Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 114, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1912 — Boys Find Eighty Diamonds [ARTICLE]

Boys Find Eighty Diamonds

Costly Gems Had Been Swept Out With the Rubbish When Jewelry Store Was Cleaned. Philadelphia.—The discovery erf diamonds in an ash barrel in front of Charles Kranich’s jewelry store, 2466 Kensington avenue, raised a disturbance that suggested the scene of a “lucky strike” in the gold fields of Alaska. Mrs. Kranich saw a number of boys struggling around the barrel, each endeavoring to dig his hands into the contents. These were joined presently by a dozen men, who also entered the' strange scramble. Alarmed, Mrs. Kranich called her daughter, Mrs. Lloyd Brooks, and her sister-in-law. Miss Bessie Kranich, who learned that the men and boys were digging for gems in the ash barrel. Mrs. Kranich went into the street, and on looking closer discovered that the boys had found diamonds that her husband had procured for his Christmas stock. Soon afterward the boys went Into the store and abked Mrs. Kranich whether the crystals were valuable. She shrewdly replied that they were only cheap stones, but if they cared to go to the trouble of looking for more she would pay them a moderate reward for each one. The ruse was effective. One by one boys went to her and returned the stones, some of them not asking anything in return. Meanwhile the Eighteenth district police heard of the unusual occurrence, and .Lieutenant Keith patched six policemen la civilian’s

clothes to endeavor to recover the diamonds. The result of this was that before night fifty-four of the missing stones had been found and returned to their owner; about twenty were still missing. When Mr. Kranich learned of the Incident he said that he and two young men were gathering up rubbish In the store in the morning, and it was into this that the diamonds must have accidentally dropped. Shortly before cleaning the store, he said, he had taken from his safe a leather case containing a number of diamonds, which he said, he either examined or else showed to a customer. The stones were sorted, those of each

kind being wrapped separately in tissue paper. * Thus the diamonds were probably not noticeable and dropped into the rubbish-that was being swept from the store and later dumped into the ash barrel.