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Show T was the afternoon hour y-: when the corridors of the fftk 'fl Waldorf-Astoria are usually crowded with women. Every r'ck one of the restaurants was &Jt fllled. and the tables had t overflowed into the oak room and the foyers. A continuous stream of femininity came in at the entrance en-trance on the Thirty-third street side nearest Fifth avenue, hurried through the "tunnel" leading to the foyer, turned turn-ed into Peacock alley, progressed slowly and gla- -s-3s,ra cially through It " to the office, turn- ed to the left, j7 : coursed past the jv-i7 office deck, con- f$(fa&'j? J scious more or &ijk less of the WmMf male loiterers V nM-A standing and sit- I lllMy r7s ting about, hur- , , MMJ? Wi corridors of the , $&J'm SKM storia are usually PrMWVWY, Jfcp5W ith women. Every l M restaurants was . ' if. . JSli , fA X 4t.il the tables had i $f. f tfU f, into the oak !" iWWM S Wl ft H . A continuous ' f ff I ? 141' llX ifltOT came in at the en- l , v A -third street side tW I I V YV IvV ' SV? :", hurried through r.'j 1( ' VttT? "iff- WvV ft. f 1 illWVVl to the foyer, turn- f frT lfPM, Wfl? .lley, progressed fe B.S, ffeawlf1 lA A ''wWfc it A the trasl1 collect" she was indignant, but finally re- ; I I'ypwl r doesn't work membered that she had put the ring, ! ; ftlfl on that holi3ay together with four others, into her irjuj5 W M and what had pocketbook that morning before Jjiff !j Ik " been in the waste breakfast. The purse she had left 'f fwL4'" " basket was now on her dressing table when she went yT'v. 'A'yirs ln a blg bin be" downstairs to breakfast. That must rfc sSo ! " - low stairs, six have been the chance the chamber- f (f S - feet deep by maid took, for when later in the morn- "f & wSl twelve feet long. tK she opened her purse in" a de- With a cham- partment store to pay for some pur- ried through the 1" W-W M " oak room, then 1 'Pwifiv 'lA i up the Thirty- ; fpM JM) third street corri- I 'jf. jj dor, either to find J , 'jfjiifM " acquaintances or 'j ' YM ATT" "h perhaps seats, or ' Jfl ifVSl" ''It else to start -W again on the 'r jP , wO ' same tour. fJP'r A woman hur- tf ried up to the b lost and found 7?I?OSermrAZ0JSM2'ffigl?'6K section of the of fice desk. She held up a gold mesn handbag. "I saw a woman who had this bag In her hand sit down in the corridor," she said. "She got up a few minutes later and went away, leaving it. I thought she might return, so I kept my eyes on it for a while; but now have got tu go, and as she has not come back I thought I had better turn the bag in to you." A few minutes later another woman wom-an came up to the same place and asked ask-ed whether anything had been heard of a feather boa, which she was sure somebody had stolen. After a search :he clerk produced the boa and she went out of the hotel. Fifteen minutes afterward a taxi-;ab taxi-;ab driver entered and turned in at the office a feather boa which he said i fare from the hotel had left in the ;ab. To the clerk it looked familiar. He examined it carefully. It was the iame boa that had been claimed ojily i quarter of an hour before. Only a few minutes had passed when i third woman rushed up. She asked iho clerk to please to tell the hotel Jetectives or the police or the newspapers, newspa-pers, or somebc-dy, to find a valuable fur muff which had been stolen from ier. She was positive she had left t in her room. The clerk listened attentively at-tentively to her description. Then ie ducked under the counter and solemnly sol-emnly handed her the muff. "Why, where did you get this?" she lemanded. "It was picked up in the corridor, !nadam," was the reply. She signed her name to the receipt book and then went away in the same aaste she had come. When the clerk i looked up from the book he found j she had left her pocketbook on the ; counter. The rewards given by women, and men, too, to those who have return jd lost property are sometimes astonishingly as-tonishingly small. Two women who were occupying an apartment in an exclusive hotel went away to spend the Christmas holidays. One got back he day before the other. When she entered the bedroom she was amazed to see lying on the dressing table a 3iamond bar pin belonging to her Triend. It contained 15 jewels, and was worth several thousand dollars. She was going away from town that same day and simply enclosed the pin, together with a note, in an envelope, md left the latter on the dressing tab's. ta-b's. The next morning the other woman showed up. The day after that she Bent a hurry call downstairs for the manager. "Oh this Is tragic!" she exclaimed when the latter entered her room. "My diamond bar pin Is gone. It was stolen, I am sure, and you must have the chambermaid arrested. The manager looked at her. She answered his questions impatiently, but they drew from her the information informa-tion that when she entered her bed room the day before she had found a note on the dressing table from her friend, but she was in such a hurry to dress for dinner that she had thrown it aside; and yes, she admitted after some hesitation. It was possible It might have fallen over into the waste basket that stood near. The chambermaid had straightened up the apartment that morning, and under ordinary circumstances the contents con-tents of the waste basket would by this time have been on their way to the city incinerating plant. But it happened to be New Year's day, and the trash collector collect-or doesn't work on that holiday, and what had - been in the waste basket was now in a big bin below be-low stairs, six feet deep by twelve feet long. With a chambermaid cham-bermaid and a porter the mana ger betook himself to the basemeni. and stood by while the two took out the refuse, piece by piece, from the bin. After a solid hour's work, the porter found an envelope, from which he took the missing pin. The owner of it gave him one dollar. Somewhat similar was the case of another woman at a different hotel, who on the night before she was due to sail for Europe came down to the desk in great excitement. Her valuable valu-able pearl necklace was gone. She had wrapped it, she said, during the morning in tissue paper, preparatory to packing it, and must have left it on the bureau. To the manager the Idea of the tissue tis-sue paper suggested the waste basket. bas-ket. The contents of the waste bas-been bas-been taken to the cellar and had been compressed with other refuse into a 250 pound bale. There was but one thing to do, and that was to examine this bale. The manager and the steward set themselves at the task. Piece by piece the paper was removed, but at the end of almost three hours not a sign of the necklace neck-lace had appeared. The day after the departure of the steamer the manager received a letter from the voyager, sent ashore by the pilot. "I am so sorry to have given you so much trouble," it read. "I have found the necklace in my trunk." A woman from Washington, who always al-ways travels with a lot of diamonds, arrived one night at a New York hotel ho-tel unaccompanied by the maid, who usually traveled with her. About half past nine o'clock the next morning she came downstairs breathless. "I want those doors locked and nobody no-body permitted to leave this building," build-ing," she cried. "My chamois bag, in which I carry all my jewels. Is gone, and I want all the help searched. When I went to bed last night I laid the bag under a piece of crumpled newspaper ln a corner of this shelf In the closet" "Are you sure that after all you did not put it in your trunk?" suggested sug-gested the manager. The woman was indignant at the idea, and demanded that police headquarters head-quarters be communicated with instantly. in-stantly. When, the central office detective de-tective reached the hotel the manager mana-ger called him reside, explaining the situation, and advised him to insist upon the woman opening the trunk. Ten minutes later the sleuth came downstairs grinning. "The bag was where you said It was, ail right," he said to the manager. man-ager. An engagement ring figured in a theft charge at a Fifth avenue hotel. A young woman who had been out shopping entered the hotel breathlessly breath-lessly one morning and hurried to her room. In a very short time she was downstairs again, with a demand upon the manager that he have the chambermaid cham-bermaid arrested. She said that her engagement ring, which had cost $600 had been stolen from her room and as the chamber maid was the only person who had access to the room, she simply knew the woman had it She was so positive ln her statement state-ment that the manager Immediately telephoned to the nearest police station sta-tion for a plain clothes man. The chambermaid had been ln the hotel many years, and was well thought of. A few questions convinced the detective detec-tive of her Innocence. Then he put some questions to the woman who had lost the ring. She was indignant, but finally remembered re-membered that she had put the ring, together with four others, into her pocketbook that morning before breakfast. The purse she had left on her dressing table when she went downstairs to breakfast. That must have been the chance the chambermaid chamber-maid took, for when later in the morning morn-ing she opened her purse In" a department de-partment store to pay for some purchases pur-chases the engagement ring was missing. miss-ing. She insisted that the detective nT-nnt . U 1. 1 U The sleuth refused, and decided to make a thorough examination of the room, in spite of the young lady's protests. pro-tests. At one end of the dressing table, ta-ble, on the floor, stood a pair of high shoes. The detective picked one up, and turned it upside down. Out rolled roll-ed the missing solitaire ring. Apparently Appar-ently when its owner had swept the five rings together to put them into her purse, the solitaire had rolled off the table. They looked for to express at least some gratification over the recovery re-covery of the trinket; but no, she was so enraged over her mistake that she made no amends to the chambermaid she had accused and did not even thank the detective. . Somewhat similar ln its outcome was the experience of a woman from Washington. She arrived at a hotel in a fashionable district one night about nine o'clock, and her first order or-der was for a pitcher of ice water. A bellboy took it up and placed it on a table in he rsitting room. The next morning she called up tho manager in a condition bordering on hysteria, and informed him that a big marquise ring containing 32 diamonds was missing. The only person who had been in the room besides be-sides herself was a bellboy, and she remembered that before the bellboy entered her sitting room she had taken off her ring and placed it on the table while she was washing her hands. The bellboy bore a good record. After Aft-er a search of the room he was put through the third degree. He convinced con-vinced the manager of his innocence. The next day, just as she was about to leave the hotel, the woman came In to the manager. "I feel very much mortified," she said. "I found the ring just now as I went to pack my trunk. "I left the window open the other night and the wind must have blown the curtain so that it swept across the table and took the ring with it A pair of rubbers rub-bers was standing by the side of the table, and when I went to pack them in my trunk just now the ring rolled roll-ed out of one of them." |
