Her Pitiful Story

up In vender. Erect and motionless a* a statue, in his erudite, forcible manner, Judge Eaton quoted the law, applied HER PITIFUL It to a remission of the guilt STORY of the prisoner, and practically ig nored the results of the -evidence. Im- pressed Plea to Judge of Loyal by a realization of the su- Patient perior Wife Restores knowledge of the judge, the KRUPP SCANDAL Liberty jury to retired and brought in a verdict Despairing of—- Prisoner. “Not guilty!" BY FLORENCE That evening a messenger from LILLIAN HENDER- Judge Eaton, under secret orders, left t e home of the Tho last day of the month, the last liberated prisoner, AMAZES le left a month of the year, the hour substantial sum of money last of with the the session of the great doomed Invalid, but did not criminal name the almoner. court in which the famous case of the When he reported state vs. Walden to the man who had sent him on the Reustone, charged mission, with conspiracy to defraud, however, he told of a sudden had flash of unspoken dragged its slow length for a full appreciation and gratitude In the wife’s eyes. GERMANY week such a time, the scene, the cli- It was max. the last flicker of hope in a broken, wasted life. There had been little but the hum- A few minutes drum progress of the law In the case after Judge Eaton had entered his until that day. The judge, William chambers the next Eaton, had morning, two associate judges came listened to the evidence to in his usual subdued him. They looked serious and manner. The at- troubled. torneys and the jury had been impa- tient “Judge.” spoke one of them, “we to conclude their labors before your are the approaching holiday. friends, as you know. Your de- The fate of cision in the the prisoner bad been Renstoue case has caused forestalled. It a great seemed patent that deal of criticism? We fear W alden Reustone, the bar accused of selling fraudulent association willdemand an in- bonds vestigation.” * with the collusion of a band of disrep- utable brokers, He extended a folded document. was guilty. He had Read a good lawyer, it,” he said, stone-faced, not however, and every a quiver point in the in his masterly mien. It was case was stubbornly con- his excitement over the Krupp tested. formal resignation of the judge- ship. scandal is not due alone to the rarity The last evidence was in, the state of graft caseß in that country, or to the Irom that day Judge Eaton disap- was about to begin its argument, fact that it touches her in her most sen- peared from public view. It wus ru- when a woman, deeply veiled, who v sitive place--the army. It is due partly mored that ho had retired to a GERMANY’S had sat beside the prisoner small all family estate. JM to the fact that the Krupp establishment through the trial, arose to her feet, has to be looked upon as a nation- Then current gossip told of a heavy f.in, come threw back her veil and confronted al institution, and that every German property loss, of his serious illness, the judge and jury. -¦¦ ¦ has been immensely proud it as and then the world forgot him. ¦ of one If the eyes of the court room had of the glo-ies of the From that illness, ihrce years after Fatherland. been fixed upon the judge instead of he had made the sacrifice of wealth, And now to discover that this great industry upon this woman, would have there position and judicial honor out of has stooped to the bribing of officials—a fact ad- been noticed a quiver pass over the sympathy for a woman, Judge Eaton mitted by the Krupp firm, after the charge had austere face, dignity, go self-control come back to consciousness to find been made in the reichstag—and that It had been hurtling to the winds, a sudden pallor supplying a beautiful young girl at. his Bide. French newspapers with material for obscure the set, statuesque features. She had acted as his nurse for over war-scare articles, so as to induce the German a month. She had seen to it that in government to buy more armament from the Krupps, his straightened circumstances he was is more to Germany than a scandal. It surrounded with every comfort money Is a catastrophe. could supply. The charges were made in the reichstag by Dr. And in a day or two she told him Liebknecht, the Socialist deputy, and in the col- who she was —the daughter of Walden umns of the Vorwaerts, the Socialist newspaper. and Lucile Renstone. Both were It is a coincidence that it was that newspaper dead, but had spent two years of which ten years ago printed another scandalous comfort and peace since he had saved story about the Krupps, which caused the death her father from imprisonment. of the then head of the works, Friedrich Alfred An unexpected fortune had come to Krupp. Renstone. Dying, he had directed his It was impossible to refute him, because the daughter to pay off all he had embez- minister of war, Gen. von Heeringen, was obliged zled- Dying, her mother had blessed to admit then and there that an inquiry was going the noble man who had sacrificed his on which had already revealed that “one of the all for her in her darkest hour. Krupp officials” had bribed officers to reveal cer- She had directed Florence to find tain information. The following day the Krupps him, to tell of her undying gratitude. issued a statement in which they admitted that And it was she who had come to the their representatives In Berlin had maintained judge’s side when all others had for- "friendly relations" with their former “comrades” gotten him. of the war department for the purpose of obtain- Judge Eaton cared no more for am- ing "business information,” and had bestowed bition. But he was still a compara- small present “on certain under officials.” tively young man. The fair girl, so It was on Friday that Liebknecht exploded his like her mother, clung to him fondly. bomb and forced von Heeringen to reveal that He told her she must establish her- secret inquiry and on Saturday that the Krupps self with some relatives or friends. made their admission of bribery. On Sunday the "Do not send me away!” she plead- Vorwaerts published the text of the instructions ed. Remember, I am as friendless sent by the Deutsche Munitions und VVaffenfabrik Prussia gave him the contract for her new breech- He directed In his will that the firm should be He Extended a Folded Document. and lonely as yourself. I seek only to to its Paris agent to "leave no stone unturned" loaders. The Khedive of Egypt followed this with changed into a stock company. This was done, devote my life and service to the no- to persuade some popular French newspaper to a large order for war material, and Russia fol- but Bertha Krupp, his daughter, who marned Dr. ¦Then, with his glance riveted, fas- blest man in the world." publish a statement that France inteuded to dou- lowed with contracts for large quantities of new von Behlen und von lialbach, holds all but four cinated, Judge Eaton simply bowed And so new brightness and hope ble her orders for machine guns. The object was weapons. v shares of this company. She is not only Ger- as the woman made a request to camo to the man the world had re- to get the German government to order machine While the Essen works were designed for gen- many’s wealthiest woman, but its wealthiest sub- speak in behalf of her husband. jected, and interest on his part and guns from the Deutsche Munitions und Waffen- eral foundry work, the output forfmany years has Je ; and greatest taxpayer. "Let me plead for him, let me tell gratitude on the part of Florence fabrik. consisted almost entirely of heavy guriß; but it Hence she has been called “the Queen of Es- my story!” she cried. “Guilty or in- Renßtone, grew into a love that united On Tuesday the popular indignation had risen was not until 1846, 20 years after his father's sen,” and ’’Our Lady of the Cannon,” and other nocent, give me the opportunity to them in a marriage radiant and so high that Gen. von Heeriugen’s plea for a sus- death and 36 years after the founding of the firm, romantic names. At the age of eighteen there he is more sinned agatnst show that happy. pension of judgment until his private inquiry had that Alfred Krupp began gunmaking. His first descended upon her the greatest Industrial in- than sinning." (Copyright, 1913, by W. G. Chapman.) done its work was forgotten. The budget commit- results were pieces of small caliber. As he be- heritance the world has yet, known. She was six- attorney the “Object!" cried the for tee of the relchstag voted to appoint a parliamen- came interested in thd science, and as his dis- teen when her father died, and attained her ma- state. tary commission of inquiry into the scandal. This coveries in steel casting developed, the size and jority in 1904. mandatorily from LAST RICH RITES FOR FIDO weight “Overruled,” came commission, however, despite the protests of the of the cannon he was able to construct Essen is a city now of 150,000 population, and <jf and the steadily the lipß the judge, Socialists, was not vested with power to send for increased until these war monsters, which it owes Its existence as a city to the Krupp works.

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