The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-12
.SLEUTHS KEPT BUSY BY CARELESS WOMEN Hotel Detectives Trace Val uables Misplaced by Guests AVOID OFFICE SAFE Member of Waldorf's Staff in One Week Found Two Lots of Gems
 Worth Between $20,000
 and $3O,OO0
AVOID OFFICE SAFE

The chief function Of a hotel detec- tive" a cynical manager said yesterday,
 according to the New York Times. lis to
 watch women patrons, in order to see that | they do not leave anything behind when they get up from their seats in the lobby,
 the writing rooms, or the reception rooms. Of course. he has something to do in the way of keeping a lookout for persons
 whose actions arouse suspicion, but his life would be easy If it was not that so
 many women have habit of leaving
 things about and then asserting that they | were stolen.
 "When the average woman sees some | thing valuable lying about, her impulse is | to pick it up. In nine cases out of 10 she will not turn it over to the desk. She
 has no intention of stealing-I am speak | ing of the ordinary woman, and not the sneak thief who is apt to be found in every | crowded place-but here is something | pretty, perhaps, or valuable. and she yields to impulse. She must take it home | Perhaps she has an idea of finding out the owner and sending it back-at least that | is what she Is apt to tell herself. Some times she does Sometimes she keeps it. Won't Use Office Safe l Notwithstanding notices to put their I valuables in the safe of the hotel, where l they are staying, most women do not pursue this course. They seem to feel | that, unless they wear their jewels or
 carry them in a handbag, they are unsafe, when. as matter of fact, experience has | demonstrated that for the average woman
 this is the most likely way for her to lose l them. Less than 1 per cent of the jewelry | that is reported missing in the average
 hotel is stolen. More than 99 per cent
 of it is simply misplaced or abandoned by its owner"
 Hotel detectives indorse the view of this mana ger. At one hotel it was pointed out by the detective that pearl and dia- mond earring and set of valuable sleeve links were found in a room fully week ago and the owned has not yet asked | about them. In the same hotel valuable ljewelry was unclaimed for more than four
 months, while the management kept writ | ing about to women who had occupied the room to inquire whether they had missed any pewery It was not until the eighth occupant back, a woman In Los Angeles, was heard from that the owner was discovered She wrote to say that she had not missed her gems until a
 couple of days out of New York on her
 way home and that she had been con-
 vinced that the Pullman porter had stolen them.
 A few years ago Chief Detective Joseph
 Smith of the Waldorf recovered within one ->~~-~->>~-~~-~-~-~-- -------~~~~~-~~~~ l separation, ana her husband had retal lated with a suit for divorce, making ugly charges against his wife. Fl Operation was absolutely necessary tt
 save her life. eminent surgeons told hel and she said:
 q do not desire to undergo this op
 eration until I have purged my nam'
 for the sake of my children from th'
 stigma cast upon it and I do not wan 2 to go under the knife, fearful lest tho f eliminated the accusations of this de fendant, my husba l.
 5 The court approved her application ant g advanced the hearing of the case foul
 months
 l The survival of human personalit,
 after death" Is proble mwhich has beer ? attacked by many thinkers Here is { 7 phase of 1t that will interest the anna g teur psychologist as well as the pro
 fes sional.
 9 To die while acc Used and unceared O 3 serious charges is bad. For who cal $ tell that the knowledge of such affair s does not pass with the soul into tn
 hereafter?
 9 To continue to live with them is per q haps worse.
 r Then there is the certainty of cloud . ed life of resting and sr suspicion It | to clear away the :nists, whether on, 5 expects long continued life of speed, r calling away.