i8 
Land & Water 
March 28, 19 18 
for native-born Americans and Sjo apiece for passports of 
naturalised citizens — the higher price because getting the 
latter involved more red-tape, and hence more risk. Aucher 
was to come back on December 24th and bring the passports 
and get some money on account. 
On that day .\uciier called at Ruroede's office, and after 
further quarrelling about Carrots and his honesty, Ruroede 
declared that he was read}* to do business. Aucher objected 
to the presence of a young man in the room with them, 
and Ruroede replied : 
"Oh. he's all right. He's my son, and you needn't be 
afraid to talk with him around." 
.•\ucher then produced an .American passport, No. 45,57.?, 
made out in the name of Howard Paul Wright, for use in 
Holland and Germany. (A corner of this passport is repro- 
duced on page 14.) It was a perfectly good passport, too, as it 
had been especially made out for the purpose by the Depart- 
ment of State at the request of the Department of Justice. 
It bore Mr. Bryan's genuine signature and a photograph of 
" Wright," who was another agent of the Bureau of Investiga- 
tion. .\ucher also declared he was on the waj' toward 
getting the other five passports. Ruroede threw the Wright 
passport on his desk, and said : 
"I'll keep this. Go ahead and get the others." 
"What about money?" demanded Aucher. 
"I'll pay you S25 for it— no, I'll do better than that. 
To show you I mean business, take that," and he threw 
a §100 note on the table. Ruroede also gave Aucher photo- 
graphs of four German officers, and begged him to get pass- 
ports right awa\' to fit their descriptions, because he wanted 
Von Wedell's Successor in the Passport Frauds 
Carl Ruroede, who operated from an office in the Maritime Building, acrots 
the street from the Custom House in New York. His efforts to buy American 
passports through American agents led him into trouble, involving him in the 
toils of one of the cleverest and most complete pieces of detective work ever 
worked out by th: United States Department of Justice. How the agents of 
the Bureau of Investigation played upon his vanity to his vindoing, and how 
he unwittingly became a party to the strange outcome of Von Wedell's career, 
are described in this article. 
to get these m,en off on the Norwegian Line Steamer 
Bergensfjord , sailing January 2nd. He added that the 
officers of the Norwegian Line had all been "smeared" 
(otherwise "fixed"), and that they would "stand for any- 
thing." He also said that he would take at least forty more 
passports from Aucher. 
.\uchcr delivered two more passports to Ruroede in his 
office on the morning of December 30th. Ruroede was 
rather indifferent about getting them because — alas for the 
glory of the "invincible" Prussian arms ! — two of his German 
officers had got "cold feet," and had refused to go. Ruroede 
told Aucher to come back at two o'clock, and he would give 
him Sioo. Aucher invited Ruroede to have luncheon with 
him ; and as they left the building, Ruroede e.xplained, 
with much pride, that he had chosen his office here because 
the building had several entrances on different sides of the 
block, and he used one entrance only a few days at a time, 
and then changed to another to avoid suspicion. 
The Government's special agent complimented him highly 
"1 
Mdoi',.>i< Avi,Huf Afo«(ry -'■ 
^ 1/ 
) i 
.^^... Uff<^, -^--^- // #V-- 
BernstorfF appears as a principal of Wedell's 
This letter reads in English as follows : **My very honoured Herr von Wedell : 
I thank you very much for your friendly letter of this day, and the very kind 
offer therein contained. I shall, eventually, gladly avail myself of the latter and 
shall let you know when an opportunity for a trip presents itself. Most respect- 
fully, Bernstorff." What the trip was for is explained by illustrations on 
pages 16 and 17. 
on this bit of cleverness in the art of evasion. Five minutes 
later the two were sitting at a lunch-counter, with another 
special agent casually lounging in and taking the seat next 
to his fellow detective, where he could overhear and corro- 
borate the account of Ruroede's conversation. 
After a discussion of Wedell's forgeries and present where- 
abouts, and a further discussion of the buying of passports 
(in which Ruroede confided to Aucher that " there is a German 
fund that was sent over here for that purpose"), the pair 
walked back toward Ruroede's office. At the Whitehall 
Street entrance, Ruroede told Aucher to come round to the 
Bridge Street entrance in about fifteen minutes to get the 
money, and that in the meantime he would send his son out 
to cash a cheque so he could deliver it in notes. 
In a few moments, Ruroede's son rushed out with a bank- 
book in his hand. Aucher stopped him, and told him he 
ought to have a coat on — a device to let Aucher's fellow- 
detective identify the boy. 
M'hen the boy returned, Aucher again spoke to him, and 
said: "Tell your father I will be in the cafe at Whitehall 
and Bridge streets, and that he is to meet me there. I don't 
think it is a good thing for anybody to see me hanging 
around the front entrance." 
The boy went on, and Aucher walked to the assigned 
rendezvous. ^^^ j^ continued.) 
NOTICE. 
We regret that it was erroneously stated in our issue 
of February 21, that the series of articles entitled 
" [ohn Raihom's Revelations " had to be suspended at 
request of the United States authorities. 
We are informed this was not the case. There were 
important reasons, fully appreciated both by "The 
World's Work" of New York and by Mr. Rathom, 
which made further publication undesirable; and in 
deference to their wishes the series was discontinued 
in Land & Water. 
