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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1953-12-2, Page 2Got Fortune In Gems Instead Of Pills The general public is• inclined to get a wrong idea about crime detection. They pay far too much attention to things like finger- prints, forgetting that finger- prints are meaningless until the criminal is under lock and key. The police can, run through pic- tures of prints and often pin -point the man who did the job. But they have still got to track him down. More important than crime de- tection is its prevention. Remem- ber, jewel thieves will follow their victim—and stjck to him until they've got him. And remember, too, the important part that ser- vants play in jewel robberies, even the most honest of them. Thieves are clever at wheed- ling vital information out of them. When do their employers have their evening meal? Do they listen in or look in to TV= and so forth. An example of how tenaciously thieves will hound a victim was provided on March 14, 1905, when a young French diamond mer- chant from Paris went into a chemist's shop in Colmore Row, Birmingham, England, with an Interpreter, to have a prescription made up. On a chair he placed a leather handbag containing dia- monds worth $50,000. As the Frenchman and the in- terpreter waited, two men enter- ed the shop; one asked for some liquorice powder; the other ask- ed for a box of patent pills. They appeared to be in a hurry and left together. Presently one man came back with a leather hand- bag which he placed on the chair where the Frenclunan's handbag was. The man asked for more liquorice. Then he walked to the chair and picked up a bag .. . but it was not his own, The loss was discovered with- in two minutes. Evidence was found that two men had been seen shadowing the. Frenchman ever since he had arrived in Bir- mingham. No doubt he had been followed from Paris. His empty bag was found In an arcade a few yards from the chemist's shop. But the diamonds were never traced, nor the thieves tracked down. Four years later, in the sum- mer of 1909, another Parisian diamond merchant walked into the grill -room of the Cafe Monica, near Piccadilly Circus, to dine one evening. He hung up his hat and light summer overcoat and went to the washroom, where he hung up his jacket. In the breast pocket was his wallet, which contained $200,000 worth of dia- monds! He rolled up his shirt sleeves and plunged his arms into warm water. He glanced up at himself in the mirror facing him and saw a man lifting his wallet out of his jacket pocket. Frantic, the Frenchman shouted and ran after the disappearing thief. But another man beside him stuck out his leg and tripped him up. In the hullabaloo that followed, the tripper -up also vanished. Neither crook had gone through the restaurant They left by an- other door. Despite an intensive search, they were never traced. Nor were the diamonds ever found It was a clever coup. And no doubt the diamond merchant had been ruth- lessly shadowed every moment ;ince leaving Paris. Back again to 1905—a truly rumper year for jewel robberies -when, on May 29th, the Duchess if Westminster, returning from he theatre, discovered that jewel- lery valued at $40,000 had van - shed from her dressing table. Little less than a month later Inspector' Drew arrested a man formerly employed at Grosvenor House as a night watchman. The man, Albert Chapman, was tor, rnally charged with theft. He gave the police certain informa- tion which was acted upon. The police went to Cambridge, where they arrested a second man, As a result, Of lcers were sent to a field about two miles from Cambridge and there found buried In a hole all the missing jewels. In the same year the New York Smart Set were holiday -making as usual at Newport, Rhode Is- land, when they were startled by a series of mysteries in connec- tion with the fabulous jewels of the equally fabulous Mrs. William Astor. She complained that her Jewels worth millions of dollars had been stolen. Then she ap- peared at a dinner party wear- ing some of them! Her explanation was that the stolen jewels had been mysteri- ously returned. Then she said they had not been stolen at all, but she had mislaid them. Pri- vate detectives were called in and in a statement to the press they reported that the jewels had nev- er been. stolen or mislaid. But the gossip writers of the day got busy, and they declared that there had indeed been a robbery, but on account of the identity of the thief it was desired to have the affair hushed up. Over in Europe there was an- other jewel sensation, Lady Bow- ers, en route from London to the French Riviera, took her seat in the 9.15 p.m. train from the Gare de Lyon, Paris, and left some light luggage and a red morocco leather jewel -box in the charge of her maid, while she went to the buffet, A few minutes before she was finished, her pale -faced and trembling maid rushed into the buffet to say that, a minute or two after her Iadyship had left the compartment, a well-dressed gentleman sat down in the cor- ner opposite the jewel case. He had some newspapers, and he threw them in the corner over the cases. The maid thought he was a fellow traveller. She went into the corridor for a few mom- ents, When she returned to the compartment the "gentleman" had gone; so had the jewels worth $20,000. Neither thief nor jewels were ever seen again. Again in 1905, on Christmas Day, a man named Bird, repre- senting a London firm of diamond merchants, checked in at a Liv- erpool hotel with $100,000 worth of diamonds which he left in his room and went to supper. He re- turned between 9 and 10 and found two men rifling his lug- gage. He rushed to the attack, shouting for assistance, and a ter- rible fight ensued. Bird managed to knock down one man and hold him; the other escaped, but was caught at the foot of the stairs. Both men were wearing rubber gloves. They were notorious jew- el thieves. There, then, you have another "combination": no brains, sheer brutality. Robbery with violence, although undoubtedly the thieves had relentlessly fol- lowed their man from London, thus exploiting what little intel- ligence they had. 'Won't you give me your tele- phone number?" he mumured. "It's in the book," she said. "Splendid," he sighed. "And what's your name?" "That's in the book, too," she snapped. Broken Homes -- Heavy masonry was no match for the furious floodwaters, that recently engulfed Oliveto and other towns in the southern Calabria region of Italy. Mare than 100 were killed and 3000 were made homeless, including this forlorn family of Oliveto. r► . Fashion Hints A delightful young party dress in rusting black taffeta embroid- ered with bright red satin clots. The full skirt is formed a deep unpressed pleats and soft drapery frames the sweetheart -shaped neckline. LUCKY KID! • I wonder how many school- boys strike as lucky as did Nel- son Doubleday, head of the pub- lishing house of Doubleday, Doran of New York. When be was six years old he read some animal stories by Kipling, so sat down arid ad- dressed a letter, "Dear Uncle Rud," which he sent to England. He said he would like to know how the elephant got its trunk, the leopard its spots and the rhino its skin. He ended by add- ing, ''if the stories are good enough, my father will make a book of them." So Kipling wrote "Just So Stories," which sold more than a million copies in the United States alone. And when young Doubleday went to his father and said "1 gave you a good idea; I ought to have a rayalty," his father agreed, So on every copy Nel- son Doubleday got and still gets — one cent. Merrie Men Unmasked There is sorrow and sighing in Sherwood Forest. Friar Tuck and Little John, Maid Marian and the debonair Robin have all been exposed -- as Marxists in Lincoln green. A member of Indiana's text- book commission has charged Robin Hood and his merri•- men with following the Communist line' in robbing the rich to give to the poor. The gay leferd that has been the delight of ehtldren and their elders through long non-Communist centuries is de- scribed as "just a smearing of law and order," and thus as subversive fare for young Ame- ricans. The charge has caused .'xplo- sions of laughter ie Merrir Eng- land, and has cvnked from the High Sheriff of Nottingham (whose medieval ancestor chased Robin through the greenwood) the jovial response the' while hundreds of Americans visit the outlew'a haunt. every year, "we don't get any Hastens." We might ask: If Robin Hood was a Red beeatise of ht% : ore what unorthodox resistanec to the social depreciations of the lyranneus King John, :vele not the barons who wrung Magna Carta from -that reluctant mon- arch at least fellow travelers? Or is Magna Carta itself, along with the Declaration of Inde- pendence, suspect today as a "revolutionary docuinent? Seriously, we don't believe American security demands that the United States make itself ridiculous before the world. Laughter and legend have not yet been outlawed by the cold war. We would be loth to see an arrow from Indiana kill Cock Robin (now exposed to the world as Little Red Robin Hood). From "The Christian Science Monitor." All the World Sends Him Postcards When a teacher at e school in the province of Volterra, Italy, discovered her class had no maps or atlases, she asked the head- master to buy some. But funds were low; be had to refuse, 5o the teacher asiced each pupil to bring to school any picture post- cards they possessed of towns and districts in any part of the world so that the.,e could be used dur- ing'lessons. Only one boy, ten -year-old Fabio Signorinio, came empty- handed, He came, from a poor home where there were no cards and no money to buy any. The teacher decided to give the child a surprise. She put an advertise- ment in several national news- papers, in Fables name, asking for picture postcards. Since then cards have rained on the boy's village home. They have come from all parts of the world, Fabio has now at least 80,000 cards and every post brings more. The village post' Wheel has had to engage a man to cope with the extra mall. A 11 of it used to be carred in the postman's one bag;: now he has to use a horse and cart! The whole schoolroom is dec- orated with the cards and the children say they love learning geography that way! As for little Fabio, he says that when he grows up he will try to thank personally all the people who sena the t'ards! Rowed Paper Boot For Piny Miles It is a predicament for any- one to be up the creek in a paper 'boat. James Taylor, 'a boatman and poet of Shelves - peace's day, found himself in that situation to fulfil a wager and earn enough guineas to marry the girt of his choice, In return for guineas from patrons who wanted to see him achieve the feat, Taylor undertook to row a brown -paper boat on the Thames from London .to Queen- borough, over fifty miles away in Kent. For oars, Taylor and his com- panion, a wine merchant; used two stockfish tied to canes. Launched by kisses from his lady love and by cheers and jeers from the onlookers, they set out from London one Sat- urday morning, Remarkably, they C o v e r e d three miles before the boat fell to piecesand nearly drowned them. They struggled ashore and made another paper boat. It, too, disintegrated after a few miles. But Taylor and the vintner were made of tough stuff. Making Many paper boats and escaping drowning many times, they reached Queenborough on Mon- day, more dead than alive, Taylor went back to London and mar- ried his girl. Forgot His Family For Fifteen Years" Harry Vandell knew he had once lost his memory .. but one day after fifteen years of mar- ried life he clapped his band to his forehead and gasped: "My gosh, I've another wife and two children!" The sudden flashback—and the appalling difficulties it aroused. —has startled Australian psychi- atrists, and the sequel was re- cently told in their medical jour- nal With the name of a town- ship flickering in his mind, Har- ry went to a helpful priest who duly sought out his first wife— and Harry no sooner clapped eyes on her than he remember- ed his first marriage had been unhappy. • Yet he felt morally bound to support his first wife and family. Owing to the special circumstanc- es the authorities have decided not to prosecute him. Paris is . laughing at the am- nesia • victim who forgot three wives—and Charles Drinnay has said in court that he fears other lost memory spouses of his may yet emerge. His first wife was a pretty dressmaker in Nantes, his second a waitress in Bor- deaux, and his third a Paris dance hostess. When Charles was prosecuted for bigamy, doc- tors gave evidence of amnesia— lost memory—in his defence. He won his case when his first wife gave evidence that she was genu- inely convinced he had forgot- ten her. It was not legal bigamy, the judge ruled. It was all a mistake owing to a medical lapse of memory. Then there was the Budapest case of George Bauer, who mar, ried blonde Maria Farkas only three months after he had mar- ried brunette Margit Gruenfeld, "I'm awfully absent-minded," he pleaded; and he begged the mag- istrates not to release him from custody in case he should mar- ry a third girl. On medical evidence he was acquitted. In Great Britain psychologists are discussing a husband who was presumed dead but reap- peared, his lost memory restored, after his wife had re -married. Since her first marriage was le- gally nullified by presumed death, her second marriage is valid. But ,the lady in the extraor- dinary case is in doubt about which man she loves most. She should be given twelve months in which to choose be- tween the two men, say the ex- perts, and recently on her ac- count evidence was heard be- fore a Royal Commission in Edin- burgh urging a change in the present Scottish marriage and divorce laws. Another Scottish poser arose in the case of a man who was mar- ried by the Gretna Green black- smith, back in 1938, at an exhibi- tion in Edinburgh. He" thought it just an amusing publicity stunt. Then he married another woman—and years later discov- ered he had unknowingly been a bigamist, • Justice took a lenient view and the fine for bigamy was only .115. But the romantic Scotsman found he had to sue for divorce! Polythene bags used to pre- package such groceries as fruits, vegetables and biscuits make excellent dust covers for stacks of plates and other china on pantry shelves not in daily use. The bags can be cut to size 11 too long and are easily washed In warm soapy water. " TABLE TALKS darwAndrews A great many women of my ' acquaintance -- and probably as many of yours—are making use these days of those packaged "biscuit mixes" which they find so handy when time is short, and appetites getting keener by the minutes, Writing in The Christian Sei- enee Monitor, Ethel M. Eaton tells of some mostinteresting variationsin, the uses of such "mixes" ---and I'm sure she won't mind, my passing them along to you. 4 ? a Remember when biscuit mix was used for biscuits and little else? Today, there's practically no limit to the variations stem- ming from quick - mix biscuit dough, I always add cooking oil to the recipe for rolled biscuits printed on the package, the am- ount varying with the use. Also, I chill the dough for five minutes after kneading. NUT BREAD 11 cup sugar 1 egg 154 cups milk 1 cup chopped nuts 3 cups biscuit mix Combine sugar, egg, milk, and nuts, then stir in the biscuit mix. Beat hard for 30 seconds. Pour into a 'well-oiled loaf pan and bake 50-60 minutes in an oven preheated to 350°F. or until a straw thrust into the center comes out clean. A slight crack in the top is characteristic. Al- low to cool slightly before cut- ting with bread knife. * 5 * ONION -HAM SHORTCAKE Mix biscuit dough as usual, adding one tablespoon of cook- ing oil and two tablespoons of ground ham to each cup of flour. Bake at 450°F, for about 12 min- utes or until browned, Split while hot and fill with golden - brown fried onion rings, arrang- ing some over the top. Canned Erench-fried onion rings may be used, making this an even quicker dish. OYSTER RING Half fill a greased ring mold with biscuit dough. For an extra brown top, brush with beaten egg yolk, milk. Bake at 450°F. until done and top is golden brown. Fill with the following mixture: 2 tablespoons flour 2 tablespoons butter or margarine 1 out condensed cream of mushroom soup 1 cup cooked celery 1 pint oysters Blend flour and butter in a saucepan, add undiluted soup, celery and oysters. Combine thoroughly and serve hot in the center of the biscuit ring. Six servings. 5 V 5 CHICKEN PIE 2 cups diced cooked chicken 3 tablespoons quick tapioca 1 cup chicken stock or milk - 3 tablespoons shortening seasoning to taste Blend ingredientsand pour in- to an oiled baking dish. Bake at 450°F, for 10 minutes, stirring once. Top with biscuits, cut small, and continue baking until brown. Four servings, RAISIN,APPLE DOWDY Place a deep layer of peeled and quartered apples In a baldnl dish, Sprinkle generously with cinnamon add sugar and dot with batter, Bake fpr 10 minutes id 425°F, Add one-half cup 01 less raisins to' ao batch ofi biscuit dough, place over apples an¢ continue baking until done and browned on top, Serve warm with plain cream or hot molasses settee, MOLASSES SAUCE cup molasses to cup water 1 teaspoon butter or mar- garine 1 teaspoon lemon juice ' 1 tablespoon cornstarch Cold water Boll molasses and water to- gether, then add remaining ingre- dients, except cornstarch, Bring to a boil, then add cornstarch which has been made smooth with a little cold water. Continue cooking gently until thickened, Mrs, Gregory Peck provided copy for Hollywood columns by revealing that she and her movie - idol husband, now making pic- tures in Europe, have been sep- arated since last January. The couple first stet when Mrs. Peck was a hairdresser for Katharine Cornell and he was playing small parts on Broadway. They were married in 1942 and have three small sons. Peck's name has re- cently been linked with leading ladies Audrey Hepburn and 1111- degarde Neff. -mt Choo-Choo, -Bow-Wow.— Butch, a two -year-olds B'difei'jilus=etce- teros pup, is a confirmed engine rider. Owned by Engineer Glenn Harlan, he rides a local freight daily between Ottawa and Law- rence, either in the diesel cab, as above, or on the catwalk. He likes to bark at switch stands and once in a while will hop off to hunt some rabbits. .,,�.` t ..-`r:. - , .-, 'I'dl tri rt, gi. haYb t.. "Flashy" Outfit --g44 vp like. a christma' .tiao Lj` ,. ,;;koro, landing signal officeralaoard the Midway, timoejcJsthis OOWsuit WO tiny I1 ht bulbs strung up and down and rcrttsf'liis body and signol paddies. in.eis at l0,: c� 1itht'.'1', hc,.' he looks to pilots returning to iht,carrio cit rir,,ht,