Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-03-12

making "a lift the haul will be huge,
and that fact sustains him.
The trailer always is plentifIlly
supplied with travelling money His
hardest Job is to keep out of the view
of the diamond drummer himself. This
is no easy task. If you're carrying
valuables and you the same man
on every train you take and in every
hotel corridor where you're staying.
and all this for some months at
stretch. of course you're simply opaque
IL you don't conclude that that fellow
is on your trail.
The expert traiiers. however. can,
and do. keep entirely out of their in
tended victims view. They're adroit
slipping through the shadowy corners
of hotels, for they know that their
chances of getting anything are vastly
decreased when the. diamond man dis
covers that they're doing trailing
stunt
Whenever l start out from New
York / always walk through the en-
tire train. just before the train starts
to see If | can pick out the face of
any trailer whose face / know from
having seen it's rogues' gallery replica.
Several times I've been entirely un
successful on such tours of trains. but
when / got little distance out on
my trip I've caught fleeting glimpses
of trailers that l knew to a certainty
We're after me. and | knew very well
that they had left New York with me
and had been on the train at the very
time I'd gone through the train to look
for them.
The trailers chance-and his chance
is never better. say. than a 5O-tO-1
shots almost entirely dependent upon
the drummer not catching sight of him.
1t Is so far as | am concerned. any
how. and I'll tell you why. The in
slant ] catch sight Of trailer whose
bit of time worrying. / go right up
to him and address him.
You're on a hopeless trail, pal and
you'd better beat it l say to him.
You're not going to get me this trip.
Now. are you going to beat it. or
would you prefer to stand for a pinch?'
I've put that question 20 perhaps a
score of trailers in my tine, and each
and every time they've obeyed my de-
mand that they pick up their moccasins
and hike. Not infrequently they smile
pleasantly over it and take their medi-
cine with perfect GOODNESS.
why don't we have them arrested
out of hand For several reasons, a
few Of which are that we haven't the
time to appear against them, we don't
want the notoriety for ourselves or for
the firm, we don't want to tip off other
trailers that were in such and such
a place with our goods on us, and.
cinch case on a trailer in any circum-
stances even IL he's known to be Il
thief and has been mugged
THE diamond drummer, you see, finds
himself in sort of double-ended
scrape when he loses his gems or any
packet of them. Double ended because
one of the inevitable consequences of
his loss is that his firm is always liable
TO suspect that he hasn't lost the stuff
or been robbed of it, but that he has
appropriated it.
I've seen the thing break this way
time and again, even in the case of old
and trusted diamond drummers Trust
worthiness or length of service doesn't
make any difference. The diamond drum
mer simply must not lose or get robbed
of his stuff. Diamond firms make this fact
perfectly plain to all of their men who
sell gems on the road.
Don't let anything happen to the
stuff virtually is the attitude. even If it
isn't actually embodied In the instruc-
tons of the diamond firm to it's statesmen.
You're either to sell your gems or else
bring them back here to be checked up.
We don't want and we won't have any