The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-23


land showed tat young man over there
lot of diamonds loosely wrapped up.
" Can sell these2' he asked.
" oh, I don't know, said the clerk
Would 10 cents do?'
THE boy said he guessed so, and the
clerk came down into the basement where
I was, and told me about 1t. 1 told the
boy his find was valuable, that I'd keep
1t and advertise for an owner and send
for him when the owner showed up. took
his address-up in Cherry street, where
he lived with his brother. 1t wasn't an
hour before the brother came in, a big,
black-browed fellow who looked as if he
might have a stiletto about him some
where, and tried to bulldoze me into Civ
ing up the stones That wasn't anything,
though. Next day about 20 of the owners
came in answer to the advertisement. An
exquisite gentleman with gloves and all
that sort of thing laid his case on the
counter and told me he was sure they were
his. But of course, he slipped up when
began to cross question him. Said they
were taken out of a pin. No USE said I;
that isn't the number Then along came
a flouncing fine lady who'd lost three dia-
monds uptown, and she was sure these
must be the ones. I was sure they weren't
So it went. A pretty big share of the town
seemed to have been losing diamonds.
Three or four went by. the big
Italian getting madden every hour, and
l was Just about ready to give 1t up and
surrender them to the clerk of a court
when one day a jeweler in business on
the lane walked in and claimed them.
He'd lost them in John street, near the
curb where the boy picked them up. He
had EN- made up in a package wrapped
up in diamond paper, the weight marked
on the outside He had a memorandum
a Of
1873 of the stones and he was going to
get them set in jewelry in John street
when they were lost. So we had the
owner and the boy and a lawyer met
down in the basement and they pow
vowed awhile and 1 gave the diamonds
TO the owner, and the lawyer got $25 and
the boy 500 and everybody took a re-
ceipt from everybody else and all was
serene"
do many family jewels and heirlooms
come to the street," 1 asked
Not directly. though I have had
preacher come down to my store with
jewelry to sell from some old lady in
his congregation who'd outgrown the
frivolitdes of this life. No, the pawn
brokers will pay more for old jewelry than
a jeweler viii. Why? Because the Jew
eler has to put it away and lose interest
on it until it's sold, while the pawn
broker makes his % per cent. if it's re-
deemed If it isn't, he can at least sell
even, so as to lose nothing The brokers
always have some one to sell to, and the
more they loan on a watch or ring the
more interest they get if it's redeemed.
That's why man usually gets left when
he buys unredeemed pledges from
pawnbroker, thinking he's getting a bar
gain; or gives some poor devil few dol
lars for pawn ticket he can't redeem.
Chances are the few dollars he gives
for the ticket and the interest money
are about what he pays more than the
thing is WORTH
The last robbery in the jewelry district
took from the young firm of Henderson
& Winter every dollar they had in the
world They were Scotchmen, only eight
months in the business, when, one fine
morning in October, 1873 they came down
TO their Office, then in Fulton street, to
find that thieves had made clean sweep
there.
They didn't leave 5 cents worth of stuff
in the place" said Mr.. Henderson to me.
The goods were not the kind we could
trace either. 1t was soon after the war,
the last of the flush times. Diamonds
weren't as common then as now, the South
African diamond field hadn't been discov-
cred. and everybody was wearing snowy
heavy gold rings. We had a great many
of them in stock, besides a lot of bullion
and coined gold ready to make up, and
it all went into the melting pot together.
None of the men were caught, though one
of them years afterward was fatally hurt
on the railroad and made a confession
of this and other misdeeds. There were
a great many robberies about that time.
but there has never been any since, that
Is. rot in the jewelry district"
The thieves don't dare come down this
way" said Mr.. Winter. the junior part
ner, famous "deadline" drawn across the
city at Fulton street, south of which no
known crook was allowed to show his
face.
" 'Twouldn't be Of any use to them TO
come" said Mr.. Henderson. I'VE don't
depend on the police. There Is a gang
Of night watchmen-a foreman and half
a dozen men on this single block alone.
every night Besides that, there's the