself had a weapon in his hand, we got one Hindu Hun at least.
As a mere trifle, it may be mentioned that Joseph W, an Austrian subject, was arraigned in the Enemy Alien Bureau at New York, charged with having in his possession a United States navy code book. W was said to be a "collector of stamps." He had in his possession a map of South America, and a list of warships of the Brazilian navy. He had also certain sheets of paper carrying mysterious characters made up of letters and dashes. He said he had been a piano player and was taking music lessons by mail.
Lt. Christian S was before the Enemy Alien Bureau at the same time. He was once six years in the German army as an officer of the Uhlans. One day S called on United States Marshal McCarthy and asked him to help him get a job. He returned to find out if the marshal had found a place for him, and when the marshal said he had not, the German showed anger and remarked: "This is what makes us disloyal!" Marshal McCarthy arrested S and arraigned him before Perry Armstrong, assistant chief of the Enemy Alien Bureau. In
