MAIDEN LANE.

Patea Mail, Volume XXXVIII, 1 December 1913, Page 4

MAIDEN LANE.

A DISTRICT OP VAST WEALTH. The word “rich” seems sadly madeas to the wealth of Maiden'Lane. Alfred Ulman, in some interesting articles published about a year ago in regard to Maiden Lane, estimated its wealth in gold, silver, and precious gems to be approximately £100,000,000, and no one of the many authorities interviewed on the subject will gainsay this estimate. ’ The shops that line each side of the ■street are mostly devoted to the sale of gold and silver articles and jewellery. They do not, us a rule, compare in size and magnificence with the up-town establishments, many of which have migrated from this section, nor do they command the same sort of retail trade that the others enjoy; but these shops represent only one side, and a very insignificant side, of the commerce of the district, most of which is done in small offices, where, over narrow counters and on baize-covered tables, thousands of pounds’ worth of goods change hands every day. The furniture of these rooms is sparse, and consists largely of rolltop desks, tables, chairs, and the inevitable wooden barrier, which separates the sheep from the goats, and beyond this

NO STRANGER PASSES WITHOUT PROPER CREDENTIALS.

But there is always one other piece of furniture that holds the glance. It would seem that the smaller and more insignificant in appearance the room, by 'the law of contraries, the larger and more imposing this article, the safe in which are kept gems, cut and uncut, samples and stock for the jobber, the retail or the wholesale trade, as may be. These safes are enclosed in cabinets and wired all over with electric connections, which spell the last word in security at night, • so that if a robber attempts a haul it I is practically certain that it will have I to be tried in the daytime, when the vigilance that usually forbids one man being left alone in any of these offices is sometimes relaxed. So secure do the men employed in Malden Lane feel of their lives and property that they laugh at the idea that at each diamond broker’s elbow may be a possible thief and murderer when he starts out with his pockets lined with precious gems. Standing at the door of one of the largest establishments, a man who knows Maiden Lane as a precocious five-year-old knows his primer says that within his field of vision at the moment of I speaking are half a dozen men each of whom has in his pockets, loosely folded I in tissue paper, diamonds worth enough to put several of the city’s crooks on Easy Street for the rest of their lives. Maiden Lane is protected in a measun by the famous dead line established at Fulton street by Inspector Byrnes. Any crook crossing it is likely to be arrested. A detective is kept on guard at a fixed Eost on Maiden Lane. He is said to now all the crooks by sight. Maiden Lane does not owe its freedom from thefts altogether to the use of electricity, to plain clothes men patrolling the streets, and a detective constantly on watch, but also to the tried reputation of its employees. The practice of bonding employees is practically unknown in the majority of the establishments. When salesmen are on the road, they are supposed to wire their itinerary every day, and if the firm does not hear from them it is popularly supposed that somebody starts out to see what is wrong; but in the majority of cases the salesman, like the other employees, are men who have grown up in the business, and frequently inherited it. THEIR WORD IS AS GOOD AS THEIR BOND. There is plenty of material, however, for the sensational fiction writer in the imprinted records found here, and scarcely one of the old guard but has in his memory some interesting story. Reputation has no rank in the world of jewels. The diamond merchant with a stock of a million dollars relies on it as docs the office boy in his employ. One of the best-known diamond merchants in the city, whose house was on Maiden Lane at one period of its growth, tells of the time when, while showing a customer some designs for a ring, they turned their attention for a moment from the two fine solitaire diamonds the lady had brought to him to reset. When they looked again one of the stones had disappeared. There was no one else in the store; the stones had certainly been there, and after a shaking of clothes and a thorough search the customer flatly accused the diamond 1 merchant of the theft. Words, proj testations were of no avail, and the

merchant finally did what he explained afterwards was the only possible thing

a man under such circumstances could

do. He gave her another diamond to match the one remaining, which was then worth £l2O, and would to-day be worth £3OO at least. Nothing more

was said of the episode; the merchant had saved his credit at the expense of his pride and his pocket-book. A year

afterwards the woman came and asked

to see him in his private office. There she disclosed the fact that on returning home the day of the diamond’s disappearance she had taken off the gown she wore, and going immediately into mourning for an unexpected death, she had never worn it again. A few days before her second visit she had taken it from the wardrobe to have it ripped up, i end there, caught securely inside one I of the little flounces, she discovered the missing diamond, so securely pocketed that the brisk shaking the gown had received at the time of the loss had not dislodged it. She cried and apologised and made restitution for her mistake. There are certain times when Maiden Lane resembles the busy hours at a big summer hotel when the guests are leaving! The migratory appearance occurs in the seasons when the salesmen start out with their heavy trunks for the recurrent tours. Some of these men carry stock outright, some merely samples; but every piece of baggage is valuable, some to an almost unbelievable extent. The trunks carrying the treasures arc innocent looking enough, of the type known in the trade ns jewellers’ trunks, and are usually furnished with one or more traps, divided into small velvet-lined compartments and ocasionally with SECRET DRAWEES. The rest of the trunk is used for the traveller’s clothing. There arc only two insurance companies that take risks on this baggage—one covers the goods, the other the person of the salesman. When his equipment is that, of unset stones the salesman ordinarily takes them wrapped separately e. tissue paper and then puts them v ,f oocket-books with double pockets, V-. which in turn there are separate pocket/.- in his waistcoat on cithe: side. 'Vh.. r he goes to bed in a sleeper he ■ nistcoat under the mattress; .ches an hotel l;o seals his pt -V in an envelope and put? it in .:;ie h'. Lel safo.—New York Sun,