More Real Spies [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION .1 ! This book, while complete in itself, may be accepted as a companion volume to my earlier production, "The World's Greatest Military Spies and Secret Service Agents," The previous work pictured the notable spies of the past from the days of die first Napoleon until the Spanish-American War, while the present narrative deals with the secret romance and adventure of the world's greatest war. It will be noticed that the subject matter of these pages covers not only the celebrated spies of the war, but also tiie great mysteries of the awful conflict. Thus we have a comWation of real stories which, for absorbing interest, win compete with the most thrilling tales of fiction. These acmal men and women furnish the color to the sadness and the gray monotony of the war. Some of the characters rest under deserved obloquy. One of the saddest reflections is that every war produces its Benedict Arnolds, and the present one furnishes no exception to this rule. But human nature is a complex thing. To understand motives, it is necessary to study the personality of the subject and all of the detafls leading to the act, and even then we are often inclined to suspend judgment. Such a bundle of contradictions are the creatures known as men and women. This is not a history of the espionage of the war. It is not a story of the German intrigues in America and elsewhere. These things have akeady been told in great detail in other publications. It is rather a series of pen pictures relating to certain dramatic figures of the war. Even while we condemn the deeds, we wonder at the audacity and the courage of the criminds. Could there possibly be a more startling difference than is shown in the character of the two women whose stories are recounted? The subUme devotion of the martyr-nurse and the recklessness of the Turkish beauty will be remembered long after the war has passed into history. Bolo Pasha, the lobster dealer, decorated by the Khedive