The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-03
THIEvERY IN HIGH SOCIETY.
Detectives Now Necessary at Every
Party-An Exile For Pearl.


From the New York Press.
If you must wear diamonds to dances,
you are safer, on the whole, in going to
an East Side Spiel rather than to a
Waldorf cotillion, especially IL no we'll
disguised detectives are TO shadow you
about vigilanly The nights are over
when it's perilous to visit the Bowery
with more than money enough to pay for
your hat check. But the reign of rob-
berries at the dancing and dining func-
tons of high society is now in full career.
Two women lost rich pieces of jewelry at
the Bradley Martin ball. where there was
a regiment of detectives, where windows
were barricaded, and where the street
was policed by an increased force of pa
trolmen. Perhaps others there lost val
uables; these two women happen to have
spoken of their loss to some mutual friend
so II became better known.
one of the women was Mrs. Fritsch and
the other Mrs. Harold +. Hadden. Both
took the precaution before going not only
to pin on tightly the jewelry afterwards
lost. but to sew It on. Mrs. Fritsch lost
a diamond pendant so fixed 70 the breast
of her dress. 1t was there until she got
in the crush at the door, where the guests
were waiting for carriages to return home.
t9eloIe reaching nome Sne saw lnat II sffd0
been ripped Off. Mrs. Hadden lost her
pearl and diamond brooch under similar
circumstances. Little talk has been made
of either loss because such unreported
incidents at fashionable entertainments
are not frequent.
Many remember the misfortune which
befell Mrs. Paran Stevens at her own dim
ner party. She had just bought SPLEEN
did pearl and she passed 1t down the table
among the guests. Each examined it In
turn, just In that story in one of the
school readers. And just as In the school,
reader story, II didn't come back. How
ever, Mrs. Stevens did not follow the ex-
ample of the host on that occasion, and
have everybody searched. She neither
cared nor dared to affront all her guests
to find the guilty one. 1t was traced TO a
certain young man of Knickerbocker FAM
lily, whose name is known, but which with
out proof of his culpability Il would not be
permissible to mention. This much may
he said, nevertheless-he soon went 10
Paris, and never has been on familiar
terms with any one in New York society
since that night.
Just a few months ago, at Tuxedo a
woman was dancing In a quadrille, and
wore at the front of her gown a diamond
star. II was greatly admired. One mo-
ment as she stepped forward in the fig
| ure, she saw it still shining on her breast;
| the next, as she stepped back to her place,
IL was gone. and no sign of 1t anywhere on
| the floor. She received the condolences Of
her set-but no part Of her diamond star
from that time to this. Evidence of the
same sort in proof Of the pilfering habits
of the members of New York society was
| furnished the other day when Clarence An
drews refused to keep his rooms or pay
| for his unexpired lease at the Calumet
his apartments.
In this and other cases here cited the
blame could not be laid upon the SER
wants. Usually there are no servants
| around when the thefts take place. At a
| luncheon given by a woman up town to
some other women there was no chance
for a servant to come near the pocket.
| where one of the guests kept purse with
| five ten-dollar bills In IL. Yet as this wo-
man went down the steps to the street
she found, on opening her purse to look
| for cab fare, that four of the ten-dollar
bills were missing. A search of the house
was made. but of course, without recoy-
| ering the notes.
Such experiences are known to every one
| who goes much into swell society. If they
DER any strange insight into human ma
| ture Il Is that the impulse to steal is not
confined 70 those who are distressed for
money and the elementary necessities. Re-
| Gently woman who lives near the aven-
ne in the fifties. let her guests at lunch
con (all women) look at black pearl that
| her husband ndd DOuSnt dDfodQ. IL came
| back to her in due course, and she placed
| II In its case on the mantel. After their
| departure she went to get it, IL wasn't
there She advertised, Offering a reward
for Its return. In a day or two the mail
| brought her an anonymous note, written
in a style that bespoke cultivated per-
son, requesting that she mention in her
advertisement what the black pearl was
worth to herl
Such untoward episodes as the ones de-
| scribed here have had the effect of devei-
oping a new tax upon the givers of enter
| tainments--that of hiring detectives TO look
out that the guests don't steal everything
| in sight. It Is endeavored to have these
watchers as inconspicuous as possible; but
! BY this time people who go out much may
| be sure that some suspicious eye Is al
WAYS upon them. Next thing you hear
may be a society for the suppression OF
kieptomania In the -Four Hundred. But
meanwhile, unless you take along body
| guard A Is safer to display jewels In a
Bowery spelling hall than in the cotil-
lions OF the rich.
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