Omaha daily bee., 1909-12-03

prop under the suspicion that the metro
polls has a large n varied collection OF
people entitled to the Barnum degree Of
E. NJ. All lines Of activity, from the learned
professions down to the submerged crowd,
have a good percentage Of easy marks.
One of them-a type OF ~many-told her
story in court the other day, in an effort
to rid herself Of leechos and recover some
Of the SIS, 600 she gave up. The victim is
Mrs. Mary Brandes, and the smooth work
ers are Della Goff, a masseuse. and Jacob
Lemondorf, manager OF an employment
agency. Mrs. Brandes is a student OF the
occult and had an affinity in mind, which
prompted a desire for a divorce. Miss Goff
was employed by her three years ago, and
became aware Of Mrs. Brandes' secret
wishes. The servant intimated that she
knew Of a woman clairvoyant who could
arrange the divorce and obtain all the evil
dence and who had been active In her way
in some of the most noted divorce cases
in the city.
Mrs. Brandes desired TO see this clair
voyant, but says Della Goff told her that
she was the medium through which the
woman worked her wonders, and she was,
in fact, the concentration" Mrs. Brandes
says she finally consented to pay the &c.,
600 asked and started to write a check.
Il cannot take a check for this" Mrs.
Brandes, said Miss Goff told her. Il
will have to get the cash.
Mrs. Brandes said she went to a bank
and drew the money in $1,000 bills and
gave to the masseuse ten Of them. From
that time, Mrs. Brandes said, the money
was paid in smaller amounts. At one time
it was to obtain bail for one of the de-
t~ectives employed by the clairvoyant d.
vorce accelerator, and another reason
served at another time.
Lemondorf came into the affair one time
when Miss Golf was I'll. Mrs. Brandes
said, and collected money for her. Mrs.
Brandes said that she gave him $1,000 once,
to be paid to the clairvoyant who needed
the money to get evidence, and there was
a charge being made from time to time
for expenses of detectives following out
the Instructions of the occult adviser, the
total amounting to 5000. Mrs. Brandes
informed the court that she has a scrap OF
a divorce decree to show for the money.
A woman walked up to the counter Of a
fashionable hotel and asked for a package
Of valuables which was in the safe, relates
the Sun.
IF 1 had not wanted one particular
thing 1 suppose I should la left the
package where 1t was for another three
years." she said to the clerk.
Yes" said the clerk in answer to a
question after the woman left, that packet
had really been in our safe for three years.
Why, we have all sorts Of valuable papers,
jewelry and even money that are entrusted
to our keeping for years at a time. People
seem to prefer a hotel cafe to a safety de.
posit vault. One reason, perhaps, is that
it costs nothing. Another is that the stand.
ard of hotel clerks has improved.
ut is astonishing the amount Of jewelry
that people keep in hotel safes. OF course
the owners have originally stopped in the
hotel, but they go away, leaving their val.
uables, and l have known such persons to
be gone as much as two years and never
make an inquiry about their property in
that time.
ITO show you how much confidence peo-
pie have in hotels and their employees ]
might mention that the other day a mar
came in here and put four $40 bills in an
envelope, wrote his name on the latter and
asked me to put 1t in the safe. Not Ions
ago another man actually did the same
thing with seven $4,000 bills"
The clerks Of several other hotels talke
in a similar strain without any outside
suggestion.
"Ill bet 1 have handled more than a mil
lion dollars worth OF iewelry today" said
one. Look here" and he opened the safe
and piled six or eight big jewelry cases on
the counter, but hurriedly put them back
"In one Of those I know there is over
100000 worth, and what showed you was
only a few of what the safe contains"
The great corporations in arrears tc
the city for special franchise taxes sine,
1900 are resorting to injunctions to pre-.
vent the comptroller from selling theil
franchises at the advertised sale on De
cember 9. The amount involved Il
ST. 600, 900.
The comptroller is telling the delin
quents that he will accept part paymen.
on the arrears, but that he will not Civ,
more time, and that IL the major par.
of the arrears is not paid on or befor,
sale day the properties will go unde
the hammer.
Among the corporations affected ar,
the following: The Second Avenue rail
road, the Metropolitan, the New Yorl
& Harlem Railroad City Line company
the Central Park, North & East Rive
company, Third Avenue system, tn,
Consolidated Gas company.