The San Francisco call., 1910-08-15
BIG BLUE PEARL WORTH
100000 is LOST AGAIN
Gem Stolen From Idols Eye Is
Missing

blue pearl worth 100000, stolen
from the eye of a statue of Buddha in
India. sought for five years all over
the world and recovered in New York
few days ago, was stolen or lost again,
says a Boston dispatch to the New York
World
Such is the strange story that Har-
ris MacAdams of London tells
MacAdams has the idea that some
one. perhaps an East Indian devotee,
Buddhist priest. perhaps, followed him
first to New York and then to Boston
awaiting his chance to steal the pearl.
to him priceless because of the sane
tity.
OF course Wilkie Collins told very
much the same story, infinitely better,
in ''The Moonstone"
MacAdams says that as the temporary
possessor of the blue pearl he was only
an agent, a messenger He was act
ing for Mayor Pirie of the Seventeenth
lancers of his majesty's army. Major
Pirie, in turn, is acting for a firm of
English solicitors, who represent the
Rajah Rama. In the possessions of this
Indian potentate stands the temple
whose statute of Buddha, despite cease
less watch and guard, was despoiled of
| the blue pearl and other sacred gems
that adorned 1t.
After ceaseless search for years,
| says MacAdams, the blue pearl was To-
Gated in New York in the hands of a
certain pawn broker. At Major Prizes
| urging MacAdams hurried from Lon
don to New York. There he paid $685.
900 to the pawn broker, who thereupon
| handed over to him the blue pearl and
10 pawn tickets for other gems that
| once adorned the inscrutable Buddha.
Mac a II
broker never saw these other gems.
but bought the tickets from the person
who pawned the blue pearl.
MacAdams says he engaged passage
on the iceland. In New York he was full
of the idea that some one with de-
signs on the pearl was following him.
So he bought small pigskin case, de-
signed to be worn on the wrist, like
the watch of a golfer or an automo-
bilist. In the case he put the blue
pearl and the 10 pawn tickets and wore
the case strapped to his right wrist
| day and night.
Taking train in New York, Mac
Adams arrived in the South station
there at 8 p. m. He wished to get
pocket and found difficulty in thrust
! ing his hand in his pocket; the
pigskin case was in the way. He un-
| strapped the case and later he thought,
after getting the change from his
pocket, he strapped the case to his
wrist again. But he is not certain of
| this. He took taxicab from the sta
| tion to the Hotel Touraine, congratu-
| lating himself that the blue pearl had
| progressed safely SO far back to Budd-
| has orbit.
MacAdams arrived at the hotel. The
blue pearl, recovered with infinite
! pains and at enormous expense, was
| gone the tickets he
pigskin case was gone. Never was
| cleverer trick done by East Indian Jug
gler-or by New York crook.
| MacAdams said that he has put
| the matter in the hands of the Pinker-
| ton detectives here. They will con-
| tinue the search for the 100000 pearl.
| He did not report his loss to the Boston
! police.
| So it will be seen, the strange story
which MacAdams tells does not end like
| The Moonstone,' the blue pearl will
| not shed it's soft Iuster as Buddhas s
! eye-for some time, at least.
| A blue pearl figured in New York last
summer. 1t was perfect oval, weighed
| 1914 grains, was worth $4,000. 1t,
! too, had been stolen from the eye of
an idol in a monastery in Lahore in
| 1879.
| This pearl was sought by his high
ness Jagagit Singh, rajah of Razahs of
Kapurthala. The sacred gem had been
| traced all over the world and finally
| into the hands of the late Leopold, king
| of the Belgians. The gallant king, the
story ran, gave the pearl to Cleo de
Merode, who, needing money, as always,
pawned it,
| The pearl was traced to New York
| finally. Captain G. r. White, a retired
British army officer, representative of
/ the rajah of RaZahs, came to this city
seeking to recover the pearl and put
! up at the Plaza.
A new pawn broker (in the Bowery)
was a figure in this story, too. He was
quoted as saying that he bought the
pawn ticket for the pearl and sold the
| ticket at profit. Then he offered
81 ,000 for the ticket, for the business
| like reason that a dark skinned man
like an East Indian offered him s1O,-