The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-08-15

cisco, where they located their man without trouble. He received the de-
 tective as a business man would receive
 good customer. The dealer showed
 the detectives into a room at his home
 on Duncan street, which apparently
 had been set aside and fixed up for the
 purpose of displaying to the best pos
 sible advantage the fruits of his ven
 ture into the Forbidden City of the
 Manchu dynasty. He showed the arti-
 cles with an exhibition of much pride
 and self-satisfaction, and seemed to be
 proud when he acknowledged that they
 had been obtained in the Forbidden
 City. He also admitted of having in his pos
 session the above mentioned imperial
 jade stones, which, however, he said,
 he had deposited in safe deposit vault
 in San Francisco for safe keeping. I'd be afraid to keep valuable thing
 like that around the house." he said.
 The dealer in order to prove to prospec- tive buyers that the stones were genu-
 inc, had number of photographs ta>
 ken of them, which he exhibited to the
 governments detectives, saying:
 "Ain't they beauts?"
 When informed that the Chinese gov
 ernment demanded the surrender of
 the property, on the ground that they
 had been stolen, the dealer, in much injured tone, said: If they want these
 stones, they'll have to buy them, and
 pay for them, too. That's the only way
 they can get them. They're my prop erty and don't see why should be
 made to give them up, when others are
 allowed to keep their swag.'
 The detective saw that the holder
 would not voluntarily part with his
 Chinese treasures. and they decided to confer with the Chinese consul at San
 Francisco in the matter This official
 was only too glad to at once seek an in- tervieW with the man, hoping to secure
 his august masters treasure without
 much difficulty and to be duly recog-
 nized for his faithful service. But he had figured without his host. The deal- CT during the whole transaction never lost sight of the business end of the matter. He received the Chinese consul with great ceremony and courtesy. The latter stated the purpose of his visit and desired to know after some preliminary parleying If one thousand dollars would be sufficient to release the jades. The dealer knowingly looked at the Chinaman and said: Make it fif- teen thousand dollars and I'll talk busi- ness; not cent less, see?"
 He also informed the much aston, ished celestial that ten of the tablets or
 stones were in the safe deposit ware
 house of Hilbert's Mercantile company,
 San Francisco, while three or four were in New York. He. however, declined to
 divulge the New York hiding place of the stones, Being requested to do so. the dealer placed in his hands set of photographs of the jades for the pur- pose of submitting them to the Chinese minister at Washington. and asking for l Instructions what to do in the matter. Upon receipt of the photographs the Chinese envoy at the capital went to see Secretary Hay and again consulted with him in the premises. Perceivlng that if the holder had smuggled the ar ticies into this country upon his return | from China, they could be seized and possession gained thereof without much difficulty, the state department commu lnicated with the collector of customs at San Francisco on the subject, and re- quested him to investigate. The deal- l CT, however, apparently knew what he was about. as, according to the state ment of the collector at San Francis leo, he paid almost two hundred dollars tduty on miscellaneous assortment of which he brought with Ihim when he returned from China about two years ago on a government transport.
 I It remains to be seen whether this
 man will be able to hold on to the stones or whether he will be forced to yield to the combined pressure of the state and treasury departments and the Chinese minister and surrender the stones to their rightful owners. The | loss of this highly valued treasure of l the Chinese emperor was discovered by Chinese court officials immediately af-
 ter the troops of occupation had retired from the Forbidden City. and the diplo-
 matic and consular representatives of
 China in all parts of the world and all
 foreign chancelleries were at once made acquainted with the theft and commis- stoned to locate and recover the pre- cious stones. While Wu Ting-fang rep resented his country at the capital he received a number of letters informing him of the fact that part of the imper- 1 ial jade had been brought to this coun- Il try. These letters, however, did not give any directions as to where to find the treasure or anything definite about | their possessor. He communicated with MT. Hay and invoked his assis- tance. MT. Wu's unexpected and sud- \ den recall prevented him from comply ling with the command of his imperial master to recover the jade, and he was consequently obliged to leave the mat ter as an unfinished task to his success
 sor, the present Chinese minister. As
 soon as Sir Liang had taken charge of laffairs at his Washington post, he took up the thread where MT. Wu dropped \ 1t, with the aforementioned result. I The jade is not much known in Eu- rope or America, but is highly prized in the east. Jade is composed of silica, alumina and oxide of iron. Its tint Is sometimes milky white, sometimes a kind of olive-green. Yet the Hindus <.t-s. .5d . g-.< as4f ttr,la