THE OEEGON SUNDAY - tTOUKNATi, P0BTLAN7V STTNDAY MORNING, ATOuar srr, iraa.
4
n
y
4 '
"V - v " '
"f " i' '
' - x T "
; . r v :&
i'rsf iVeii7s of the
Wild Romance of
Daredevil Fern Andrews,
Illinois Beauty,
Condemned as
a Spy by
Germans,
Saved by
Becoming a
Baron's
Bride in
a Lion's
Cage
Hi
J
ft
l ' ll ' j! : "
' " - ftMitV y 'ir-'-ST'ttM
Autographed Photosrraph Sent by Fern Andrews to Bird Millman, the
Famous Tight-Wire Performer. "Fussy" Was Her Favorite Nickname.
SNARED in a net ot lore nd war and
intrigue, jailed in a lion's den, sen
tenced to be shot as a ipy, separated
from her American home by firs thousand
miles of blazing land and smoking sea, her
sweetheart slain, her .heart brOken, her
brain throbbing to but one thooght tha
desire to Uts! pretty Tern Andrews, blue
eyed daughter of an Illinois farmer, cheated
the firing squad by a "cage wedding" to a
Bohensollern baron!
This most amazing romance ot the World
War has been an international secret. Not
a doxen people knew that Fern Andrea,
movie star; Baroness von Weichs, divorced
wife of a Prussian nobleman, and little
Fern Andrews, ot Watseka, EL were all
three one and the same, until recent cables
from Berlin carried the rumor of the death
of Pern Andrea In an airplane accident.
The report was later denied, but the cir
cumstance established her identity.
Then Bird Millman, the beautiful tight
wire walker of circus and theatre lame,
who was Fern Andrews chum and patron
tor years, though scouting rumors of her
death, consented to reveal the story of her
protegee's remarkable wedding. It is told
on this page for the first time.
Fern Andrews was feeding chickens,
tanking cows, riding ponies and doing the
"giant swing" In the barn on her father's
farm in Illinois until, a few years before
the war, the circus came to town. She
went to Watseka in a wagon with. th rest
' of the folks to see "the grandest show on
earth." Fern, being a tomboy, liked the
acrobats best
Especially did she admire Hiss Bird
Millman, queen "of the air." who danced
a fox-trot on a tight wire better than most
people 60 It oa the ballroom floor. Fera
knew some stouts herself. She believed
she could walk a wire. The next day she
sneaked off to Watseka all by, herself,
found Miss Millman. 4id her stuff" and
won that artist approtaL When the cir
cus left Watseka, Fern left with it
: In a year the little Illinois farm girl was
a fun-fledged performer. Among her IntV
mate circus friends she was j known, as
Fussy She was pretty, she wsa suppU,
she was graceful; above all, she had a
heart that knew no fear. Fera, tried tricks
that made even Miss Millman fn. . And
Tern taly giggled. She declared there was
no thrill in the world comparable to skip
ping along a steel thread above the heads
of ten thousand staring, gasping people.
The Bird Millman troupe went abroad
in the Summer of 1914. It was touring
Germany when Europe plunged head first
into war. In the mad scramble of tourists
to get 4ut ot Germany trains choked,
each station a fighting mob, troops pouring
to the front oVet every road and track, red
tape tightened, steamship sailings can-,
celed, families and friends torn apart
Fern Andrews became separated from the
rest of the troupe. Bird Millman returned
to America, uncertain whether the girl was
alive or dead.
But Fern was alive. She was very much
alive. The lines were too closely drawn
for her to get out ot Germany at first, buc
they were not too closely drawn to bar
love. By the time a month had passed
Fern Andrews didn't want to leave Ger
many. Romance had come to her in two
flaming dark eyes,: a sun -tanned face, and
a hot French heart beating under the mas
querade of an overcoat of Prussian gray.
Miss Millman, who heard the story much
later, remembers his name only as Jean.
He was in the French Secret Service,
smuggled serosa the border by his Govern
ment in the first days of the war on an
Important and perilous mission. He met
Fern Andrews, confided in her, and she
loved him.
The disguised Frenchman was sot Fern
Andrews only suitor. Her beauty and her
daring had won German hearts as well,
and the aristocrat. Baron von Weichs, was
the most smitten of all. He was not young,
bat he loved her. ardently be wanted to
marry her. And Fern Andrews did not re
pulse his suit. . She smiled upon hinu Sha
told him she would marry' him. They bo
came engaged.
, Why r There is so written record of the
workings of . Fern Andrews heart. But it
is known that the Baron von Weichs was
a Hohenjollern; that he was a blood kit
ot the then "All Highest; that he knew
as tew men in Germany knew what plots
. and plans were going forward in the war
. councils ... at , Potsdam. And the 4 Baron
loved; Fern Andrews. Better men than
barons have hidden nothing from women
-' they loved. 1 -.i
- It ts also known that for Fern Andrews
there was one man and one man only.
V
strangest ever a woman occupied.
The wholesale arrests carried out by
the German police in the first days of
the war had filled the Jails. There
was no room left. There Was no pro- -vision
made for the detention ot women
spies. '
As a makeshift. Fern Andrews was taken
to the Thiergarten, -Berlin's, great amuse-
ment pafk. The zoological gardens had
been emptied of animals. Fern Andrews
. was led to the lion's cage, and there, where
the kins; of beasts had paced and dreamed
of t jungle kills, the little American girl
crouched through the days and nights pre
ceding the date for her execution.
A guard patrolled the cage. People came '
to stare at heito marvel at the white
face and the blue eyes pressed so close to
the bars. And Fern Andrews, staring back
st them with the fear of death ever pres
ent in her heart Fern Andrews staked her
latt hope on an appeal to one man
She was allowed to send a message to
v-
V
it
1 ,
Fern Andrews Attired as an Awiatrix.
He was Jean of the flaming brown eyes
andHhe hot French heart.; And Fern had
no confidences that were not Jean's also.
Jean himself had but one love and one
allegiance France. j "
It was a desperate game this blue-eyed
daughter of an Illinois farmer, this supple
little American acrobat, played in the late
Summer ot 1914 there on the Belgian bor
der, within earshot of the thunder of guns.
his secret wireless Outfit.
Fern, seeking him. was ar
rested. Both were sent to
Berlin under guard.
The trials were swift and rutb
lesi. Jean, found guilty, was Sen
tenced Jo death. At sunrise he
crumpled, under the volley oi a fir.
Ing' sauad. When Fern got; the
news she fainted. The light had
among swarming hordes of gray, in little t gone out of her life. . She might have pre
ferred death herself In that moment. Gal
it ts very hard to die. When her own
trial followed, and aha. too, was convicted
as a spy and ; sentenced to be shot, she
stared at her accusers with ghastly eyes.
Her ; heart was broken, but there stm
burned in her the primitive fwqt to
tight for her tife at an costs.
They led her back to her j?risoa Cia
X - -
X i.- -1., rf" Jr.'
, towns where no man trusted his neighbor
and every bush and wair might sneuer an
enemy.-- v?ff',v .. . -j
. It was 'a desperate game with a Gar
1 man. baron who loved her on one end of
the see-saw and the Frenchman she loved
ron the otherand It was a game that had
to end in tragedy. It came with a crash.
;-. .The police surprised Jean, red-handed, with
Baron Ton
Richtofen,
Brother
of the German
Ace, with Whom Fern Andrews
Was Flying When the Plane FelL
The Fliers Escaped Injury.
Baron von Weichs, the man who loved her,
but the man she had betrayed, that she
wanted to see him that if he wanted to
see her in this life this was his last op
portunity. -The
Baron came. He fen once more
CbpjtUM. 1932. tr lBtaraaOoval Ttatun awvl Xa. QpfX Btfsda Sis&ts
under the spell of the blue eyes. He forV
gave her. But he protested that he had
not the power to stay her sentence. There
was but one chance if she would marry ,
him, if she would become the wife of a
blood relative of Kaiser Wllhelm, not even
Prussian militarism might touch her. And
he, the Baron a noble and a gentleman
he would agree that the marriage should
be no more than a marriage of form. He
would give her a divorce whenever she
asked it.
And so, crouched In the lion's cage iri
the heart of Berlin, with a sollder's bayonet
but a few feet away, with the groom clasp
lng her hand through the steel bars, .with
a minister standing in the graveled walk.
Fern Andrews, of Watseka, Illinois, be
came the bride of Baron von Weichs, scion
of the house ot Hohenzollern.
The marriage was announced to ' the
Kaiser. It was the "All Highest' himself
who ordered her release, conditional on the
promise that she would remain a neutral.
And Fern Andrews kept her promise.
All through the war, while she was interned
In Germany, she lifted neither voice nor 0
hand either tor or against that 'country.
And until Sfter the armistice she remained
the Baron's wits in name. So long aa she
was Baroness von Weichs she wsi a Ger
man citizen And entitled to the protection
of the Prussian empire. It she had dW .
voroed him, if she had become little Fern
Andrews again, the first night might hare
seen the police battering ather door -her v
arrest, her retrial on the old charge, her
conviction and her execution by the marks
men she had foiled.
Bat once the war was over Fern An
drews. Baroness yon Weichs, asked the
Baron for her freedom. And the Baron
kept his word. A divorce was granted, the
took the name of Fern Andrea, she went
Into pictures.
America has heard ot her more than once
since then, though she never has returned
to this country. Back la Watseka, the
people who knew her as a tow-headed tonv
boy, have, gazed in admiration at pictures
ot Fern Andrea, dare-devil of the screen.
And they recognized in this new star the
same little girl who used to "skin the cat
In the barn on the Andrews farm.
Then came a cable. . Fern Andrea, It wsa
reported from Berlin, was killed in an awl
plane crash on the Fourth of July while
flying with Baron von Richtofen, a brother
of the famous German "ace." It appeared
that destiny had written a tragic climax
to Fern Andrews career. Then came the
cheerful contradiction. t
Before that, however. Bird Mfilraan con
sented to an Interview and revealed, for
the first time, bow Fern Andrews, farmer's
daughter, became a "lion's cage bride" Lei
cheat a firing sauad, - ' .
A
i