The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-23
OLD MAIDEN LANE.
STORIES FROM THE GREATEST
JEWEIRY CENTER IN THE
WORLD.

Rings in a Contribution BOx-The
Last Robbery in the lane Was
Twenty-Three Years AEO-A Boys
Find of n Package OF Gems.
From the Pittsburg Dispatch.
New York. Aug. l5.-stephen NJ. Girls
void. ex-senator, bank president and dia-
mond wholesaler, has been forty years
in business in Maiden Lane. and knows
its history like book. He is a plump
and benevolent gentleman who enjoys life
and has hosts of friends far and near as
BELTS such a veteran in politics and bust
ness. 1t was he who, sitting at ease in
his shirt sleeves in his little office. told
me that within a few yards of where we
were talking is centered the largest dia>
mond and jewelry trade in the world.
A diamond wholesaler, by the way, is
apt to have plenty of time to talk. If he
makes a sale 1t isn't a little affair OF
"ca-a-sh, % cents" but a matter of some
thousands and he needn't worry If he
doesn't make another until next day.
"what?" said I, larger than Paris or
London?"
-
other city in the world; more. concen>
trated; taps richer market"
How about Amsterdam"
amsterdam is not a great jewelry CEN
ter, 1t is merely headquarters for the dia-
mond cutting trade. 1t exports the cut
stones. They are imported into, America
by our dealers and made up by jewellers
q to
that our American art jewellers are the
finest in the world. No, there's not so
very much diamond cutting from the orig
inal stones done here. a diamond in the
rough has a dark look like pebble. Some
roUh diamonds are imported and cut in
the United States. You may remember
lot of Amsterdam cutters coming over a
year or so ago to go into the business
Most of 'em were detained at Ellis Island
and sent back under the contract labor
law. Cutting in this country is mainly
confined to recutung stones that are inn
perfect or have gone out of style"
Have you any idea" l asked, about
the amount or value of the jewelry kept
in stock in this region?"
Neither you nor 1 nor anybody else can
do more than guess at it, said Mr.. Girls
void; so you might as well call it 'un-
counted millions and let it go at that
y
there was a robbery in the jewelry district
excepting of course, defalcations. Ro-
mances Of the street? Most of them date
back more than goo years, 1 guess, when
this narrow, crooked little street got it's
name Of Maiden Lane from the red
checked Dutch girls that strolled here at
dusk with their lovers. If the gems that
came here could tell their stories, though
-ah, that would be different. l remember
how, in the stormy days before the war
Henry Ward Beecher twice led a comely
slave girl on the platform of Plymouth
church and asked for contribution TO
buy her from her master. Each time, when
the basket came back, there were a. dozen
or so rings in il. flung there by emotional
women who made their most precious sac
rifice for a sister in chains. Such rings were
sold for the cause.
Il remember, too. as an incident of a
totally different character when one day
a big diamond that a man was working
on, over in John street. few out of a third
story window They had a great diamond
hunt then and there in the dirt Of the
street and a perfect swarm of people
were in it. The owner got his stone
back all right. though. Then there was
the time when the newsboy found a big
packages of diamonds in the street. Let's
see. / think they were taken into Eph-
rain Johnson's store. He can tell you
all about that"
Mr. Johnson is a keen-eyed old gentle
man who has been in the Lane about as
long as Senator Griswold himself AL
though retailer. the combination of hot
weather and the girl who makes her
young man buy her a bicycle instead Of
an engagement ring left him plenty OF
time 70 ten me about the newsboy's find
lie came in here" said Mr.. Johnson.