Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1909 — $260,000 BRIBE TENDERED LOEB [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

$260,000 BRIBE TENDERED LOEB

Heroic Efforts to Protect Social Leaders. SMUGGLERS BEING SOUGHT Gowns Worth $55,000 Will Be Sold at Auction and Former Private Secretary to Roosevelt Will Employ Dressmakers and Models to See T1...\ the ‘ Creations” Are Displayed to Ad ventage—Case Already Has -i-av-' Cr.e Tragedy. . April 20. —The smuggling ■ U L: ( . ..i.h first offered Collector ' t:. l :,i. „: eb SIOO,OOO to drop the . n investigation of the -oj-.iiij t.f “sleeper” trunks containing vgs,moo worth of Paris gowns, has increased its offer to $260,000, according to Loeb. It is believed that worry over this case so affected the mind of William B. Bainbridge, confidential agent of

the United States treasury department in charge of the customs bureau lu Paris, that he committed suicide. Collector Ix>eb stated that he had been approached by several reputable lawyers, but refused to reveal the names of the attorneys because, he said, even they did not know the identity of the smugglers. Loeb declares the attempt to stop the investigation is to keep from becoming public the names of pany wo-

men of great social prominence ior whom the gowns were imported. The collector will sell the seized gowns at public auction next month and will employ dressmakers and models to display them.

WILLIAM LOEB, JR.