SHOOT-AT-SIGHT CASTLE CHIEF.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 84, 8 April 1922, Page 19

SHOOT-AT-SIGHT CASTLE CHIEF.

AN ARMED FAMILY. In the neighbourhood of Potsdam lives a Junker chieftain who has set up a local reign of terror which would be a sensation even for the wildest part of the Wild West, says the Berlin correspondent of the "Daily Chronicle." Herr Karl yon Kaebne is an extremely wealthy landed proprietor, living at Petzow Castle, a beautiful residence picturesquely situated on Lake Schwielow. His mentality is that of a baronial outlaw of the Middle Ages, and Tie claims the right to act as judge and executioner whenever he deems fit. He has brought up members of his family, as he frankly admits, on the inaxira, "Carry a weapon, and shoot when you think necessary." They all—male and female— habitually go about armed with rifles or revolvers, and any person who errs into their estate, through which there are several roads, or who wittingly enters it without an invitation, is shot at without ado. This junker lordling lives up to li is maxim, even beyond the limits of his own territory. The other evening, while sleighing homewards in company with his forester, he saw a man apparently about to cut down a small tree. Herr yon Kaehne jumped from his sleigh and pursued the man. When he overtook him this conversation took place:— " Hand over your saw, you dog.*" " But 1 am not on your estate, and you are not an official." "All right, you swine, I'll shoot you down." Suiting his action to his words, Herr yon Kaehne drew his revolver, and there and then shot the man through the chest. Not only that, but. returning to his sleigh, the junker laird fastened the man's sledge behind it, and drove off home to dinner without any further worry about his victim, Weeding to death in the snow. That the wounded man did not die is due to the fact that his elevea-year-old son was with him. The lad ran off to the nearest village fur help, and it was only with great difficulty that the badly wounded man was discovered and taken to hospital, wßere he lies in a precarious condition. This astounding outrage comes hot on the heels of one perpetrated by Herr Karl yon Kaehne, jun., n worthy son of his tyrant father. Karl, junior, saw a motor car with several people lQ it. pass through the estate. He immediately opened tire with three shots, and then, jumping on an unsaddled horse, made after the car. Reaching it, he found that his bullets had done no harm, and using the choicest Junker language, he expressed bis regret that ue one had been hit. The motorists, who had lost their way, took the case into court, and the young inau was merely lined 10,000 marks, which his father smilingly paid, but did not repeal his maxim. There have been numerous other cases in which the Petzow Junkers have threatened, wounded, and even crippled people; but the latest outrage has naturally caused a tremendous sensation in the neighbourhood. Even children who have strayed along the roads of the estate have been threatened with revolvers.