My Life and My Efforts Part 16

"A certain Mr. Lebius, editor of the 'Sachsenstimme', has told another gentleman that he was writing an article against you. I have just overheard it in a restaurant. A friend is warning you of this man.

"B."

Of course, I was instantly fully aware of the author and the purpose of this card. The report of the court's _sworn_experts_ also states _that_n.o.body_but_Lebius,_in_his_own_hand,_could_have_ _written_it._ Obviously, he quite definitely expected me to pay the 10.000 marks in response to this extortion. If I would not pay up, I could not just be sure of the vengeful article he threatened to write now, but even of more of the kind and other things as well; this had to worry me. But even now, I did not respond and was facing the unavoidable article with a clear conscience, which appeared on September the 11th, 1904, in number 33 of Lebius's paper, the "Sachsenstimme", and bore the triple headline:

"More light on Karl May 160.000 marks income for a novelist A famous author of colportage from Dresden."

This man had given his word to my wife and me, not to publish anything. He had even only been admitted to our house after having made this promise, and now he nevertheless published something, and in what manner and for what reasons! He turned everything upside down; he twisted everything! He put all the words he pleased into our mouths and kept to himself what we had actually said, to avoid exposing himself to ridicule. This text contains more than 70 immoralities, twists of the facts, and direct lies. But this was only the beginning; the continuations followed soon enough. This article in number 33 of the "Sachsenstimme" had been written in such a manner that Lebius was still able to turn around, if I should now finally give him the money. And already in number 34 there came a very clear hint, telling me what would happen, if I could not be moved to pay.

This hint consisted of an advertis.e.m.e.nt by Munchmeyer, which spoke volumes to me. You ought to know that the proprietor of Munchmeyer's business had told me: "The publication of the other novels doesn't hurt you too much yet; but as soon as I'm done with the 'Lost Son' and start placing advertis.e.m.e.nt for it, you'll be lost! This one will be such a blow that you'll be unable to continue existing as an author after this!" And this "Lost Son"

had now been advertised for in number 34 of the "Sachsenstimme".

This was just as if they had written to me in gigantic letters: "But now, finally, surrender the money, or it will go on in this style!" The most dangerous extortionist is he who goes about his business in this cunning manner, which is even more clear than a spoken word, but is beyond the reach of any public prosecutor.

But I nevertheless did not pay anything. Then, in number 44, there came a second elaboration, in number 46 a third, and in number 47 a fourth. In number 46 the connection of Mr. Lebius with Munchmeyer's business was demonstrated more clearly to me than before, for it said that the owner of this business had a large stack of old letters, written by me, in his possession and could therefore give very detailed information on me, if he only wanted. But the truth was that he did not possess a single old letter from me; I, on the other hand, knew now precisely that Lebius had taken on the job of executing the Munchmeyers' plan "to destroy me in the eyes of all of Germany by publis.h.i.+ng my prior convictions in all the newspapers". I was convinced that the payment of those 10.000 marks would silence him right away, but I would have been ashamed to look into the mirror, if I had given him even a single pfennig.

As I had thought, so it happened: Already in number 48, there came without any provocation, out of the blue, the announcement: "The four years which Mr. Karl May had been sentenced to spend in Waldheim were, according to our information, the consequence of the burglary of a watchmaker's shop." But I have never committed any burglary. You see, that they did not care about the truth, but only about "destroying". This number 48 was published on Christmas Eve. At this time, posters were displayed in the windows of book-stores of Dresden, announcing the "Sachsenstimme"

with these large, red letters: _"The_prior_convictions_of_Karl_ _May"._ There could not be a more striking evidence that this was not about literature, but rather the execution of perfectly despicable intentions! Therefore, let me put an end to this cruel show here. I cannot bring myself to listing all these so very great deeds of Mr. Lebius in detail. I only want to say in summary that he proceeded in this manner, until, after some time, he had to flee from Dresden. I have compiled the lies, he has spread about me in his articles from his time in Dresden, to prove them in court. In spite of the brief time, there are not less than 142 of them. There probably never was another human being who has surpa.s.sed this! But I am explicitly emphasising that this list, by no means, contains everything, but rather only a selection. I could more than double this number, though it is already very high. I have remained silent on this issue for a long time, until I could not bear it any longer. Once this time had come, I finally had to defend myself. I filed a complaint with the public prosecutor's office for extortion. I submitted his letters, and the threatening postcard from September the 7th, 1904, as well. The experts declared that it necessarily must have been Lebius who had written it. But the above mentioned office was of the opinion that this was insufficient to start an investigation. And Lebius did his best in all of his statements to portray me as a person who deserved no credibility. The definite proof of his skillfulness in this he had given by reporting to the royal prosecutor's office in Dresden that the owner of the hotel on the Mount Sinai had been in Dresden and had been talking very badly about me. And yet, everyone knows that up to this day there has never been a hotel on the Mount Sinai! I guess, this sufficiently proves that the creativity of this Mr.

Lebius stops at nothing. Twice, I filed a private lawsuit against him. One of them was retracted by me during the proceedings, merely because I was so disgusted with all the filth I had to deal with there. The other one got him a fine of 30 marks at the first instance; but he was acquitted in the appeal, because my lawyer had become ill and sent a replacement, who argued the case without being fully informed.

This is all I have done against the attacks of Mr. Lebius, which were just as numerous as they were incessant. This was surely little enough! That I answered to reporters whenever they came to ask me, goes without saying. It would be asking too much from me to demand that I should lie to these gentlemen out of fear of Mr.

Lebius. Nevertheless, he still pretends up to this day that it was not me who is pursued and a.s.saulted by him, but rather him by me.

Even after he had fled from Dresden, leaving behind a rather sizeable amount of debts, his attacks against me did not stop.

Let me just mention the article in the Austrian teachers'

magazine, by which he stirred up about 40.000 teachers to join in the campaign against me. I kept silent. I even kept silent, when in Wilhelm Bruhn's magazine "Wahrheit" in Berlin, he published a perfectly outrageous a.s.sault against me, in which he branded me as an "atavistic criminal", who had been, for almost one decade, in prisons and penitentiaries on account of "continued burglaries"! There, he a.s.serted that I had suffered through a serious, chronical disease, which had "obviously an antisocial"

effect. With this, he had started to continue his machinations against me in Berlin, which had been interrupted in Dresden.

Unfortunately, I had been compelled to meet with him there in person, because there was an unavoidable question, which I had to pose to him in connection with the extensive lawsuit against the Munchmeyers. For this purpose, I went to Berlin with my wife. We discovered his apartment. He were told that he was publis.h.i.+ng a new paper, called "Bund"

He told us to meet him at the Cafe Bauer. We followed his instruction. He came with his wife and her sister. He did not answer my question. He denied everything. I told him that I would like to see his new paper. I meant this in a perfectly honest and good way, without any evil intentions. But he instantly got into a fit of rage and asked threateningly: "Are you up to something? If so, I'll proceed against you once again without delay! Here in Berlin, there are more than twenty papers like the 'Dresdener Rundschau'. They are all at my command, if I should decide to destroy you! Here, this won't take long at all!"

I answered that I would not think of descending back into the old filth. My wife said to his wife in a calm and friendly manner that it was the most beautiful duty of married women to work towards reconciliation and to soften the harshness of life; then we left.

This was on September the 2nd or 3rd. _One_month_later,_ on October the 1st, the following letter arrived from Berlin; I was away travelling:

"Dear Sir!

"Though you would not know me, I would like to take the liberty of asking you, whether you could give me any more detailed information on a certain Mr. Lebius, formerly a resident of Dresden. The above mentioned gentleman, a former social democrat, has filed a private suit for gross insult against me, in my capacity as the former editor in charge of the 'Vorwarts' [a]. In court, I will have to demonstrate what a 'honourable gentleman'

Mr. Lebius is. On account of an advice by an colleague from Dresden, I am now turning to you with every confidence, that you might perhaps be able to give me any kind of information about this gentleman. If this should be the case, I am looking forward to your kind response, which would very much oblige me.

"Most sincerely Carl Wermuth, Editor of the 'Vorwarts'."

[a] "Vorwarts" : The newspaper of the social democratic party.

I repeat that I was travelling and was therefore unable to grant this wish, even if I had wanted to. On April the 5th, 1908, this was _a_full_half_year_later,_ I received another letter from the editor's office of the "Vorwarts":

_"We_regret_that_you_have_not_spoken_out_yet_ regarding the accusations against you by Lebius, or respectively that you have _not_supplied_us_with_the_necessary_evidence_ on the slanderous acts of Lebius in respect to you. As I have been told by my colleague Wermuth, your wife has informed us that you were currently travelling and that you were _unable_to_supply_us_with_ _the_desired_material_against_Lebius._ I am hoping that you have returned from your journey in the meantime und that you will now . . . ."

I guess, this sufficiently proves _that_it_is_not_me_who_is_ _pursuing_Mr._Lebius,_but_that_he_is_pursuing_me._ Mr. Lebius pretends that I had approached him at that time on the anniversary of the battle of Sedan [a] to be able to a.s.sist the "Vorwarts".

Hereby, I am proving that I did not know anything about this complaint for gross insult at this time yet, but rather that the "Vorwarts" only informed me about it one month later and _did_not_ _even_receive_an_answer_ to this after another six months had pa.s.sed! Thus, I had spared Mr. Lebius for a full six month, though it had been made so convenient and easy for me by the social democratic party to get my revenge against him. _That_I_do_ _not_pursue_him,_but_am,_again_and_again,_being_forced_by_him_to_ _act_in_self_defence,_ is, by the way, also proven by the fact that I have avoided up to this day to testify as a witness against him. The situation concerning this testimony in favour of the editor of the "Vorwarts" had been like this:

[a] September the 2nd.

Lebius had sued the "Vorwarts" for gross insult, and the "Vorwarts" had named me as a witness, of course without bothering to ask me first. Lebius was told by his conscience that he could probably not expect many kind words from this witness. Yes, the thought even occurred to him that I had already known about my role as a witness when we met at the Cafe Bauer. This enraged him. He sent his wife to my wife to Radebeul, to make threats against me. My wife wished this meeting to take place in my house; but Mrs. Lebius refused. The two women met at the restaurant of our railroad-station. There, Mrs. Lebius wanted to dictate to us, instructed by her husband, what and how I had to testify as a witness. In particular, I was supposed to declare in court that he had not written that threatening postcard of September the 7th in Dresden. If I did not do this, he would have to start the old fight against me anew. My wife rejected all of this most decisively, for were were now more convinced than ever that he was its author. Thus, his wife returned to Berlin, without having accomplished her mission.

Once Lebius had realized that this attempt had failed, he decided to render me unfit to testify under oath, and he planned to do so by means of a pamphlet, which had to be published soon enough before the appointed time when I was supposed to appear as a witness. But since this pamphlet, in order to be able to have its effect, had to be written in such a manner which absolutely inevitably had to be followed by a criminal prosecution of the author, which Lebius did not want to bring on himself, he looked around for a man to act as a front, who did not know him and Karl May yet and was sufficiently inexperienced, gullible, and in need of cash to get involved in this, for a few hundred marks, which would quite certainly _lead_to_a_prison_sentence_ for him, _without_even_suspecting_a_thing._ He found him in the shape of certain Mr. F.W. Kahl from Basel, pulled him into his web, and spun such a network of self-praise and lies around him, that this young, perfectly honest man almost considered it to be an honour to be allowed to put himself into the service of such an important, mentally, socially,and also in legal matters so very outstanding man.

Lebius, as he generally and always did, approached this matter, too, in an extraordinarily clever and cunning manner. In the beginning, he did not mention that it was _solely_ a pamphlet against _me._ He let the young man believe that he was supposed to write a SCIENTIFIC work on famous, or rather infamous, men. He gave him their names; my name was also among them. But when Kahl went to his work and received his instructions on a daily basis, these were to the effect that, one after another, all of these "famous and infamous" men disappeared, until Karl May was the only one left. And the "scientific" work was to turn into a pamphlet of the very lowest and most dangerous kind. Kahl realised this with every day more and more clearly. He started to suspect that, under the cover of perfect kindness, he was to be led to his doom.

When he told Mr. Lebius straight out what he suspected, Lebius thought the best thing would be to confess the entire purpose of the pamphlet to him. He admitted to the following:

Lebius has sued the editor of the "Vorwarts" for gross insult.

The "Vorwarts" has named Karl May as a witness against Lebius.

Therefore, it is necessary for Lebius to destroy Karl May.

In order to achieve this, he will publish this pamphlet, he currently working on.

The appointed time for Karl May's testimony is in the beginning of April.

Therefore, it is absolutely imperative that the pamphlet will be ready for distribution by April the 1st.

If the pamphlet should only be ready by a later date, it would be useless; in this case, he would not have to bother writing it at all.

It will be sent to the newspapers, which will report about it. This shall influence the judges.

It will also be presented to the judges directly. As soon as this will happen, May will be ruined as a witness.

When the honest, young man heard this, his scruples became even greater than they had been before. When he said so and expressed his worries of being punished in court, Lebius suggested the following to him:

As authors, we are anyhow and always with one foot in prison.

To have been sentenced in court, is good advertising for us. I also have already been convicted many times.

You have no reason at all to be afraid of the courts. You have no prior convictions, you may testify under oath. But May may not testify under oath.

May is under police supervision. He has been forbidden to live in a city. Therefore, he lives in Radebeul.

I HAVE A GREAT TALENT FOR DEALING WITH THE COURTS. ONCE I START TALKING, THE JUDGES ARE ALL ON MY SIDE!

WHEN A PERSON IN A TRIAL WRITES SUCH A PAMPHLET, THIS MAKES AN ENORMOUS IMPRESSION ON THE JUDGES!

Mrs. May has begged me with tears in her eyes to have mercy on her husband.

May has to be destroyed by this pamphlet. All the rest is unessential, ONLY THERE TO CONCEAL THE TRUE PURPOSE!

The consequence of these and similarly peculiar verbal expectorations was that Kahl decided, to distance himself from this matter. He prohibited Lebius to print anything he had written or even to abuse his name for this pamphlet. He directed the very same ban also against the publisher. He thought that by such means he had ascended quite definitely back out of this mora.s.s. But he did not know Lebius and his audacity yet. The pamphlet was published, and even precisely on April the 1st. Its t.i.tle was:

KARL MAY, one who corrupts the German youth by F.W. Kahl - Basel.