Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 April 1918 — DOUBLE FLIM FLAM [ARTICLE]

DOUBLE FLIM FLAM

Clever Trick by Which Jeweler Recovered Money. Vlad Bern Victimised In Really Neat Manner, But All the Honors of War Were His When the Game Ended. This Is a story picked up In New York that has all the elements—save the love of touch —of a modern mystery story. M. Parrish Watson Is a wealthy collector of Chinese art. He eends emissaries all over China digging up treasures. One of his agents has Just returned. lit Peking he was in the shop of a pawnbroker. A silk-hatted American, a polished man of the world, came In, to secure a loan on a pearl which he took out of a velvet bag. The broker applied the testa and was satisfied the pearl was genuine. He advanced $lO.000. - Later In the day one of his experts rushed to him breathlessly with the startling statement that the pearl was the moat clever counterfeit he had ever seen. The broker made another examination and found he had been the victim of a film flam artist. Several days afterward he called every Jeweler In Peking Into a conference. He told them of his. experience and he said he was simply going to take his loss, but he thought it was his duty to warn his fellow merchants. He held up the pearl before them. “Here It is,” he said. “To show you what I think of It and that the Incident is closed, I am going to destroy It." He placed the pearl on an Iron and with a hammer smashed It to tiny fragments with one blow. The next day all the Peking newspapers carried a story about the way the merchant had been tricked and how he had destroyed the bogus gem. Several weeks wentjby and the incident was almost forgotten. One morning the American who had pawned the pearl entered the shop. A clerk recognized him and went toward him. “1 have come for my pearl,” he said. The clerk was In a panic. He begged the customer to wait a few minutes and he rushed off to his employer with the news. The broker came out of his private office and met the customer. “1 have come for my pearl,” repeated the American. “You have the money to redeem It?" he was asked. For answer the American counted out the exact amount and placed It on the counter. The broker went to the safe and brought back the pearl that ■was pawned. He had cleverly tricked the trickster. „He knew there was only one chance of getting his money back and that was to make the customer believe the pearl had been destroyed. • He resorted to this ruse and did not destroy the pawned pearl but a substitute. A surprised American walked out of the place with his counterfeit 3ewel —gnashing his teeth just like the smooth villain In the melodrama of old.