The semi-weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1890-1891, 1890-11-29
MARTS FOR THIEVES.
JEWELRY FENCES" WHERE PLUM
DER IS BOUGHT AND SOLD.

Prices for Diamonds Are Lower Than in
Reputable Storcs-How the Business.
Is Conducted What Inspector Byrnes
Says About the Subject.
~ would like to know how some jew
elry store keepers manage to sell their
wares so much cheaper than Others" was
the remark that a man heard the other
day in a famous jewelry shop not far
from Union square.
The speaker was II pretty young lady
who held in her dainty right hand a
beautiful solitaire diamond ring not less
than a carat in weight.
''This ring" she continued to the
clerk, 'you ask $40 for. You say there
is an actual market value for pure white
stones of this weight, and that 40 re-
taller can sell it for less and still make a
profit.
GLOW isit, then,"s continued, "that
at -" and she mentioned the name of
awell known place near Madison square,
''they offer ne IL ring with exactly this
size of stone for $s5? The diamond
was warranted absolutely pure and flaw
less and to weigh a carat"
The clerk to whom this question was
put wore a peculiar smile as he uttered
the two words ''jewelry fences"
Then he went on toexplain to thelady
certain facts that very few New Workers
know of, but which have been very ap-
parent to reputable jewellers for several
years past.
ADVANTAGES OF II FENCES"
There are half a dozen large and fash
ionable jewelry stores on Broadway and
the adjoining streets between Tenth
and Thirty-ffth streets which are moth
ing more than repositories for stolen ar
ticles of jewelry. These people, Of
course, preserve Il respectable appear
ance, even toward their questionable
patrons.
These fashionable ~''fences" do an i'm
mense business, amounting to thousands
of dollars every month, in this way.
They have a prestige over the ordinary
pawnshop, for the reason that in nine
cases out of ten they buy the goods out
right, and pay 20 per cent. nearer the
market value than the others. OF
course many of them do a legitimate
pawn business, and in this way also are
enabled to sell their wares at much lower
figures than the square up and down
jeweler.
But the main attraction th@se places
have for the gentlemanly sneak thief is
the protection they offer against detec-
ton by the police. The latter in hunt
ing for stolen goods seldom If ever in
wade those places, whose great show of
plate glass, hundreds of thousands of
dollars worth of stock and outward ef-
fusion Of rcspectability seem to present
perpetual barriers against fraud of any
description.
Said a well known jewelerin speaking
of the matter:
"There are scores of robberies COM
mitted every day by sneak thieves Of
which the public never hear at all.
These robberies of jewelry are reported
to the police, but they seldom get into
the newspapers, as it is the policy of the
men at headquarters to place the thieves
on their guard by announcing the fact
that the police are close on their trail"
WHAT INSPECTOR ByRNEs SAYS.
When Inspector Byrnes was asked
about these ~.'fences' he said that while
they may exist he has serious doubts Of
their doing a regular business of this
kind to any magnitude.
Several times, in tracing up stolen
jewelry, especially diamonds, he said his
detectives have found the goods in one
of-thor -ew'oll Broadway stores. When
the proprietor in n instance was asked
how he came by a certain pair of dia-
mnnd solitaire earrings worth between
5000 and 81 200 he said that a well
dressed, middle aged nan brought them
to the place. He was attired in deep
mourning, and explained in doleful
voice that his wife had but recently
died and that he had no use at all for
the earrings. He asked if the proprietor
would purchase them, and on being
answered in the affirmative asked how
much he would give. On being told
500 he handed them over, and on getting
the money left the store and that was
the last seen of him.
This was the proprietor's story. How
much truth there was in it the police
could only conjecture.
In another instance where the police
were hunting for several ladies' rings, a
diamond lacepin and a diamond brace
let, they were found in a Broadway jew
elry store a few blocks above Madison
square.
The person who sold them, according
to the proprietor, was a young lady who
had every appearance of responsibility
and refinement. She told the owner that
she was an English woman recently ar.
rived in the country. Her funds had
become exhausted sooner than she ex-
pected, and it was positively necessary
for her to begin a western journey at
once. 1t would take her some time to
communicate with her friends at home
to obtain the necessary money. So she
had no other alternative but to realize on
her jewels. She Was given 81, 200 for the
jewels, but although she was particular
to request the proprietor to keep them,
as she wished to redeem them, she had
never shown up.
The police subsequently discovered that
the woman was under the protection of
a well known thief, who had committed
the burglary.-New York Journal.
The Greendale Oak.