Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-02-14
Master Thief and Bluebird Pearl
Factors in an Austrian Mystery
Story Is Striking Incidents
Archives of tn Police

| mOck1ngly, as Paul SEWERS himself
not a workman, this time, but a son.
orous voiced, perfectly bred, deft man
nered drawing room knight. His dec
orations. like his personality, had been
forged-and SO ClumSily, or careleSSly,
that they left behind them their record
If his real name and identity. But
even the police could not believe that
the photograph of him. which he had
presented the Frauein, was of the
same man as that pictured by the
earlier one in the files at Vienna.
< II II 4
MO president of great metropolitan
police bureau is pleased by such
| q Joke as had been played upon Herr,
| superintendent in the Berlin head
| quarters The resources of the Berlin
police We're concentrated upon the
| hunt for the whimsical Paul SEWERS
and the fated pearl. Huge rewards
were offered, totalling almost the en-
tire value of the jewel, for both Der
| lin and Vienna We're determined to
| halt the career of this dangerous thief.
He remained gaily at liberty, however.
and this time. when "a gem dealer OF
| Brussels sent a messenger to F'raulein
| Delvig with proposition for the re-
| turn of the ''bluebird'' for $50 900. the
messenger brought unimpeachabie
proofs that his employers had pur-
| chased the pearl from apatron of I'M
| question: BILE standing who had him
| self a record OF his purchase of il
| from an acquaintance who had been
introduced TO him in London.
| The search back to the "acquaint-
ance from London" revealed Paul
| Sewers. this time a well known figure
| in Mayfair. but Paul had disappeared,
leaving a new photograph behind him,
and the sale to the jeweler had been,
| taI1 in Pot h 'hair
patron had been imposed upon. There
was nothing for Fraulein's family 10
do but pay the ransom demanded
which they could not afford to do. A
| little later Fraulein was compelled to
part with the "hluebird' 10 a Berlin
| collector.
| Another year passed The blue
| bird" was stolen from a new owner.
This time the director of a Paris bank.
| Perhaps the tinancier had some little
| lady in mind when he made the pur-
! chase. but, if SO. he had been tickle.
! The pearl remained In his strong box
| which was ritied by a butler who had
been employed upon the best of rec
concentrations. Again Paul SEWERS
was disclosed, and a new photograph
of new personality.
The police of every capital now got
down to IL hard task with deadly III.
tent. They decided, after communica
ton with each other, that the elusive
admirer of the bluebird pearl must he
caught. They awaited impatientlE the
arrival of q messenger from foreign
jeWeler at the bank of the director
A policeman was otationed at the
hank, another at the house OF Man
sieur lie director, and one of these ac
companied him wherever he went. The
appearance of a messenger with talk
of a compromise over the lost pearl
was to be the signal for an instant
| and arbitrary arrest.
! Then, one morning, the banker mott
| fed the police that the pearl had been
returned to him and that he would
not require further efforts at prosecu-
| ton. The Paris archives relate the
! matter briefly, and include an obServa-
! ton by a petulant Inspector who be
rates the ways of men with the ladies'.
This inspector adds to his memo
| randum:
1T appears that Monsieur lie Direc-
| tor became enamored of a made
| moiselle with apartments in Rue St.
Honore and became q frequent caller
at these lodgings. At a time which
| the mademoiselle believed TO be the
psychological moment she discovered
| to him the 'Bluebird' among her eff
fects and made his purchase of 1t from
her, at what I believe to be a figure
of her neglect to inform his family
and his colleagues at the bank of his
nocturnal attentions to her. Be that
as 1t may. Paul SEWERS seems to have
other methods of ransoming his pearl
than those which require male mes.
senger."
| pEARLS, like women, are said to
= be faithlesS. however. Napoleon
sent the "Bluebird," which had been
presented to him by courtier, to that
| Queen Louise of Prussia whom he
| tried to buy. The Princess Louise
| kept the pearl and sent Napoleon a
glove from her left hand with the ex-
PLANTATION that this was the best she
could do since she didn't wear nit
! tens. Two women, after the Blue
bird" found its way back to its native
Russia, were killed by admirers who
| had kissed the fingers which wore it
| At last came the time when 1T proved
| tickle to a strange devotee who en-
| toyed Il whenever he wished by the
mere process Of stealing 1t.
The Countess Mindzenty remem-
| bered, that night at the opera, that
| among her visitors was portly, hand
some man, of much more than middle
age, who had not been among her
friends. She was puzzled somewhat
by his appearance with the others to
pay his respects to her after a, par
ticularly successful rendition of the
aria with which she had ornamented
the nights performance. She con
cluded that the stranger, who was in
faultless evening clothes and who
spoke huently the language of her
country, although with a decided for
eign accent, must have come into her
| under the patronage Of one of the di-
rectors of the opera.
So she was pleasant to him, and
smiled gayly at his compliments. The
Countess is winSome, as well as beau
tiful, and wears easily the laurels that
belong to one who has been proclaimed
| the most beautiful woman in Central
Europe. Her jewels are famous, some
Of them as much SO because of their
donors as because Of their value. OF
| them all she is proudest of the Blue
bird"
When Maj. Lyfertz, director of DO.
| lice Investigations, examined the list
| of those who had been in the room to
pay the Countess their compliments.
he asked further particulars about
one who was remembered by the
| others present, but whose name was
not registered on the visitors list at
the opera door. These inquiries were
made hurriedly, almost immediately
after the loss of the "Bluebird" was
discovered, and long before the final
fall Of the curtain on the evenings
opera program.
While the director Of Investigations
was making these inquiries of doormen
and stage attendants and the Countess
secretaries, an assistant brought him
from the police presidency the dossier
of the "Bluebird pearl" On it's index
page were the notations of the vari-
GUS thefts of the pearl, and after them
the illuminating entry, Find Paul
Sewers