M. Alexander is positive that the roll of bills was in the pocket of the trousers sent down to the tailor. As the tailor is in the same building, there was no chance of the money’s dropping on the street, and yet the hotel corridors, elevators and lobbies have been searched inch by inch.
This morning M. Alexander went to the central police station and reported the loss, or theft. Detective Paul Pergande was detailed on the case.
“It was 650 francs I lose; all I had, aussi,” said M. Alexander this morning, with a deprecatory French shrug of the shoulders. “I do not know what shall I do if the gendarmerie, the police, soon do not find the money. It is of a probability, certainement, that I can get some more, but it will take time and I am what you call ‘broke’--n’est-ce pas?
“You see, monsieur, my compagnie--it is in Bruxelles--allow me an expense account and we representateefs do not carry with us so much. That which one has stolen is all that I had. Voila!
“I must find that money, monsieur. Certainement I can explain to our New York agents and they will send me some money to live with. Assuredly I hope that they will not doubt my explanation and wonder how I use so much expense account. Six hundred and fifty francs--it is much, monsieur!
“King Albert, I? Oh, oui, we have a new and fine king, but just now I worry so about my money that I have not thought much of our new king.”
Liquor was responsible for starting out two young men last night on a brief career as holdup men which lasted only a few hours and ended in cells at police headquarters at midnight. The men are Herbert Wilson, 24 years old, 910 East Nineteenth Street, and Sherwin Carter, 28 years old, 143 Payne Avenue. Carter is married.
The holdups were eight in number, occurring in the district between Twenty-first and Thirty-seventh streets and Penn Street and Forest Avenue. The loot obtained amounted to $12 in cash, eight diamond rings, four purses and three watches. The robberies came in quick succession and so did the calls of the victims to police headquarters. Two policemen in a motor car finally caught the pair at Linwood Boulevard and Forest Avenue.
Carter is the son of Dr. Eugene Carter, Hampshire Apartments, president of Standard Lumber Company. Doctor Carter, when notified of his son’s arrest, immediately blamed liquor for the young man’s downfall and said that ordinarily he was a “good boy.”