i8 
LAN i) cS: WATER 
May 4, 191 6 
Public Proseuctor's Office, where he was brought face to 
face with the prisoner. This conversation ensued : — 
Public Prosecutor : " I liave asked you to come here. 
Baron, in order to get the case against tliis unfortunate 
man settled. I understand that your complaint is thit 
you gave him money at his request for the purchase of 
certain shares in a Company, and he has failed to either 
return you the money or hand you the shares. If he 
gives you the shares you are content ? 
The Baron : " Yes, I have no wish to puni h the man, 
and if he returns me the shares, 1 shall be satisfied." 
Public Prosecutor to the Prisoner: " If I let you go, are 
yoti willing to give the Baron the shares you owe him ? " 
Prisoner : " Yes." 
Public Prosecutor: "If you do not return the shares 
within ;i week. I shall have you re-arrested, and then you 
will be punished. You can go." 
The Baron to I'iMic i'rosecutnr : " But this case is only 
one (if two. What about the forgery case ? " 
Public Prosecutor : " That case has nothing to do with 
you. Baron. I understand that you have merely taken it 
out of friendship for a foreigner, an Englishman, and I 
am not going to punish a tierman citizen on the complaint 
of a foreigner. My advice to you is to drop the whole 
thing and have nothing to do with it." 
',!*his apparently ended the case so far as the Baron was 
concerned, but my turn was yet to come. Some three 
weeks later, 1 was <in my way to Vienna, and I tele- 
{^raphecl my solicitor to meet me en route. I had come 
direct from TMushing on one of the througli trains that 
ran from l-lushing to Vienna. On my arrival in (iermany 
my solicitor boarded the train, and advised me not to 
leave the train before crossing the Austrian frontier, as a 
warrant liad been issued for my arrest. I enquired what 
crime I had committed. His answer was : " You liave 
committed one of the most serious crimes of which a 
foreigner can possibly be guilty in Germany. Y'ou are 
accused of having conspired with another person to cause 
the arrest and imprisonment of a German citizen, and this is 
punishable with a long term of imprisonment." I asked him 
for the details, and he informed me that the agent who 
had forged my signature, after he had made his peace 
with the Baron by returning liim liis shares and had 
secured his freedom, applied to the Public Prosecutor for 
my arrest on the ground that I had conspired with the 
Baron to deprive him of his liberty ! 
I stated to my solicitor that of course this was non- 
sense, and that I had merely acted on what he himself 
informed me was the advice of the Public Prosecutor. 
He answered ; " This is true, but it does not lessen the 
crime in the eyes of German laws. The man who advised 
your assigning your claim to a German citizen is the same 
who has issued the warrant for your arrest for having 
taken his advice." He added : " Now you are beginning 
to get some idea of ' German Justice.' " He said " I could 
furnisli you with dozens of illustrations of a similar 
character, of how foreigners have innocently fallen into 
traps of this sort and have had to suffer the conse- 
quences." For some three or four years afterwards I had 
to exercise extreme caution in travelling in Central 
Europe in order to escape the warrant that had been 
issued against me. 
On another occasion when I attempted to bring suit 
against certain (ierman firms for infringing my patents, 
I was advised by the very highest Patent Coimsel in 
Berlin not to attempt to bring the suit in my own name. 
Tins eminent counsellor said ; " I am sorry to have to 
confess it, but we have no laws in this ccnmtry for the 
protection of foreigners. Our laws are made for tlio 
benefit of (iermans and Germans only." He added : 
" I do not think any of our patent Judges would issue. 
an injunction to stop Germans from manufacturing 
goods in this countrj', even though they infringed your 
patents, considering that you are a foreigner. Your 
only chance of success would be by assigning 3'our patents 
to a German or a German firm, and getting them to bring 
a suit in their own name." 
When the war broke out, there were no less than thirty 
German Companies manufacturing goods which infringed 
the German patents which I held. 
Italian Etchings and Engravings 
By Marcus 6. Huish 
MODERN Italy has done much for British art. 
At Koine, Venice, Florence, Turin, and other 
cities a most hearty welcome has always been 
accorded to it and this recognition has extended 
to purchases by the Royal Family, by National and 
Municipal (ialleries, and to decorations bestowed upon 
many of our artists at the hands of the Crown. 
Our return for all this has indeed been a sorry one. 
Notable Italians who have laboured hard to bring about 
these very material benefits to English artists and whose 
names have been brought to the notice of the British 
Government again and again have not even received a 
word of thanks, much less any special recognition. 
An opporttmity within the last few weeks has pre- 
sented itself of reciprcMrating to some extent the hospitahty 
accorded by Italy to our artists, but unfortunately it 
wotild seen as if it would not be availed of even to a 
limited extent. The Association of Italian Etchers and 
Engravers (Associazione Italiana Acquafortiste Incisori) 
wishing to hold in J-ondon an exhibition of the art, 
were invited by Mr. Brangwyn, whose art lias been ap- 
preciated in Italy even more than in his own country, 
to partake of the hospitality of the Society of British 
Artists, an invitation which was cordially accepted. In 
consequence, at their Galleries in Suffolk Street, under 
the patronage of the King, a considerable display of 
etdiings, lithograj)hs. and kindred matters now cover 
the walls of the principal Gallery. But this is practically 
all the return we are giving, for although a substantial 
portion of the proceeds from the sale of the works will go 
to the Red Cross Societies of the two countries, the public 
response can hardly be called a cordial one, nor do we 
hear of anv National funds being spent, or any public 
spirited i)erson presenting, as he well might, with fx-nefit 
to his country, a selection of the etchings to the Print 
room of the British Museum. 
The critical in such matters will naturally compare 
this work of the Italians with that of his own countrymen. 
exhibited only a month ago under the regis of the Painter 
Etchers Society, within a stone's throw of Suffolk Street, 
and which is supposed to convey a fair representation 
of the art as practised in this country. Any such com- 
parison must show that in more than one respect Italy 
can teach us something. For instance her etchers, 
having an ample fund of fine and picturesque material 
to draw upon, people the foregrounds of their cathedral 
scenes with animated processions, as in Chiapelli's 
" Baro(*co "; or Pasqiii's "Bannered Crowd," entering 
the Cathedral of Siena. 
Again there is less slavish copying of nature and we 
see such audacities as " iron and stone " where Cesaro 
Fratino does not hesitate to introduce into the foreground 
of San Giorgio at Venice a huge timbered erection over 
which pass lumbering engines, a combination of singular 
power carried out on a large plate etched with fitting 
determination. Yet again an experimental spirit is 
evidently abroad attempting new methods of improving 
on the old ; this is seen in a plate from the hand of 
Magavacca. On the other hand in a direction where 
experiments in colour might have been looked for, i.e., 
in colour etching, there is a singular paucity, one of the 
few examples being Motta's " Rheims Cathedral," where 
roseate angels weep over the burning pile ; this is one of a 
singularly small number of war subjects, one of the few 
being Artioli's "Last Prop," which is reproduced on page 2 
of this issue ; here the Austrian Emperor is cleverly 
transposed into a figure of death propped up by gallows. 
Amongst work to be noted is that of the President of 
the Society, Vico Vigano, one of several of his exhibits 
being " The Passing Train," a photograph of which 
also appears in this issue ; Luigi Conconi's "The Third 
Rome," with Victor Emanuel passing beneath the Arch 
of Trojan ; Adolfo de Karoli's coloured wood engraving, 
giving an architecturally planned view of the Roman 
Campagna ; and " The Bell Tower," by Spadolini, a work 
remarkable for its clever draughtsmanshii). 
