The enterprise-recorder. (Madison, Fla.) 1908-1933, 1910-03-17

stone is the product OF one particular
rough diamond, and it is quite impossi-
BILE to identify a cut and polished gem
with its rough original.
About 35 percent of the weight Of
the stones is allowed for waste in
manufacture, and the offerings Of one
or two workmen might go on indef-
nitely without raising the general av-
erage of waste and thereby exciting
suspicion. Individual checking would
in the long run discover a persistent
thief Of weight, but it would not pre-
vent a cunning substitutor from re-
placing fawless stones of fine color
with inferior gems.
Practically, there must be complete
reliance on the honesty Of the dia-
mond workers. and they are known to
be as generally honest as they are
skilled and intelligent. There are four
hundred diamond cutters in the New
York district and their wages are
from $50 to $65 week. These are
not the kind Of men who would sub.
NIT to being Gagged in factories or TO
being searched at intervals or being
put under espionage, if they were
aware of the latter fact. Many of them
work at home.
How They Financed Club.
In one Of the Newark jewelry fac.
tories where 1900 men and girls are
at present employed, some Office boys
were found few years ago to be gath
ering up small bits of gold, selling
them collectively and enjoying the
proceeds in a club which they estab-
lished. In one factory the gold given
out to the girls is checked by an equal
weight of small lead shot in a bottle,
the finished work and waste gold be-
ing afterward compared with the bot
tie Of shot. The worker does not
know the precise weight of her raw
material, and has less chance of alb
stracting some Of the gold with safe
ty from detection. There is sometimes
a chance for dishonesty on the part
of the man who makes the alloys of
precious metals. He may put a little
copper into the furnace.
1t is easy to mislay or lose small
pieces of jewelry. Diamonds snap out
Of tweezers and disappear. They may
fly up to the picture moulding or enter
a crack in the wall. A salesman out
West was showing a diamond to
customer when it slipped out of
the tweezers and vanished. After a
little search he suddenly exclaimed
in fun, Take it ont of your pocket"
The customer TO whom the command
was given confusedly put his hand in
his pocket and sure enough pulled out
the stone.
A crook in a jewelry store pokes
over a tray Of loose diamonds with a
waxed pencil picks up small gems
with the point and scrapes them off
casually into his vest pocket or even
into his ear. Once a man was looking
over paper Of diamonds and polk.
ing them about with a long nailed lit
tie finger. The salesman knew that
long nails were correct in China, but
he felt suspicious Of them when worn
by an American. He saw something
that made him remark quickly;
Take that diamond out from under
your nail"
"Why, my dear sir!" protested the
customer, but the other seized his
hand and extracted a stable stone
from beneath the finger nail. There
was room enough under the nail, which
was waxed, to hold half carat stone,
valued at from s75 to 500.
Warning to Jewellers.
A special bulletin to jewellers of
advice how to avoid sneak-thief losses
was recently issued by the Jewellers
Security Alliance An abstract Of this
advice follows:
The holiday season is the harvest
time for crooks. Always have at least
boy with you in the store all the
time. Keep showcases locked. Don't
lose sight Of valuable goods for
single instant. Don't show valuable
goods in trays. Don't turn your back
on a customer without first removing
the goods. Observe strangers care
fully Cor peculiarities so that you can
identify them afterward. Keep light
burning in the store all night. Have
an electric bolt ON the door to shut
thief in the store by pressing a but
ton and connection to ring an alarm
bell outside.
Look out for the flim-Aam c. o. D.
game, when goods are taken into the
next room Of hotel and disappear
with the person who takes them into