PERSITZ

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2711, 15 January 1910, Page 3 (Supplement)

PERSITZ

The Czar has lost his most capable, most trusted personal protector—the maja who for many years, as one of the of the dreaded Secret Police of Russia, successfully guarded the Emperor’s life against the plots of anarchists. But the rest of the world will ho the gainer thereby, for now, for the first time, it is possible to learn the methods by which a great twentieth century spy and secret police official has preserved continued earthly existence" to the twentieth century's chief autocrat among monarchs. This man who enabled the Russian Secret Police method to keep pace with the progressive ingenuity of up-to-date assassins, has gone to London to live, and is known to his small circles of trusted frionds simply as M. Persitz. He is middle-aged, tall, powerfully built, with massive features, upon which seem mirrored dauntless courage and resolution. In short, M. Persitz is a personality so striking as to be a prominent figure wherever men are -athered together. When he was nineteen years old nothing was further from M. Persitz’s expectations than that he was to become a member of the Russian Secret Police, lie was the son of a rich manufacturer in Moscow, and had been trained for that sort of career. He, had been well educated, and moved in the best society. Fortunately for the Czar’s future safeiv. accident led the young man into an amateur detective exploit. The Moscow banks were at the time victims of a series of mysterious robberies. Cue night while dining at a restaurant in the outskirts of Moscow he overheard a conversation which convinced him that this was a favourite meeting place of the robbers. Another visit corroborated this suspicion. Thereupon the spirit of adventure that was strong in him caused him to boldly confess suspicion, and, in the- same breath, ask the favor of being included in the robber band. This was granted. He at once began to make himself so useful that he was entrusted with all the secrets of the leaders.

He waited only till the whole band met under one roof, when he managed to notify the ooliee, who descended on the place and canturod the entire party —fflrty-two, including himself. At the tfjjßl all Avore convicted and sentenced ■—Ml Persitz’s sentence alone being cancelled, as a matter of course. How did M. Persitz escape the vengeance of his victims was a natural question. He smiled and answered: “No member of the band escaped, and all received life sentences.” APPOINTED TO THE SECRET POLICE.

This extraordinarily successful feat left M. Persitz no choice but to enter the secret iiolice. The secret police ]xisitively had to have him, and in a posit'nn that he could Avell afford to accept. His great abilities were so frequently proved that, four years later, he was summoned to St. Petersburg to take personal charge of the Czar’s safety. At the time of M. Persitz’s arrival in St. Petersburg the Czar and all his ■household were in terror over vague indications of a particularly dangerous and mysterious plot to accomplish the Czar’s death bv poison. The chief difficulty was that suspicion rested upon one individual only—a female nurse in one of the city hospitals, who was so clever that no detail of her life outside the hospital could be learned. In leaving the hospital the woman would take a cab, and on this cab being follow T ed to its destination qnite another woman or perhans a man "would alight. She had a system of lightning changes from one cab to another—perhaps half a dozen times during her journey—that completely baffled her pursuers. ■ . . , M. Persitz found the Czar in a most melancholy state over what he believed to be the rapid and unhindered progress of this plot against his life. He called his new “watchdog” into his cabinet and said to him: “M. Persitz, you are my last hope in this affair. If you fail it is probable that my reign is virtually ended.” M. Persitz wasted no time in trying to follow the clever nurse. Instead, he made the acquaintance of a hospital physician whom he felt he could trust, and had himself admitted to the hospital as a patient. It was arranged that he should be attended by the suspected ivurse. The nurse was young and comely. M. Persitz was a very attractive man. He pretended to- fall violentlv in love with her, and could see that she- was favorably impressed. When the affair reached a point- which assured him that their acquaintance might continue, his “convalescence” progressed rapidly, and he allowed himself to be discharged as a patient. The Czar’s spy was received at the nurse’s home. The love-making grew warmer. At length he had proof, as he had planned should happen, that she had made up her mind to" use Limas a tool in connection with the plot against the Czar’s life. One day she asked him 'to carry several parcels for her to different addresses. M. Persitz too well understood the methods of the Czar’s expert enemies to make the mistake of tampering in any way with these parcels. With the utmost celerity he delivered them, though hp afterwards knew, as he then that they Avere only dummy that he "was timed to each addri order to prove that he had not ' .a.Sed on police officials en route. Thus he so completely Avon the confidence of the nurse that he was able to unmask her and six others of the principal plotters. SENTENCED TO DEATH.

“Bat there are eight to be arrestee,” said'M. Persitz to the police in giving his instructions. “I will be there —you must make no distinction between me and the others.” “How far are you prepared to accomRany those would-be assassins of the. (yzar ?” he was asked. the foot of the ,gallows,” he answered, grimly. “You wil bo tried with them.-'” “Yes; and convicted, and sentenced to death. There is no other way to preserve my usefulness to the Emperor —and inv life to myself.” ■ j So M. Parsitz—name and occupation, as shown to the plotters, of course—'was tried wth the others, and sentenced, with them, to be hanged. As the executions were private, m the courtyard of the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul, the friends o t the blotters had no means of knowing that only seven instead of eight condemned 'in letters were actually hanged And as M Persitz had been perfectly disguised during the whole episode he was able to continue his work as before. But be was more careful than before about ' taking unnecessary chances. He never travelled abroad at nignt. Particularly he avoided night passages ’of .the English Channel when his duties

“PROTECTION OF THE CZAR.”

A CHIEF OF THE RUSSIAN SECRET POLICE

(St. Petersburg Correspondent New Orleans “Times-Democrat.”)

called him to London, the hotbed of Russian anarchists. From M. Persitz it Avas now known for the first time that ft was his watchfulness that frustrated the several -plots to assassinate the Czar last year while the Emperor remained so long aboard. has yacht- in the Gulf of Finland. He caused the arrest of the plotters on other charges, and they were exiled to Siberia. This was all that could be done, owing to the extreme caution of the assassins respecting det-a-ils of their designs against the Czar.

Similar methods Avere used by M. Persitz in getting -rid of that active member of the revolutionary party who twice lot his automobile “run aAvay Avitli him” into the grounds of the Imperial Palace at Tsarskoe-Selo at the hour Avhen the Emperor Avas accustomed to Avalk there. On examining this man’s record it Avas easy to find an excuse for sending him to Siberia. ASSASSINATION BY AIRSHIP. Again, M. Persitz’s book Avill slioav tkat -newspaper reports of plots to hloAv up. the Imperial Palace with dynamite dropped from a balloon were founded on actual fact. The Czar’s protector discovered that the members of a certain band of “students” engaged in aeronautic experiments near St. Petersburg Avere in suspicious communication with dynamite experts connected Avith the revolutionary movement. £■■■'. They became frightened before the dynamite and balloon experiments Avere brought together, which probably saved their necks —though it did not prevent their peremptory exile Rom the Czar’s dominions.

M. Persitz’s most perilous adventure was undertaken while the Czar avhs on a visit to Warsaw, and was staying in the royal hunting palace near the city. Whenever the Czar travels the anarchists are ahvays stirred into activity. Disguised as a student, M. Persitz proceeded to cultivate their -acquaintance at Warsaw.

There -was one place in .particular that interested him—a kalbac or loAverciass public-house, where a little group of poorly-dressed folk, but with remarkably intelligent faces, used nightly to congregate. He noticed that barrels of vodka used to arrive there with remarkable frequency. Giving -up his disguise as a student, he changed to that of a driver; and in that capacity -lie got engaged to convey one of the barrels of vodka from the station to the kalbac. Being instructed to be very careful with it, and not to lot it “jump” in any way, he -became more suspicious, and that night he took four officers with him, got into the kalbac, and there, sure enough, in a cellar, or vault, he found that the barrels contained dynamite and not vodka. Leading out of the vault, too, was a small underground passage, which, as lie- expected, and afterwards found to be the case, extended to underneath the palace. A DESPERATE CAPTURE.

The next night he surrounded the house with a squadron of hussars, -arrested all the people found inside, and then, giving instructions that no one was to move until he returned, proceeded to descend into the vault, and there, -armed -with a revolver, wormed his AA'ay along the secret ‘passage. It avos slow and terribly hot work, for the passage Avas so small that he could only get along by lying flat on his face and squirming his way along. At the end of a quarter of an hour’s Avork he suddenly came xqpon a man. intent upon doing something to a- battery by the aid of a small electric lamp.. M. Persitz -guessed at once that a AA'ire ran from the battery to dynamite placed under the palace, and that the man was only Avait-ing instructions to send the current along the wire. He -grasped his revolver to shoot him, but did not dare fire for fear there might he dynamite about there. So he Avormed his way nearer, and suddenly seized the man by the hands. “It sounds ‘like exaggeration, I know,” said M. Persitz, “but Ave lay there, we two, face to face in that narrow passage, I grasping -his hands, Avith no possibility of aid, for over two hours.” Toward the end of that tAA'O hours M. Persitz managed to get the wire from the -battery between his teeth; and gradually, at the cost of a broken tooth, he bit through it. Directly the man saw this 'he said in Russian: “Pro Palo!”—or in very plain English: “The game is up 1” M. Persitz remarked to him (that he rather thought it Avas, hut' that ,if he would- give certain information he Avould not be punished. The man, however, refused t-o believe M. Persitz, even Avhen he g-ave his word of honour. “You must SAvear on -something,” said the man. “What is the thing you count holiest?” “God and the Czar,” replied M. Persitz. . “I do not accept such an oath,” said the man. You must SAvear on something. more sacred than that-— swear on your -mother, and then I will believe you.” . . M. Persitz did, and sl-OAvly, Avith the man folic-wing him, they Avorked their way back to -the cellar. Eighteen in all were convicted, and all hanged. The -man to Avhom M. Persitz had given his oath was pardoned, but was sent to live in Siberia, where a small strip of land Avas given to him, and he eventually married.