Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-16
TROUBLES0F PAWN|NG
Brokers Lose Much Money
Dealing With Thieves.
WERE NOT HEIRL0OMS
JEWELS HANDED OVER TO FAIR
NEW YORK HEIRESS.
Young's Escape From Death Chair Full
fls Prediction-Horse Tipsters
Are a Nuisance.
NOT HEIRL0OMS
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
NEW YORK, February 10. 1908.
Last week couple of headquarters detec-
tives set out together to ransack the pawn
shops Of New York for $1,000 worth Of
Jeweary which the valet Of couple Of Ger
man noblemen, tourists stopping at one Of
the big hotels, had stolen and then disap-
peared. The detectives found all Of the
stolen jewelry in one prominent pawn-brok-
irg establishment. The valet had obtained
$500 on the property. But the pawnbroker
had to surrender all Of the jewelry to the
detectives, to be restored to the German
noblemen. The money lender. of course.
go nothing in return. He simply had to
hold the bag" as the saying Is.
Occurrences of this sort have tendency
to relax the general resentment over the
high rates Of interest exacted by the pawn
brokers Of New York. The loan brokers
over this way lose a lot of money through
their unavoidable dealings with thieves. 1t
Is estimated that the pawnbrokers Of Man.
haitian were something like 100000 out of
pocket last year through their enforced sur
rendering Of jewelry. and other articles Of
value on which they had loaned large
amounts to thieves.
There ts, Of course, no remedy. The
from persons who visit their establishments
for loans, and the top-notch thieves who
unload their loot upon the pawnbrokers are
nearly always finished chaps who thor
oughly understand how to conduct their
transactions with the money lenders with
out causing suspicion. One pawnbroking
firm alone had to give up stolen pledges last
year upon which $50, 600 had been loaned
to the thieves. The paWnbrokerS make no
fuss over these incidents.
- E,.ks1;&x~ - Vsohs--
They are part Of the game, and the money
lenders appreciate the futility of kicking.
In two or three Of the larger pawnshops the
employees who attend to the money-lending
end Of the business have made themselves
familiar. by a careful study of the rogues'
gallery at police headquarters, with the
countenances of all Of the noted thieves
whose photographs file, and they
are thus enabled to save a lot of money
for their firms, as we'll as to render valuable
aid to the police.
But "uncharted" thieves are coming to the
fore at the time in New York, and SO rap
idly that 1t is virtually impossible to keep
track Of them A few months ago jew
elry thief, whose pictured countenance Is
on file in most Of the rogues' galleries Of
this country and Europe, entered famous
42d street pawnshop and produced very
valuable diamond heart with an enormous
pigeons blood ruby in the center. The
money. or he would have taken the piece
Of loot to a fence" who would have taken
the cluster Of gems apart and got rid Of it
piecemeal, or had 1t made up in some other
form for disposal.
The man behind the pawnbroker's coun-
ter instantly recognized the face of the
thief, and he touched a button communicate
ing with the nearest police station with his
foot as he took the jewel from the thief for
examination. He was still examining the
bauble when, in something like three min
utes after the button had been pressed,
couple Of plain-clothes cops from the sta
ton walked in and nailed the thief.
The diamond heart had been stolen from
the home Of a well-known society woman,
while her home was burning, by thief in
the uniform Of member Of the insurance
patrol. These fire thieves, by the way, have
been amazingly successful during the past
year or so in the manipulation Of their
clever graft.
The headquarters of pack Of them was
broken up by the police only short time
ago. They had q registering apparatus
communicating with fire headquarters
which told them of the location of all fires,
and they slipped on their insurance patrol
uniforms and made for all fires In promis-
ing neighborhoods for looting purposes.
Before their game was discovered many in
nocent firemen were put under the suspi-
cion of having engaged in thieving while
working about rich burning esta blishments.
Were Not Heirlooms.
few months ago French nobleman,
whose title of nobility, however, only dated
back to the second empire, was married to
a wealthy young New York woman. A
week or so before the marriage a great
TODD was made in the New York papers
over the arrival in New York from Paris
Of the noblemans father, who came to this
country for the express purpose of bestow-
ing the family heirlooms" upon the BRIDE
to-be.
The jewels, which were really very fine,
and all Of them set in antique settings, were
contained in a curious old leather case,
bound with silver-a sixteenth century at
fair. number of Travelled Americans who
were present when the old French father Of
the groom tremendously handed the case
of Jewels to the New York heiress concealed
their smiles when they caught sight Of the
curious-looking old silver-bound leather
case.
They had seen the case for sale for sew
eral years In the establishment Of a we'll
known Paris antiquarian. Now the news
comes from France that the jeweler who
fashioned and sold the family heirlooms."
providing not only the jewels, but the
antique settings. is suing the French noble
man and his father for their value. Thus
the cat is out of the bag-the jewels were
not "heirlooms' at all. but were simply
made to order ION spec" for the effect of
the presentation.
At the time Of the marriage it was stated
that the bridegroom's father was a "wel-
KNOWN HdTlS DduhST. II IlOW OcNclOpS IUdt
instead Of banker he Is simply we'll
known usurer, who has been notorious for
good many years for the "reminiscences
with which he has put the screws upon ex-
travagant young officers Of the French
army who have fallen into his tolls Muir
der will out
An Exploded Theory.
People who cling to the old-fashioned no.
ton that anybody who wants work is en-
titled to work If he or she can get work,
without being interfered with by strikers,
have had a good chance to see their theory
exploded over here during the past week or
So Something like 1900 young women,
waist-makers, most of whom were en-
ployed on Blocker street, struck for higher
wages a couple of weeks ago.
They declined their employers combined
offer to arbitrate, claiming that there was
nothing to arbitrate Furthermore, they
announced that If their demands were not
acceded to the employers against whom
they had struck would have to shut down
shop-that they would not be able to put
any new employees to work. The young wo-
men on strike have been making their
threat good, too. They stationed the
strongest and most determined young wo-
men Of their ranks at all the corner ap-
proaches leading to the shops from which
they had walked out. and instructed these
scouts to permit no strengthening wo-