The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-06-09

it to show how easy it was to detect any lit
tie imperfections in the stones.
Now" said he, you shall see the hand
soonest pair of diamonds in the country.
Tiffany says he has nothing like them, and
has not seen their equal" With that he
took from the safe a small packet with
''$9, OOO' written on the label. That was the
amount loaned on the stones, which were
valued at S25, 900. Marvellous gems they
were when held up to view. They weighed
eighteen carats each, and glistened like little
electric lights. A fictitious name was on the
label, but the diamonds belonged to a society
woman, whose name was rigidly locked up
along with a multitude of other secrets, in
the pawnbroker's breast
Pointing to box about one foot square in
one corner of the vault, the proprietor said
The owner of that property locked the box
and took away the key. The box is full of
gold images, relics that were dug out of old
Peruvian graves"
He led the way slowly through the other
parts OF the building, which was everywhere
overcrowded with pledges The Marshal said
that 50 1000, 900 would be a low estimate of
the value OF all the property. The clothing
department, occupying two floors, was a
marvel of order. On one floor the clothing
OF all kinds was folded in neat bundles, and
on the other it was hung up" for which
process the owner pays an extra price. There
was row OF coats hanging without crease,
one close to another, and extending the
length of the room, Men are constantly en-
gagged on this floor in a war of ex ter
mination against the moths. There
was another row of pantaloons, one of
ladies dresses, one of light and one of
heavy overcoats and one of ladies' coaks
and shawls Twenty dollars was loaned on
some of the overcoats, $50 on some of the
dresses, 5000 on some of the camePs hair
shawls and $500 on some of the sealskin
sacques. There was one sealskin sacque on
which the pawnbroker had loaned $3.50. He
said it belonged to an actress, who wanted it
taken care Of 1t was worth 5000. A big
packing case stood in one of the halls, which
contained two pictures of an actor, which he
carried all over the world with him and
stood them in the entrance of the theater at
which he was playing. The pawnbroker had
never seen the pictures, and said they were
only there on storage.
On the topmost floor was collection of
guns of every conceivable kind from old
fashioned air-guns to repeating rifles. The
plwnbroker said he had loaded one of the
latter, recently, and sat up several nights to
receive some thieves He discovered that
they had been at work on the skylight, get
ting ready for descent on the shop. One
night, when he was waiting for them, they
lifted the skylight and peered down into the
store, but seemed to smell gunpowder and
went away. On this floor was a mass of
tickets which had been issued and returned
during the last fourteen years. They were
strung together and piled in heap as big as
small load of hay. The pawnbroker lifted
string about six feet long and threw it on
the floor, saying, There are three months
tickets" 1t fell like a snake. and coiled up
as if it still had its hold upon the poor and
wanted to squeeze them.