The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-06-23
PAWNBROKERS YICTIMIZED
Il PECULIAR IND USTRY BROUGHT
10 LIGHT ar a TRIAL.

Jewellers Said to Employ Persons to
Pledge Diamonds with PawnbroAers
Other Agents Sell the Pawn Tickets
Women "Diamond Flyers" Have
Inverted Coachmen.
There is a peculiar business carried
on in this city about which the general
public knows very little. Some start
ling facts concerning it were brought
out in the Court of General Sessions
during the past week at the trial of a
man who had been indicted on a charge
of receiving stolen goods. The goods
were diamonds Several witnesses
testified that many Maiden lane jewel
lers did wholesale trade with the
pawnshops in various parts of the
country, pledging diamonds for sums
much in advance of the original cost of
the jewelry, thus realizing handsome
profit. Some of the witnesses who ap-
peared in the trial said that while they
resided in east side tenements they car
ried on business of six or seven hun
dred thousand dollars a year. One man
said he lived with his wife and four
children on the fifth floor ia tene-
ment house on Essex street, the family
occupying two rooms. Under cross-ex-
animation he said that the only furni-
ture consisted of beds and bedding, a
wooden table, and three wooden chairs.
AT meal times his oldest son sat upon
q soap box, while two of the children
stood up. The three chairs were special
ly reserved for the father, mother, and
eldest daughter. The witness added
that every night when he returned to
his home he carried a satchel contain
ing diamonds valued at eighty or nine
ty thousand dollars. On the following
day he usally disposed of 5000 worth of
jewels, making a profit of $40 for that
day. He usually earned $3.50 a week, he
said. Notwithstanding this fact, the
family managed to get along on 50 a
week. and any amount over that which
he earned during he week was put into
a bank. He said that he had accounts
with eleven different banks in this city,
and that he was probably worth, over
and above all his debts, 100000. This
witness said that when business was
dull during the summer months he was
in the habit of pawning jewelry at the
rate of raising $4,000 every week. He
often made, more money by pawning
the jewelry than he did by selling it.
The majority of the other witnesses
testified that they travelled around the
country visiting the big cities and
pledging goods in various pawnshops.
Now and then they made a sale on a
railroad train or in a hotel, but the
principal part of their business was to
pawn diamonds. They were in the hab-
it of getting the diamonds on credit
from Maiden lane jewellers, who knew
that as soon as the ,jewelry was pledged
they would realize ready cash from the
men who pledged The goods.
A detective who said he was in the
employ of the pawnbrokers of this city
furnished information of more start
ling nature. He said that many dia-
mond dealers engaged in business In
Maiden lane employed women especial
ly for the purpose of pawning diamonds.
These women were fashionably dressed
and drove about the city in carriages
similar to those in use by New York s
wealthiest people. They had their
coachmen and footmen in livery, and
some of them travelled about town es-
corted by a maid servant. These wo-
men would visit the Maiden lane jewel
nv house and there bedeck themselves
with diamonds. The detective knew
of one woman employed in the pawn
q oiYO f
$500 diamonds in her ears, then place
a diamond necklace about her throat
put on four or five valuable diamond
rings, and complete the display Of jew
elry with a diamond sunburst or pend
ant pinned to her corsage. This woman
usually carried on her person about
900 worth of jewels.
She would drive to a pawnshop and
there tell story of hard luck. She
would give the name and address of
some person well known in society, and
then ask for a large loan on her jewels,
saying she intended to redeem the jew
elry as soon as she received remit
lance from her attorney, which, she
would add, would be in a few days. The
pawnbroker, being familiar with the
name given, and knowing the jewelry
to be Of good value, would advance a
sum equal to or a little more than the
cost of the diamonds After thus dis
posing of the jewelry, this woman
would return to her employer in Maiden
lane and hand over the amount real
lied The pawn tickets were afterward
sold by agents specially employed for
that purpose. Some of these agents
were women, the detective said, but
the majority were men. The women
who did this business were known in
the trade as diamond flyers. Although
many of the pswnbrokers knew that
the jewels came directly from the
wholesale dealer in Maiden lane, they
were willing to advance good sum on
the jewelry, because they knew that
some one who might buy the pawn
tickets would redeem the goods and
pay the interest on the loan made.
During the past year the detective
said, about thirty diamond flyers had
been sent out from jewelry houses in
the New York jewelry district. They
worked in Boston, Philadelphia, Gin
cinnati, Chicago and st. Louis. Some of
them went to Washington, D. c., where
they made the acquaintance of women
whose husbands were members of the
diplomatic corps. After making the &C