DIAMOND SALESMEN.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12506, 6 April 1909, Page 4

DIAMOND SALESMEN.

♦ Even the bank official docs not live

in such continual dread .of. thieves as' does the travelling diamond salesman. His life, says a writer in the "New York Tribune*' is one long watch for the pickpocket or the man with the sandbag. There are at lea,st a hundred agents of largo wholesale diamond houses in New York not on« of whom carries less than one hundred thousand dollars' worth -.of' precious stones in his pockets, and/more often, the value of his waf^s lie's between a quarter and a half million dollars. A year ago one of theso salesmen was dogged about the country for three months by a New York thief. The thief had money enough to bide his time and take chances. He knew the salesman had at least.3oo,ooo dollars' worth of diamonds with him, and he fejt that even if the opportunity to rob him should notarise the money spent, on the tour was a good specula-' tion. "■-;■■■ Before a week had gone by the diamond man realised that he was being followed. The man had stuck too close not to arouse suspicion. Every hour after that was one of continual anxiety. At night orithe trains-the salesman hardly dared to sleep.. The thought that lip had 300,000 dollars' worth of diamonds under his -pillow, and that one of the cleverest thieves in the country was on his track, and perhaps even then in the same car with him, was* always "on his mind. v Scarcely, a day passed that either on a. train or. in some town he did' not catch sight of the thief, and he began to wonder what the man's plan was. He realised, as the travelling diamond salesman always does, that the time is sure to come when even the most cautious of men can be found off his guard. It might take months, and 16 might take years j it was only a question of how long the crook could keep up the chase. In a hotel in St Louis one evening Jih'e salesman caught his shadow in the act .of trying the door of his room. He took the man by the throat and with his free hand pounded his face. Finally he flung the thief from him and pointed out the staircase with" a warning that if he should ever catch sight of him again he would treat him in the. same way. The shadow faded away in a twinkling, and never reappeared. / '