Society has been interested this week in another great jewel
robbery. The Dowager - Duchess of Sutherland re- cently made some large purchases of jewels, chiefly pearls and diamonds, in Paris. The gems, worth, it is said, 220,000, were on Monday placed in a bag, and the bag in a dressing ease, and the dressing case carried with the Duchess, her husband, Sir A. Rollit, and some relatives to the Gare du Nord. There the dressing case was left for a few moments on a seat in the first-class compartment while the Duchess spoke to her husband on the platform. In those moments the bag was extracted from the dressing case and carried away by some one who entered, it is supposed, from the other side. The police have no clue, and it is believed that the thieves will never be detected, though the Duchess has offered a reward of 24,000 for the recovery of the jewels. It is assumed that they are chiefs in the profession, that they shadowed the Duchess from London, and that they had con- federates. The police know their business better than we do, but we should like to interrogate the salesmen of the shops where the jewels were purchased. They knew of the purchases and their extent, and one of them, or a confederate, might have made a daring raid, and have carried, to use in the event of his being seen, an invented message from a real jeweller. The experience of the police teaches them that daring thieves are usually professionals, but there may be exceptions. Rich people almost deserve to lose jewels, they are so careless of them. Twenty thousand pounds in notes would have been carried in a bag strapped to the person.
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