The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-25
NEWYORK WOMEN ARE HONEST
THEIR CARELESSNESS GIVES
MANY CHANCES TO STEAL.
Made At the Expensive Restaurants Say
mat Rarely Il q valuable Left
Behind and Not RecOyered-Rinss Are
what Women Most OFTEN Forget.

mat Rarely Is q valuable Left
Behind and Not RecOYered-Rings Are
what Women Most OFTEN Forget,
All in all, the well to do New York
woman is honest, is the conclusion reached
| by maids in charge OF the dressing rooms
in some of the restaurants frequented by
women who wear handsome furs and fine
jewelry.
"In the eight years / have been here I
can't remember a dozen articles stolen
from this dressing ROOM the maid in a
Fifth avenue restaurant told a customer
who came hurrying back after a fur boa,
The owner took the fur from the maid
with q sigh Of relief inc the remark: Il
suppose women leave all sorts of valuable
| things here and lose a good many things,
too
"A good many valuables are forgotten,
but very few Of them are lost" the maid
answered. at Is the exception, in fact,
for a visitor to nave anything stolen, and
yet there never was q better chance to get
hold of jewelry, handbags and furs than
right here.
"But, strange to say, and often wonder
ct it myself, it is almost never that any.
thing is stolen from this dressing room.
Often and often after the place is emptied
1 nave found valuable rings or a handbag
which no one had carried off. Whether
the things were left by the visitor last to
| leave I'm sure l don't know, but | do
know that time and time again a lady will
| come up and say to me, i found this just
now in the dressing room
"A case of this kind happened the other
day. The found property was a short neck
Oh 10, 80 paarla which / SIlnnnSn had no.
come unfastened and slipped to the floor
unnoticed. That evening the owner sent
a servant, as a forlorn hope, she said, to
ask if 1 had found anything of the sort;
"The other day / found a gold mesh hand
bag mounted in turquoise and diamonds
hanging on O projection above a wash
basin. There had been several persons
in the room a minute before and yet the
bag was untouched. A few minutes after
wards a lady whom I know very well rushed
in, white with anxiety, and asked about
the bag. When / handed it over she opened
1t and showed me two magnificent rings
which she had slipped in. intending to put
them on when she took of her gloves.
zone Of the common tricks OF visitors
Is to take off their rings to wash their hands
and forget to put them on again. Almost
every day I find one or two valuable rings.
Zone Of the very few thefts committed
ring surrounded with diamonds which the
owner said she took of and laid on the wash
stand in the dressing room. In less than
| half an hour she was back after it, but it had
| disappeared, and yet l remembered going
into the room almost the minute she left II.
"Of course such things, will happen, but
considering how many dozens OF women
pass in and out OF these rooms every day
it is astonishing, l think, how few articles
are stolen. Women are honest, L say"
In another restaurant not far away ths
woman in charge of the dressing room
admitted that women visitors left all sorts
Of trinkets and wearing apparel behind
in the dressing room and that rings led of.
1T is not very. often" she remarked
though. Ladies sometimes come in and
make an awful fuss, saying they have left
things here which afterward are found
elsewhere. A case Of this kind happened
the other day. A lady who had been dining
in the restaurant with a party of friends
came in here for her wraps before leaving,
As she sat near the door waiting for her
"a solitaire-on her hand. 1t was so large
and handsome no one could help noticing
1t.
"She vent away and in half an hour was
back, saving she must have left her ring
in the dressing room. 1 told her posi-
lively that / saw it on her hand just before
she left. She gave the order to have her
carriage carefully searched and sure enough
there was the ring under one OF the seats.
"One evening l picked up a large diamond
feur de lis on the foor Of the dressing
| room near a wash basin. 1t was valued a.
81, 600 / heard afterward when the owner
came to the restaurant manage asking II
the ornament had been found. Hand
bags are left hanging on hooks, lying on
shelves on the Wristbands, the tables, the
chairs n on the floor, and nearly always
/ tho oupara oat than hack