The Washington herald., 1919-01-25

Special Correspondent of The Washington Herald.
New York. Jan. 24-Maiden Lane Is
a little winding street on lower
Broadway devoted exclusively to re-
tail and wholesale jewelry shops. 1t
Is to Maiden Lane that the young
blood goes for his engagement dia-
mond and 1t is the place where the
Pittsburgh millionaire buys his pint
of pearls to adorn the neck of the
Frolic's favorite.
Maiden Lane is one of the reasons
why the famous Fulton street dead
line was established for crooks. No
crook can go below Fulton street in
New York IL he is known. He is i'm
mediately picked up and landed in the
Tombs. Aside from the jewels there
are the vast boards of gold of Broad
and Wall streets
But Maiden Lane now has an en-
tirely different clientele The Ma
tional City Bank recently estimated
that fully one-half of the worlds
stock of diamonds is now held in the
United States" Westward the course
of diamonds. as of empire. takes its
way-from Hindu rajahs and Persian
shahs and Turkish sultans to the
wives of American munitions makers
The great stones, the Koh-i-Noors
and the Regents. long ago found their
destination among the crown Jewels
OF England and other Western states,
as of recent years did the Transvaars
prize diamond. the Cullinan.
But the significant thing is the
passing of the prestige of diamond
ownership from Oriental princes and
potentates to the plain people OF the
American public. 1t is to the steel
mills and coal yards and wheat fields
that the product of the diamond
mines now goes, with the result of
establishing a new triumph of repub-
licsn institutions Nover absolutism.
| The Maiden Lane list OF costumers
now is not composed of those who sit
gazing with an air of bored detach-
ment in rose-and-ivory luxury of
boudoirs. Not all of the hards COW
cred with jewels are small and ex-
| quisitely kept. They may be grimy
with toil-hands of munition workers
as the bourgeois.
! In the foyer OF a big metropolitan n
hotel the other evening I saw a beau
| tiful woman in an evening gown Of
soft pink silk with a tracery of sill
yer. Her arms and shoulders were
bare and her throat and breasts
! cleaned like old marble in the amber
/ lights of the room. She wore a dia-
mond necklace with a ruby clasp. Two
large stones adorned a brooch. The
clerk told me her story. She used
! to be q waitres in a Pennsylvania
| town. She married a carpenter who
had the foresight to start a munition
/ factory in the beginning of the war.
| He's a millionaire now and she is be-
ing made over in New York.
! Toto. the former Hippodrome clown.
/ is going into vaudeville. He is an
Italian with n limited knowledge of
! English and is altogether ignorant
of the vernacular of the varieties. He
has been in telegraphic Communica-
| ton from Chicago with his represen-
tative in New York about his appear
ance here and incidentally about n
supper party which he plans to give
to his old friends of the Hippodrome.
Among n number of kilograms on
both projects there came one to him.
reading: will you open intermis-
sion?" Toto's reply was: ''Will open
/ as much intermission as required.
but many of the Hippodrome players
will prefer beer"
! A Park Row newspaper sent its
photographer to the county court
house to obtain some photographs of
those concerned in a proceedings
against the paper. The photographer
returned a few hours later and. ap-
| preaching the city editor, said: Il
got them all but John Doe. who was
! not there"