The Washington times., 1919-09-28

and matrons who would be nexpressby shocked If they
should learn that their handsome gowns were only souve
Mrs Of such bold and ingenious midnight robbery as
this master stroke Of the master criminal hundred
open for the disposal Of this valuable punder
Stretching across the country there is vertabe chain Of
shops and financed and practically operated by the
board Of directors Of the criminals band These
shops conducted solely for the disposal Of the master
criminals stolen goods.
It is in these shops madame often finds gown or suit
bolt remnant Of silk which is priced Far below
what she would have to pay in the larger more pretn
tious store Eve can sell so much cheaper you know
the salesman explains because we do not have to pay
high big advertising bills from the newspapers
And then he adds the DID, time-worn sophisry which
sounds so well to the hunter for bargains You see we
give the customer the benefit Of what the big advertising
stores pay to the newspapers and the landlords.
The customer thinks she has found bargan-and
perhaps she has, for the silk she buys If it has been
draped into gown by the dressmakers employed by the
master criminals organization has often been stolen and
purchased by the Of the small shop for half It's real
value
few weeks ago the police Of New York City gathered
in the propretOrs Of rytwO small stores located in the
principal cities of the East Investigation disclosed that
this chain of financed and their operations
supervised by brothers, who maintained headquar-
ters in New York The brothers confessed that they
their cheapest goods being procured for them by the
expert shopers and warehouse robbers to whom they
gave advance orders for the kind of goods they needed at
stated intervals to keep up their store stocks
The business of this chain of stores in six months
amounted to $750000. They were known among their
customers at which the Of bargains might
occasionally be had 1t because Of this underseng
that the representatives of the Stores Protective AssOca
tOn finally became suspicious and began to investigate the
Of these unusual bargans-slks that reputable
stores could not sell for less than 4 yard sold here at
So even less handsome gowns that in honest shops
would 500 sold by these stores at $50 even $40
eve had only to tell certain who called on US
once every month how many gowns needed what kind
and how many yards of any kind Of goods, how many
separate articles of the cheaper sort of jewery and how
many different kinds of notions, wOmens underwear and
gloves Deliveries were always made prOmptly-much
quicker sometimes than wholesale house could have filed
the order We paid just about half the usual whole
sale price for our goods and could sell them at one
third less than the big stores We knew Of course that
everything was stolen by the gang"
The police could never find the gO-between, for the
master criminal watchfu they and as soon as the
police began be suspicious he heard of it in some mys
teriOus way and his field agents promptly disappeared
This master criminal depends for long upon any
one plan of operation Only once did he use the "emo
onal barrage" Another time if he should try this plan