The New York herald., 1922-01-19
BELIEVE MRS. DODGE
OWNS THE NECKLACE
Detroit People See SINH
larity to Noted Russian
Pearl Ornament.
800 MATCHED PIECES
Motor Manufacturer Said to
Have Made Present After
Ford Settlement.
MEN SENT TO HUNT GEMS
Wife Was Told to Name Her
Wish When Millions Came
to Former Mechanic.
MEN SENT TO HUNT GEMS

Special Dispatch to THE NEW YORK HERALD.
DETROIT. Jan. 1S.-It is a long way
from Petrograd to Detroit and there
is a long, long fight Of steep social
steps between Russian Empress and
the wife of an American manufac-
turer of popular priced automobiles
man who started life as SIS a day
mechanic; but agents of the United
States Treasury Department are here
declaring themselves satisfied that
Mrs. Anna Thompson Dodge is wear
ing the pearl necklace that once made
additionally attractive the neck of
Catherine III. of Russia
And this necklace of 3S9 pure pearls,
said to have been sold for $500, 900,
is alleged by the Treasury men to be
the one now featuring the court action
brought recently by Renguiat Bros.
against Cartier. Inc.
Working here with the Treasury
men are agents of the customs SER
vice. All Of them agree that the late
NAOto OOoSS PuiSAdoSo IL LII iiio
wife. Anna Thompson Dodge, by way
OF making good his promise to her
that when he had received his share
of the $27,000,OOO he and his brother,
John F. Dodge, received for their in
terests in the Ford Motor Company
he would buy her any purchasable
tking on earth. All she had to do was
to nominate her desire. She asked
for pearls.
Mrs. Dodge is in her home at Crosse
Point, on Lake st. Clair. northeast Of
this city. She declines to answer ques-
tions, but investigators are met by a
maid who says that the necklace Mr..
Dodge gave his wife just before he died
was never owned by the Empress. Cath
crime and that Mrs. Dodge knows Moth
ing of the Russian imperial jewels.
Friends Describe Necklace.
But persons insisting upon their
friendship for Mrs. Dodge, say that 1t is
not possible that there could be such
similarity between the necklace sold by
Cartier and that. now worn by Mrs.
Dodge unless they were the same. They
assert that Mrs. Dodge's beautiful orna-
ment bears the famous diamond studded
ornament incasing the delicate miniature
of Catherine. And then they go on to
recite the details of the giving of the
necklace to Mrs. Dodge by her husband.
Indeed, they talk so freely and with
such apparent authority that 1t Is not
easy to understand why the country has
not known of it ever since the pearls
came into Mrs. Dodge's possession.
1t seems that there was a large din
ner party In the Dodge home here just
before the Dodge-Ford suit, in which
the Dodge Bros. sought to restrain
Henry Ford from building his big blast
furnaces and to compel him to disburse
surplus earnings in dividends. At this
dinner Mrs. Horace T.. Dodge made the
remark that her husband had offered to
purchase for her anything she desired
provided 1t was for sale.
"He told me / might have any earthly
thing" she said, land I said pearls"
This from a friend of the Dodge fam
lily.
The suit came n close. The first Of
the brothers died--John F. Dodge
Horace Dodge, who had made the prom
ise. fell sick. but into his hands had
come the bulk of all the family millions
his brothers share of the Ford set
tlenent included 1t Is said that he dis
patched jewelers. to Europe and Asia
looking for pearls. telling them that
they were not to consider the question
OF expense. What he wanted were
pearls. All he asked was that the pearls
be the purest, the rarest and the most
costly.
Finally Gets the Pearls.
And then comes a hiatus in the ro-
mantle yarn-a break that Is not
bridged even by the men and women
who say they are close to the Dodge
family. All they know is that some
time In 1920 Horace Dodge clasped the
magnificent collar around his wife's
neck--3S9 pearls of graduated size ar
ranged in five strands and looped with
diamond locket holding the miniature
OF the Great Catherine.
At the New York Custom House last
night IL was said that no request to in
vestigate the history Of any of Mrs.
Anna Thompson Dodges Jewels had been
received 1t was explained that such a
necklace as Mrs. Dodge wears might
easily have come into the country
through regular channels and been de-
clared and cleared without exciting the
slightest curiosity.
The customs official best informed up
on these matters said II is entirely un-
likely that the necklace entered the
United States in one piece. Any one
bringing II in intact would have been
required to pay an ad valorem duty of
so per cent. On the other hand. the
necklace could have been declared in $50
packages. one pearl to a package. and
the Government could have collected
only is per cent. duty. The entire neck
Ia xyotf1d rnpcfdCrpd m l.
factured jewelry the single pearls mere
1v unset pearls