Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1920 — John Mihok and His Lucky Stone [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

John Mihok and His Lucky Stone

JOHN MIHOK is not a character in a short story in a fiction magazine. He is a real, flesh-and-blood man. He lives at 1943 South "Twentieth street, Omaha, Neb. He is a furniture polisher and has worked at his trade for six years in Omaha. He has a wife and five children. He can walk into a national bank in Omaha and be identified. And what’s more, people in his neighborhood point him out on the street and say: "There he is. That’s John Mihok himself." John Mihok was born in the village of Nagy Koros in eastern Hungary. In the Mihok home on the shelf over the fireplace one of the ornaments was a small rough stone. His father had picked it up one day beside a stream and had brought it home. It was a curious sort of stone. Here and there through the rough covering pretty red colors showed. Altogether it was an oddity and rather pretty. So the family kept it over the fireplace for years, while young John Mihok was growing up. The boy wanted to come to America to seek his fortune and the whole family saved for years to hoard up the money to pay his passage. At last the time came for him to start When he said goodby his father took the “pretty stone” from the shelf and put it in John’s hand. "Here’s a keepsake for you. John; something to remember the old home by. Maybe it will bring you luck in the new country across the water. John thanked his father and said. “Sure enough; maybe it will be my lucky stone." And he put it tn his

The voyage by steerage from Trieste to New York was long and tiresome. John got tired carrying the stone to his pocket and chucked it into his big canvas bag, with the rest of his things. One day he was rummaging through his bag and came across the stone. He showed it to some of his fellowemigrants. While they were looking at the stone and he was telling them its story, a party of first cabin passengers came along on a slummingtrip through the steerage. One of the sightseers offered him $5 for it. John was tempted, but finally decided to keep it because his father had given it to him. At Ellis island the customs inspectors went through his scanty belongings. The lucky stone was right there in plain sight with the rest of his things. But the inspectors never gave the stone a second glance. This was in UW. John worked in various places. His first job was in Scranton. Pa., where he married. Then he worked in Cleveland. Ohio. Six years ago he came to Omaha. And now he is a citizen of the United States. In the meantime the Mihok family in the United States was growing. It grew faster than John’s earnings did. It grew almost as fast as the H. C. L. It wasn’t always easy for John and his wife to make both ends meet. One night John was reading a newspaper upon a story of a man picking up a ruby beside a stream. Naturally the stoty interested him. And naturally it set this poor man with a wife and five children to thinking about his own lucky stone. Finally he had what a native-son would call hunch. The humch said: “Maybe your lucky stone is a ruby too. Take it to a jeweler and find out what it is, anyway!" And John took the hunch. He hunted up his lucky stone and went to the jewelry shop of Joseph P. Frenzer South Fifteenth street. He handed over the stone to Mr. Frenzer and “Here’s a 'lucky stone’ I've had for years. Can you tell me what It is and Mr FreMar smiled and took the tha“ oft It An short order. For the jeweler, after at what John's lucky stone real'/S'

to have it cut to find out what it’s worth. What you want to do is to take it to Chicago to a lapidary and have it cut.” John thanked the jeweler and walked out of the shop in a daze. And the more he thought about things the more dazed he got. “Take it to Chicago and have it cut!” The jeweler might as well have told him to take it to the man in the moon. But John had not been here sixteen years without assimilating a fair amount of Yankee shrewdness, and after much hard thinking he went to Rev. Father William F. Rigge of Creighton university. Father Rigge is something of a scientist himself and quickly saw that the stone was in all probability a ruby of great value. He also realized that John was in a good deal of the plight of a hungry hobo with nothing but a thousand-dollar bill. So Father Rigge called in Edmund McCarthy, a lawyer. They told him the whole case up to date. John offered McCarthy one-fourth of what the stone might bring if he would tpke charge of the whole affair and manage the cutting, polishing and marketing. Mr. McCarthy accepted the offer. Lawyer and client were soon on their way to Chicago. “We did not sleep a wink that night on the train, I can tell you.” said Mr. McCarthy. “We both kept guard. I won’t tell you where we had the ruby, but it was in a mighty safe place.” “Arriving in Chicago we asked for the name of a precious stone expert and in due time came to the establishment of Gustof Gillman, lapidary. 1134 Webster avenue. “Our hearts were in our mouths when we handed the stone to him. What if the Omaha jeweler and scientist had made a mistake? What if the ‘lucky stone’ was nothing but a •pretty stone? “The expression on Mr. Gillmann’s face encouraging. He smiled a little as Mr. Mihok undid the package in which reposed the stone. Mr. Gillmann took the stone in his hand and immediately the cynical smile disappeared. His eyes seemed to bulge and his mouth opened. “He gave an exclamation, then rushed with the stone to his workroom and put it through various tests, talking all the while in most excited fashion. “And then he told us that we had a wonderful ruby. He could not tell how pure it was before cutting it, but he said it was probably one of the finest gems in the world of its kind.” Mr. McCarthy and Mr. Mihok took turns remaining with Mr. Gillmann during file process of cutting and polishing and when the work was completed the lapidary turned it over to them saying: “There’s your ‘great Mihok’—and It’s all I told you it would be—and more!” The two men took the “Great Mihok” back to Omaha with them. Then sat up all night again and hardly rtered mention the precious thing even in whispers. In Omaha they went directly to the safety deposit vaults of the United States National bank ; rented a box and saw that the lucky stone that had been kicked around for sixteen years was securely locked up, with the key in their possession. Then John Mihok went home and told the good news to his wife. “She wouldn’t believe me at first when I told her we would not have to

work any more and that we could move in a nicer house where we would have electric lights.” he said, “but now she believes me and we will have comfort in life. “We will buy a new home. I know a nice one, just what we want, for $4,000. And we are going to buy a little automobile. The rest of the money we will put in Liberty bonds, I think. There it Is safe. “We are no fools. We don’t spend it all and we don’t try to get rich quick. We put it away for our old age and for our children’s education. The oldest boy, who left school last year, will go back again and maybe we make a doctor of him. All the chib dren get now a good education. My dead father was the giver of all my good luck. We’ nre thankful, indeed, and very happy.’ l And how much is the “Great Mlhok” worth? Well, here is what Mr. Gillmann says of John Mihok’s “lucky stone”: “The ‘Great Mihok’ is a genuine pigeon blood rnby; its color is a deep carmine red; it is flawless; Its specific gravity is 4.05; its weight Is 23.9 carats; it is the largest ruby l ever saw or ever heard of; I believe theije is one in India that weighs about 17 carats; large rubles are scarce and valuable; one of ten carats is about ten times as valuable as a diamond of the same weight; Altogether, I should say the ‘Great Mihok’ is worth about $200,000."

John Mihok and His Lucky Stone