New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-23
Sixty Pieces i'm
Silver Service
Given to Lllsk
Hirshfield Learns Detectives
Gift Cost More Than at
First Supposed and Was
Bought at Tiffany's
To Know Value To-day
Firm Snbpoenaed to Pro-
duce Record of Sales; Set
Nowin Safe Deposit Vaults

The actual value of the silver service
presented to Senator Clayton r. Lusk
by the New York City detectives after
the Legislature had passed his bill
making their jobs permanent and in
creasing their salaries probably will
be known to-day.
Commissioner of Accounts Hirshfeld,
who is investigating the various slush
funds raised by the detectives to
lubricate the Lusk bill through the
Legislature, learned yesterday that
the silver service was bought at
Tiffany's, and that the sum paid for
it was larger than at first believed.
The silver service, according to the
information receied yesterday by
Hirshfeld, consisted of more than
sixty pieces. and is now in burglar
proof safe deposit vault in this city.
Process servers were sent out last
night by the Commissioner of Ac-
counts calling upon the Fifth Avenue
firm which wrought the silver service
to produce to-day the record of their
sales, so that the actual value of the
gift of the detectives to Senator Lusk
may be determined.
Presented to His Wife
The officials of the safe deposit COM
pany also will be subpnnaed to pro-
due the silverware, concerning which
Senator Lusk said that he had seen
but two or three pieces, but under
stood that it was "a very nice service.
When he was examined by the joint
legislative graft investigating commit
tee, of which he is a member, he was
not asked to describe the silver service
nor to tell its value, if he knew.
Information received by the Com
missioner of Accounts is that the silver
service filed a large mahogany case,
lined with silk and velvet.
At the hearing of the legislative
committee when Senator Lusk told of
the present he received from the detec-
tives he said that the silver service
was presented not actually to him, but
to Mrs. Lusk. He said that Detectives
Cornelius J. Crown and James j. Gegan
Rad called on him the morning after
the Detectives Endowment Association
gave him a dinner which was attended
by LOO and told him that they in
tended to make the present.
Senator Lusk said that at first he
demurred, but that the detectives told
him that the silver was already en-
craved. and so he accepted, not wishing
to hurt the feelings of the detectives
Commissioner Hirshfield said yester-
day that he would examine Brown and
Gegan to learn how the money was
raised to buy the silver service and
how much was gathered.
Books Tell Little
Books. of the Detective Endowment
Association which should tell of the
amount of money raised and spent
by the organization, which includes all
the detectives who would have benefited
through the Lusk bill, tell little. Some
of the records most wanted are miss
ing"
that more than S1700 was spent by
the detectives as an organization dur
ing the few days that the bill was
pending in Albany, but how $1,400 of
It was disbursed has not yet been ex-
planned.
Hirshfeld intends to examine the
detectives on all their financial trans
actions from the first of the year to
date, In order to make certain that
the investigation will be thorough, the
Commissioner of Accounts will sub
pnna the bank records and the can
celled checks of the association and
nut his expert accountants to work on
them This will take time, but it is
regarded as necessary to a real IN
vestigation.
The Commissioner of Accounts was
informed yesterday that the s16,50o
which was given by an unnamed indi-
vidual, and which was believed to have
been taken to Albany in the shape of
a certified check and later returned,
was taken to the Capitol in cash along
with the $4,000 realized on the Shot
we'll check, the $4,000 certified check
of Diederich Niemeyer, and the money
sent by the Detectives Endowment AS
ISOLATION.
The lobbyist Jack j. Kleist, who is
known to have received $4,000 of the
fund-$4,o00 of which he is said to
have returncd-had not been found up