You are requested to investigate the case and to report the result to the
Department, taking in the meantime any action for the relief of Mr.
Rubin that you may find practicable.
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Rubin to
Mr. Hay.
Kolbuszowa, Austria, June 5, 1899.
My situation obliged me to let your honor know what had happened to
me in the Kingdom of Austria-Hungary, and I hope that your honor
will hear the cry from a man who was treated with injustice, because
I am a citizen of the United States of N. America.
In the year 1897, in the month of June, I visited my family in the
country where I was born, in the city of Kolbuszowa, Galicia,
Austria, and according to the laws of Austria I was ordered from the
Bezirkshauptmann in the city of Kolbuszowa to produce my passport
and citizen paper, and I have make a declaration in writing that I
am a citizen of the U. S. of N. America, and my passport and citizen
paper I have delivered to the Bezirkshauptmannschaft in the city of
Kolbuszowa.
And on the 12th of July, 1897, I was going to ask that my papers
shall be returned to me; I was arrested and they have kept me in
prison eight days, from the 12th to the 20th of July. And on the
20th of July, 1897, I was sent before the military commissioners in
the city of (Koll) Rzeszowa, and they have decide that I shall serve
in the standing army in Austria five years, 3 years regular and 2
years punishment, because that I have say that I am a good citizen
of the U. S. of America. And on the 29 of July, 1897, I received a
decree from the Bezirkshauptmannschaft in the city of Kolbuszowa
that I am released from the obligation to perform military duty in
Austria, on account of the treaty between the Kingdom of Austria-H.
and the Government of the U. S. of North America, from the year
1870–1871, that is, writing in the Polnish language.
And in a couple of days after I was charged again to produce all my
papers from the U. S., with the decree from the 29 of July, 1897,
but I refused, and on the advice from the embassy in Vienna I have
produce my passport and citizen paper, and I (was) compelled to stay
in Austria to the month of February, 1898, and my papers was
returned to me.
The time from my passport is to end on the 10th of June, 1899, No.
107 from the embassy in Berlin. Now I need your help and your
advice, because during that time I lost everything what I
have—money, and honour, and my position—and I have done this to save
the honour of the U. S., and not to run away before I was released.
Because I have hearken when the people from that country speaken.
See the protection from the Government of the U. S., their citizen
in prison and obliged to perform military duty in Austria with
punishment.
But even in the day from my great trouble I have not lost my
expectation to the Almighty God in heaven that I, a citizen from a
right and just State, and I was not afraid to tell the judge in that
case that the Government of the U. S. have enough power to see that
their treaty shall be respect(ed) even in Austria, and that justice
will be done.
My damage I will count of twelf thousand (12,000) dollar.
Before I close my writing I have pleased to the Almighty God in
heaven who have given power to our great and honourable President,
Mr. T. Mackinty, and to his adviser and officer, to punish the cruel
[Page 74] nation from Espain with
their Government, he shall give me favour in your eyes to just that
little case as a great case, and to see that justice shall be done
to me.
I am, very respectfully, a citizen of the U. S. of North America,
