Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-20
FEBRUARY 20, 1910.
PAWNING A KINGS JEWELS

deem them, and recently the blow fell.
They are being sold by the State Pawn
Office of Paris, the famous Mont de
Piete.
This pawnshop, says Pearsons
Weekly, is a bureau of the Paris mu-
nicipal government 1t consists of
main office ana tWenty-one branch Of
fees, and it is organized and admin
istered for philanthropic purposes.
Most of it's transactions are, of course,
with the poorer classes, but many
royal loans have been arranged. The
reason for this is that Impoverished
royalties generally turn to Paris to re-
plensh their golfers, and the Mont de
Piete has a monopoly of advances on
portable property. Anyone who in
fringes this monopoly be they bankers
or princes of the blood is liable to an
action for damages. The history OF
Abduls jewels from the time OF his
parting with them to the tragic events
of the recent past is interesting.
A high Moorish official, Mohammed
Tazzi, and DR.. Verdon, the sultan's
English physician, left Tangier for
Paris with the jewels in September,
1907. The state of his majestys finan-
ces at that moment may be guessed
from the fact that on the following
dav he was "booked'' to repay a l err
man loan of G5OO,OOO, and few days
later France would demand repay
ment of &S0,OOO.
The ENJOYS arrived in Paris and be
came the center of attraction for the
criminal world of the French capital.
To a well known broker they en-
trusted diamond necklace worth
about e60OO The broker found GUS
toner for them and fixed day Tor
paying over the money. But when that
day arrived the broker turned up IN
a state of frantic excitement. He had
been robbed, he said, and the necklace
was lost.
The desperate ENJOYS invoked the
aid of the police, who managed 10 re-
cover all the diamonds except one from
various Partisan jewellers to whom
the thieves had sold them.
The last of the diamonds, the big
gest and most valuable of the lot,
could not be traced at first, but 1t was
eventually found in the possession OF
a ieweler, who stated that it had been
sold to him by a fashionably dressed
woman whom he did not know.
The French government discovered
that the Moroccan ENJOYS had broken
the state pawn office monopoly by
dealing with the brokers, and they
realized that the sooner they began
looking after the visitors the better,
so the Moroccans were induced 10
place such OF the JeWelS dS liley hou
not already disposed of in the Mont
de Piete.
This collection had cost the sultan
something like 100000, and this vas
the sum Tazzi had expected to take
back with him. But his stern uncle
refused to grant him anyth ng like
this amount and the sum he was able
TO take back to his straitened master
is yariously given at from t4o,OOO TO
100000.
Abdul has been unable to pay the
interest on them much less redeem
them, and the authorities decided on
sale by public auction. The impor-
tance of the sale was so thoroughly
realized that notices of it were adVer-
tised in the English papers in order
to attract the jewel merchants OF
London.
Abdul Aziz is not, however, the only
royal sufferer through this form OF
notoriety, for Princess Louise of Bel
gium had a great part of her ward
robe sold by public auction at Vienna.
King Carlos of Portugal was also COM
PEELED to pawn some of his jewels, and
last year the late shah of Persia had
resort to his uncle" during hard
times.
Some idea of the gigantic business
conducted by the Mont de Piete may
be gathered from the fact that in one
year no fewer than 1,449,16S loans We're
granted on iewelry, clothing, bicycles
and such like articles. The average
amount of each loan was 27s and on
the years business the profit, which
was turned over to the municipal nos
6 fun0. was GlYS,4S3.