Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1905-06-21
HID GOLD IN HIS HAIR.
Trick of Workman That Turn ed Him
Many a Dishonest
Penny.

Many Dishonest
Penny.
Did you ever give thought to the
rarity of dishonesty among jewelry
artisans? Did you ever realize the in
frequency of reports of thefts by them?'
queried an aged manufacturing jeweler.
according to the jewelers. Circular
Weekly
1T really seems that the habitual
care for his filings, clippings and the
like is the experienced artisans only
consciousness of value; otherwise the
gold to him is but commodity to be
modelled into thing of beauty, not az
object of his covetousness or greed
The older the artisan the more firm
ly fixed. is this habit AS rule, it is
only the younger aspirants, and but few
of these, who succumb to temptation
once started on downward course. how.
ever, their own self-consciousness is
most frequently their own accuser tc
shopmate or foreman.
Many years ago in a Newark shor
where mostly solid filed work was made
a seasoned workman observed a quaint
habit in a journeyman but recently 'ou,
OF his time who was seated at an ad-
joining bench The latter had very dark
hair, wore it long, and Git was in the
days of bears grease and hair OLD kept
it we'll oiled. He had a habit of push
ing his fingers through his long hair
as II to keep it from falling over his
eyes; it was further noticed that prior
to each such action he dabbed his fin
gers in the bench-pan, wherein had
fallen the filings from his work The
habit was not INDUCED in when away
from his seat
The foreman, on an occasion when at
his back, examining piece of his work,
noticed the sparkle of gold in his hair;
mentioning it casually to an older bench
fellow when the latter came to the fore
man for stock, the quaint habit was de-
tailed by the older man, and set the
foreman to thinking He called at the
boarding house where the young artisan
resided, and, being acquainted with the
proprietor, learned that the young man
upon coming to midday dinner and to
his evening meal invariably sought his
room first.
BY reason of his freshly bathed face
and hands and his well groomed, oily
hair when he appeared at table he was
accounted dandy; but one popularity
was that of his instruction to the maid
who made up his room that she must
not dispose of his wash water, as he
would attend to that himself.
1T was discovered that he thoroughly
washed his hair before each meal, dried
it and oiled it, and that with each such
operation he deposited in his wash bowl
from one to two pennyweights of 1S
carat gold filings, which had from five
to IL hours in which to settle before his
wash water was decanted therefrom.
1t was clear steal of three penny
weights, or at least $3.50, for each of
his six working days.
at is needless to say that after this
discovery his silent partnership, with a
part of the profits, forthwith ceased.
Another one of the rare cases was
that of youth whose bench talk about
his previous evenings amusements in
Dictated an expenditure beyond his pro-
ductive capacity as a journeyman. His
visits, during shop hours, to the retir-
ing room, were so methodical as to
arouse curiosity. 1t was found that with
pair of pocket scales he balanced
against paper cornucopia of gold fl
ings an equal weight of brass filings,
which he deposited in another paper
cornucopia; after his return to his seat
he scattered the brass filings in his
benchpan; this being mixed with the
larger volume of gold filings in his pan
was finally passed to the foreman as all
gold filings, so that his weights tailed
with what would be expected from him.
But the cornucopia of gold filings was
flched by him from his employers.
This would-be shrewd ones horn of
plenty also was effectually crushed out
of existence.
After all, these two instances being
exceptional is why l mention them, .
and the aged jeweler concluded, with a
twinkle of his eye; Il have faith in my
men, likewise in the adage that Tt does
no harm to watch an honest man, and a
thief should be ever watched
Italy's Eggs.
Every year Italv exports $4,000. O00
iozens OF eggs.