Hammond Times, Volume 13, Number 228, Hammond, Lake County, 10 March 1919 — Page 18

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.M5y WAl.lKR N01M.K IU UNS. ' "".CHICAGO. The recent diseovcry of a blue-white diamond of ;ISS! ; carats in the Jaegersfontein mine in "South Africa, has awakened the worlds interest in the great dianionds of history aiai incidentally to ' thf"marvelous growth of the diamond . trj3t whicli, with the vast output of the South African fields to draw upoir, has had difficulty in keeping : pace with the demand for diamonds . among all classes of people. '.Diamonds were never so popular. , - They liave always been the most regal of gems. They have kingly traditions behind them. Time was : 'when they were worn only by the princes and lords of the earth, lint S.they are no longer exclusively the ,"?pfs 'of the ridi and powerful. In Age when money is more equally I jjributed, they are worn by men

I ad women oi all social rank:?. The ' i V t T ,

jwnersmp oi a tiiamonti However small gives, a poor man a feeling that

- he is one ot a goodly company and

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I'" Jewelerssay diamonds are true barometers of a nation's prosperity. I " The growing prosperity of the Unued I : States has been reflected in the growJ ring demand of the people f)r dia- , monds. It has brought a period of J ' bonanza wages for the working man. j.' It has given women their industrial 1 - opportunity. iUen who recently were :poor now make gifts of diamonds to j their wives and sweethearts. WorkJ ing women gratify their feminine j longing for beautiful things by investing in diamond jewelry. This is the age of diamonds. Everybody's . . wearing them. During the war, it is ' .shown by trade statistics, the work- ' ing people were the nation's great- -t diamond buyers. ' Diamonds are lucky except one. In early times, they were Relieved to have talismanic power that brought good luck to all who possessed them, j The old myth still persists. It has, '. too, some basis in fact. The man who ; -owns a valuable diamond is lucky. If, I skeptically, one cares to split hairs, there may be some doubt whether his luck is due to the diamond, or the diaUmond to his luck. j The one unlucky diamond i the I Hope Blue, the only one of the great 1 historic diamonds owned in America.

1 lie Hope i-iue diamond nas oeeu supposed for centuries to weave an .evil spell about all who owned, or wore it. The many tragedies with I'whieh it has been associated might seem to bear out the superstition.

j-Many have pooh-poohed the old myth

ij but the late oi May 1 ohe the iieauls ful American acti ess who became I Lady Francis Hope and owned nnd i delighted to wear the fatal jewel, j might seem to indicate thai, even in i these unromantic modern days when i enchantments and magic spelis and ! all manner of superstitions have b ?n "relegated to the limbo of hdi-forgo'v-ten -'things, the great .oie evil . .i ecrom a 1 1 cy i s st i i 1 n: n n ; n g t rue t Aorm. But the Hope Blue diamond is

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Diamonds are not only the most beautiful of jewels, but they are among the best of money investments. The diamond which perhaps has been handed down in your family as an heirloom is worth from lU'J to lot) per cent more today than in the days of crinolines when your grandmother wore it. Diamonds have increased in value 50 per cent in the last ten years. The four years of war advanced their price a third in the markets all over the world. The war advance was due to the shortage of labor in the South African mines, the closing down of the mines for eighteen months and the submarine menace to shipping. It will be several years before the diamond market resumes its normal phase, and experts cm prove to you by figures which do not lie that the price of diamonds will show a continuing rise. In consequence a. diamond now is not only as attractive a gem as ever but is as good an investment as gilt-edged bonds and securities with bigger profits than most of them. Diamonds are fashionable. They were always fashionable among the wealthy. Now they are fashionable among the poor as well. They will always be fashionable. Other gems may come and go in popularity, but the diamond always holds its place of supremacy in the public heart. Whether set in gold or platinum or whatever metal, a diamond always gives a certain distinction to its wearer. No nation in history ever has in dulged so lavishly in the fashion of wearing diamonds as the United States. During all the years of the present century, this country has absorbed an average of 60 per cent, and during the war S3 per cent, of the output of the mines of South Africa, which, in these latter days, when the mines of India are exhausted and the mine" of Brazil are running low, furnish i.S per cent of all the diamonds in the world's markets. . A recent estimate placed the value of the diamonds owned in the United States today at :?l.o50,o;0.000. This perhaps represents a third of all the diamonds in existence. Tiie new blue-white diamond just discovered will take its place among the great diamonds of history. If cut Into a single gem, it may be expected to lose (30 per cent of its weight. This would reduce it to a cut and polished jewel of perhaps 2;J0 carats. However this is by no means certain. It may be. reduced to a considerably smaher weight because of daws and conformation which mav make eui-

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If this is so, it may be necessary to cut it into a number of gems the individual weight of which can not be foretold. Here is a list of the greatest diamonds ever found in South Africa,: Porter Rhodes, 150 carats rough ; Stewart carats rough, liit) carats cut; Titfany 280 "rough. 125' cut; Victoria 428'- rough, 288' cut: Victoria-Nizam 457' j rough. 180 cut; Jubilee 610 rough, 231) cut; Excelsior 97K'4 rough, cut into ten gems, the largest of which weighs C8 carats; Cullman, o,025:U rough. It will be noted that only five of these South African stones weighed more in the rough than the new diamond. The Excelsior, which was the largest diamond ever found with the exception of the Cullinan, was also discovered in the Jagersfontein mine. The Cullinan, which is history's largest diamond, was found in the Premier mine in 1905. It measured 4 by 2!1; by 1!L- inches and was about the size of an orange. It was so big there was no market for it. The Transvaal colony iinallv purchased it for 81,000,000 and sent it as a gift to Edward VII of England. It was cut by Amsterdam experts and the largest gem fashioned from it weighs 51G1 carats and the next largest oOD o-16 carats. These two fragments of the great stone remain the largest cut and polished diamonds ever known in history. Two other fragments made gems of 12 and G2 carats. From the remainder, 101 brilliants were cut which ranged from IS to 4 carats. The larger gems cut from the Cullinan are now part of t he -crown jewels of England. The old mines of India which were the world's original source of diamonds, have alst) produced some large stones. The largest of the Indian diamonds was the Great Mogul. It weighed 787 carats in the rough, and reduced i:i cutting to 288 carats. It weighed 288 carats when Tavernier saw it in l(f9. It has disappeared completely from history. Some have confuted it with the OHo'tV of Russia. 191 carats, and some with the Kuh-i-Nur. UHi carats, of the

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the Orloif and the Kuh-i-Nur are two halves of the Great Mogul. But the best authorities do net believe cither of these diamonds ever was a pari of the great lost stone. The cablegrams speak of the new diamond as a "blue white.'' It must not however be thought blue. "Bluewhite" is a trade term meaning a white diamond with steely blue glints. Blue-whites are rated annmg the most valuable of diamonds, though some connoisseurs prefer the snow-white stones. The Jaegersfontein in which the new diamond was found is famous for its bluewhite gems and the average value of the stones taken from it is greater than that of the output of any other mine in South Africa. Blue diamonds are extremely rare and extremely valuable. The Hope is the largest blue diamond ever found and around it clusters the strangest and most tragic romaifce in the history of the world's great diamonds. When Tavernier brought it from India and sold it to Louis, XIV in the seventeenth century, it weighed b7'-j carats. It was stolen with all the other crown jewels of France from the Garde Meuble in Paris during the French revolution. It was one of the most remarkable burglaries in history and the gems, stolen were worth several million dollars. Tiie blue diamond, remained lost until ISoO when Daniel Eliason, a London jeweler, bought it from an

possible to cut it into a single gem. British crown. Some have thorn

impecunious wretch who was starving to death in a garret in Soho. Upon its reappearance from the underworld, the diamond weighed only 14 " i carats as the thieves had attempted to disguise it: by recutting it. The superstition that it brought

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death or disaster to its owners clung to it from the time of its first appearance in Europe. It was associated with a number of tragedies while it was numbered among the crown jewels of France, the most notable of which was the death on the guillotine of Queen Marie Antoinette, whose favorite jewel it was. Lord Francis Hope, son of the nobleman who bought it from Eliason, married May Yohe, the American actress and was disgraced a few years later by the elopement of his wife with Putnam Bradlee Strong, son of a mayor of New York. May Yohe who became Lady Hope laughed at the old superstition and was never so happy as when wearing the diamond at her throat or in her hair. After the jewel had passed out of her possession, she went on in a gay and spectacular career, seemingly a favorite of fortune, indulging every caprice and enjoying every luxury money could bring. But in the case of this fascinating and clever woman, the diamond's tragic spell apparently was only deferred. With her fortune gone and all her gaieties and luxury dim dreams of the past. May Yohe, at last reports, was a scrub woman earning a bare living cleaning floors in a Tacoma office building. She herself today believes that the curse of the blue diamond has at last fallen. 4 he Hope diamond at present is owned by Mrs. Edward B. McLean, widow of the former millionaire owner of the Cincinnati Enquirer who is reputed to have paid $300,000 for it. Since coming to America, the fatal diamond apparently has lost its powers of evil or at least has been on its good behavior