Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-26
SOMETIMES IT'S TRUE

Il nave heard quite few persons, since
the beginning of the recent Strong-yohs
iraeas, express the opinion that the whole
thihg IS fake got up for the purpose of
advertising the actress" said a Chica go
newspaper man. Particular skepticism is
| expressed with reference to the tremendous
given value of the diamonds involved in the
| case. Four hundred thousand dollars worth
| OF 9eweIry is pretty stiff thing to believe
| IN put, since a certain incident that ham
| peneo out in Chicago about a dozen years
| ago, haven't felt disposed to question any
Oh these stories about actresses and their
JeWeiry without being in possession of the
exact facts in the cases.
| certain petite soubrette, born, reared
ana Wen beloved in Washington where she
| nau an OF her earliest successes, was play
ing In Chicago with Gus Heege, the late
SWeolsh comedian, in piece called 'Yon
I uonsoh. She was stopping at the fremont
l1 ~ Well-known hotel at the corner
| OF randolph and Dearborn streets
one night, when the show had been per
| forming to fair business only in Chicago
| Tor couple of weeks, the various newspa
per per ounces IN Chicago received word over
the telephone that there was a bit Of an
Item to be had at the theater at which
fon fonson' was being given
| , reporters were hurried over there while
.he snow was In progress, and the manager
| u
washington soubrette, thoroughly charm
ing' and may add, a thoroughly good lit
tie woman.
=, She told them. offhand. and in perfect
~ matter-of-fact way, that she had found,
on " ashington street. on her way from the
fremont House to the theater on that even
ing, chamols bag filed with valuable dia-
monds.
The reporters turned to each other and
grinned. "i-N
Every girl her own press agent. is
what they probably said to themselves.
Inc soubrette caught their skepticai
SlahceS, put she wasn't offended in the
| least She related in great detail lust how
sne mad happened to find the channels bag.
~ was lying on little bank of snow in
tne 1ull glare Of an arc light. and she had
picked 1t up without any thought of the
value OF its contents. Then she had re-
traced her steps to the fremont House, to
sfatify her curiosity by opening the bag
ana examining its contents. When she saw
Inc Deautfui stones rolling out on the hotel
desk where she dumped them her amaze
ment was great. The hotel proprietor called
over to the desk a diamond salesman who
happened to be in the lobby, and asked him
ABOUT how much the stones were worth
Inc diamond man had looked them over
and had pronounced the jewels to be easily
worth $4,000. She had deposited the jew
els In the hotel safe, where, she said they
were at the disposition of the individual
Who could prove title to the property
Now, that looked pretty fishy, didn't it ?
or course, there was a new twist tn this
press agent story, the reporters commented
IN that, instead of losing a big quantity Of
diamonds the actress had found a bunch of
gntterers. But, nevertheless when thew left
the dressing room of the little Washington
actress they all slapped each other on the
pack over the fun of the thing and then
each man began to frame up funny story
about the affair for his paper
Before going to their offices to write their
stories however they went in body to
the fremont House, more for the fun of the
thing than for any other reason, and asked
the hotel proprietor to let them have a look
at the jewelry. The hotel proprietor hap
pened to be bit sore on the newspaper
men just at that time because they hadn't
been paying much attention to his hosiery
in the way of publishing interviews with
guests or his house, and SO he fatty refused
to exhibit the jewelry to them without an
order from the soubrette.
This convinced them that the story was
a fake, pure and simple, and so they re-
paired to their respective offices and
framed up their humorous stories about
the alleged find L was the night city edi-
tor Of my paper at the time and when
got hold of our mans story on the subject
OF the finding of the jewels by the actress,
whom had known in Washington from
her cnlidhood. was puzzled. 1t struck me
that she wasn't the sort of young woman
who would permit herself to be mixed up
IN fake of that character So l put on
my hat and coat and ran over to the Ire
mont House to see her about it. Two min
uteS after l talked with her l knew that
she was telling the truth-that she really
had found the jewels. When she took NE
down to the hotel deSk-it was then after
midnight-and had the clerk open the safe
and exhibited the magnificent collection of
diamonds to me, of course l had the edge
on the fellows who had covered the story
for the other papers. and who had written
about 1t as a pure fake. I went back to my
office and wrote the story seriously, saying
that the reporter of the paper to which 1
was attached had actually seen the dia-
uonds.
There was a great laugh over the story
as it was published by the other papers
the next morning. and my paper came in
for lot of guying on account of its 'credu-
lity.' On the following morning the other
papers claimed that if anybody-meaning
the representative of my paper-had seen
the jewels it was probable that they had
been borrowed from a paWnbrokng eStab-
lishment for the sole purpose of making
the fake good. On that same morning my
paper announced that the owner of the
Jewels, one of the most notable women in
Chicago, had telegraphed from her country
home that the jewelry belonged to her.
and that she would be in Chicago and at
the fremont House on that day to identify
and claim the diamonds.
IAN of the newspapers had reporters
down at the fremont House on that day
to await the arrival of the notable Chicago
society woman. The reporters were still in
credulous as to the story, and gambled with
would never come. Those that took the end
that she really would appear got long odds.
We'll, she did appear with her maid. 1t
was the maid who had dropped the chamois
bag containing the diamonds, on her hur-
ried way to join her mistress at the railroad
station.
The notable society woman had COM
plete and accurate list of the jewels the lost
channels bag had contained. and she read
and checked the list off in the presence Of
the hotel keeper. the actress and all of the
reporters. including myself
Il don't believe that l ever saw such an
utterly chagrned bunch of newspaper men
as those Chicago reporters were when the
hotel man took the chamois bag out of
his safe and calmly dumped the beautiful
contents thereof onto the hotel desk. Their
papers had to all eat dog as the saying is.
in the stories published about the affair on
the following morning. The show to which
the Washington soubrette was attached did
an immense business on the strength of the
outcome of the story for the remainder of
it's stay, and 1 believe the actress was
pretty well rewarded by the Chicago So
ciety woman besides.
II don't express positive convictions with
reference to any of these stories of dia-