The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-05-13
TRIALS OF DIAMOND DRUMMER
How One Fancied He Was Followed
bv q Would ba-thief.

mat was most ingenious gnOme
story Shat came out Of Montana the other
day about a travelling jewelry saIesu1an's
! trunk containing $4,000 worth of dia-
mOnds having been neatly lifted throuEl
the window Of a baggage room in small
I Town IN the dead Of night by a gang Of
/ professional burglars remarked a well
known diamond drummer who was in
town last week. THE impossibility or.
rather, the imbecility of the tale has so
many facets that they needn't all be held
! 70 the light, and so III only mention two
looming fictions of the fake that make
all the rest ridiculous
NO travelling jewelry salesman carries
any S200,e0 worth of samples along with
him IN this Or any other country, nor
II anything like $4,000 worth. and those
that he does carry along with him he
doesn't trust TO any trunk He packs
them in long. specially contrived wal
let, and they are always as close to his
person as his clothing day and night He
! rarely travels in a sleeping car if he can
possibly avoid II. but when ne does. the
wallet containing his samples is right
! there so that he can feel Of IL every time
! he energies from a cat nap, and he sleeps
With one eye open and the one partially
! closed in such circumstances. at that
instances in which travelling diamond
| statesmen have been robbed BY adroit
| thieves who have skillfully followed them
| from headquarters and watched their
| chance have been extremely rare. and in
/ all cases such thieves. clever as they
| were. have been apprehended by agents of
the American jewelers. Protective asso-
I citation. Nevertheless. diamond drum
mers are constantly alert. as I say. for
/ attempts az robbery, and when they are
in the western country they drop several
/ pounds a day, / might say, for fear Of
| sudden holdups by bold, bad persons
/ with guns
The first trip out that I made for the
/ firm that has had my valuable services
for the past twenty years afforded me an
/ experience that has caused me a lot Of
/ inward chuckling ever since. Ny wallet
( contained about $4,000 worth of unset
/ diamonds. and the way 1 did clutch those
/ gems 20 my bosom was surely a caution.
( Ny territory was the southern country
| this side of the Mississippi and every
/ time nodded off / dreamed Of tall south
l ern TOuntaineers who tucked their trous-
/ erS into their boots and shot straight
I This, in fact was the type Of brigand 7
( had mostly in mind, so that. about a week
/ erably mystified to find that a smooth
/ looking. well-dressed individual appeared
/ TO be paying whole lot OF attention TO
/ my movements.
He wasn't bit ostentatious about it,
/ but the fact began to bear in upon me
/ that he was certainly taking in my route
/ throughout Tennessee and Kentucky
/ pretty thoroughly and travelling on the
! same trains and cars and stopping at the
same hotels, and seeming to be a heaD Of
| a Nemesis. as IL were. of mine, and the
! fact got on my nerves when. having first
/ observed it. ] started to look for con-
( tinuance Of the game tried TO reason
/ ii out that II was all wrong and that
probably he was drummer in some other
line. whose route happened to be identical
/ with nine; but. somehow or other ne
] didn't nave the look or bearing Of a com
| mercial traveller, and I couldn't satisfy
/ myself on that point.
| He held himself very much aloOf both
/ on the trains on which we travelled and
! at the hotels at which We stopped. never
/ engaging anybody IN friendly converse
ton, as IS the manner Of touring sales
! men; and when 7 began 20 suspect him
/ ] often caught him sizing me uD out Of
the tail of his eye in a manner that
/ caused me 70 read a solitary line I'm my
newspaper about hundred times. After
] mad been IN the constant view OF this
person Tor straight week I became con-
| WINGED that he was in sore need Of bout
$500 worth Of nice blue-white diamonds
and that my package would do as well
as anybody else's.
at the end Of the week was begin
l ming 70 inquire as 10 the best nerve ton
les for men laborin gunder severe strains
and never went to bed that I didn't have
/ q nightmare in which this suaVe, quiet
| smooth faced individual seemed TO b.
/ about twelve feet high and possessed oil
/ more gun hands than an octopus has ten
/ tacles. One evening j was taking supper
I in q NASHVILLE hotel. ana my bette mOlr
as he had become. was seated at table
! directly in front Of me. calmly reading
/ newspaper as he ate, and every once %
| awhile looking Up abstractedly and re-
garding me fin a dreamy sort Of way
| looking right through me. as il were.
! couldn't stand IL any longer / rOs'
from my table, walked over 20 his, took (
] seat and looked him square in the eye.
Ny friend said J. I don't exactly
know whether or not I've been dreaming
a good deal lately. out il seems TO M
that I've seen more Of yea within IN
/ past ten days than 1 have Of my Owl