Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1920-04-11

At any rate. whether from inside or fro..--
outside the house. somebody became very
busy upstairs while the merry dinner party
was In progress downstairs. Curiously
enough, the wealthy hostess. Mrs. Straight
escaped the fall force Of the burglars at
tentions because her maid had thoughttuily
turned the key in her mistrasss bedroom
door when the hostess went down TO din.
ner.
The dinner moved nlong smoothly.
Groves, the head butler, saw that each se.-
want was in his place and that the service
was prompt and irreproacnahle. Barney
Craig. the faithful old servitor. walked hia
beat around and about the premises. IIa
aid not. OF course, search tho shaGows OF
each OF the tall evcrgrceno which screen
the house or all sides. But nobody doubts
the fidelity OF the wGtchman. who had been
employed for years as caretakor Of III,
homes Of the Hitchcocks and the Wit,
neys.
The Whitney estate is one OF the largeot
in Aiken. the residence being RICH. in the
centre OF brooklyn" the curiously named
Quarter selected by the very fashionable
set, and the very fact that the Whitney
grounds are so considerable in extent
makes it impossible for watchman to DO
sure that intruders are not hiding in tha
hedges or the shrubbery.
Besides the Jewels which the hostes5
wore TO the dinner, it is not known what:
she left behind In her room. The door be-
ing locked, the thieves did not search &.
30 nothing was lost and. therefore. no list
or Mrs. Straight's jewels was given to tho
police. Mrs Harrison Tweed left on a
dresser in her room silver lace mesh bag
which was rather valuable in itself. 1t
contained four beautiful diamond rings.
several Jeweled brooches ana beautiful
pearl necklace worth many thousand dol
lars. The silver bag and nil that was n
1t was taken
When Mrs. Arthur Swami went down to
dinner she lett III her room on n small
writing desk two jeweled gold pins and
several other articles OF value III a Jewel
case. All were stolen. In u trunk in one
OF the upstairs rooms were some things
belonging 20 the hostess, Mrs. Straight.
The lock OF this trunk had been forced
open and bills To tho amount of 81 800 and
jewels were taken. Everything in the up
per tray Of the trunk bad been paved over
in q hurried search The thieves closed
down the lid of the trunk and hid tha
broken lock by a silk SCARF which covered
part o. the trunk. Did the thieves know
that there was money hidden in this trunk .
The robbery continued Cor long to be :
mystery I'm spite Of all the efforts made 10
fathom II. II was not made known to the
authorities until 10 o'clock the following
Wednesday morning. From that hour till
late in the afternoon the phone was kept
busy ringing up the Sheriff. tho Chief OF
Police and the deputies.
The loss was AT first stated to be small,
and II was not until the following day that
1t was learned that il amounted 10 at least
$4,000. Even then the loss from tho
trunk was not included.
New York dispatch was sent Ia a
detective agency in cipher describing tho
Jewels. as the greatest anxiety was evil
IDENTITY felt TO recover them before they has.
been divided up into fragments.
But neither jewels nor cash were ever
fouud