Below is an interesting image sent me from the Mike Castro archive collection. It is reproduced here with permission and with thanks. It is a poem written by Gertrude W Seibert with a note in her own hand.
The note reads: Written Expressly for "The Finished Mystery," and then she signs at the bottom of the page.
The poem appears in The Finished Mystery at the end of the middle section on The Song of Solomon, and is dated June 25, 1917.
This is of interest because of Gertrude's involvement in The Finished Mystery project. The details are in an old post on this blog:
https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2015/08/gertrude-antonette-woodcock-seibert-and.html
If you want to see more images from the Mike Castro collection about Gertrude and her work, see here:
https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/2020/05/more-gertrude-1.html
7 comments:
The late addition of Seibert's poem into The Finished Mystery ultimately caused problems for the IBSA. It would be difficult to argue that the book was written prior to the US entering the war when it included a date for Seibert's poem that was obviously later than this. April 6, 1917, marked the date when anti-war sentiment as no longer acceptable. If a poem had been included after this date, reasoned the authorities, what else had been added?
A valid point Gary, which I had not picked up on.
Gary, Please document this to the original source. I'm very interested.
I don't know if the the poem itself is specifically mentioned and would need to read the case notes of Rutherford's trial again to find out, but the subject of when various passages of the FM were written was an important subject for conversation between MID officers and BOI agents in the weeks leading up to Rutherford's trial. See Lon Strauss' A Paranoid State: The American Public, Military Surveilance and the Espionage Act of 1917, in particular chapter 3, pages 88-91.
I've checked the case notes for the Rutherford v. The United States trial and page 220 includes discussion of the date given for the Bridegroom poem.
Thanks Gary. Very helpful.
Seibert was herself under investigation by a Federal Agent on 10 May 1918 who resided in the same hotel as her in New York. I have located just one page relating to this from the Old German Files as they are known. The report doesn't say much other than calling her "one of the leaders of the above Society" (i.e.WTB&TS) The investigation was said to be ongoing, but I have yet to locate any later report. My guess is that with the attention being on Rutherford and the other IBSA directors, the investigation of Seibert was dropped.
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