Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1881 — Emma Abbot’s Necklace. [ARTICLE]

Emma Abbot’s Necklace.

A necklace has recently come into Miss Abbott’s possession. It once belonged to a noble French family, the oldest son of which was forced to flee the country on account of his debts of honor, America was, of course, the happy land chosen by the festive Frenchman to abide in until his trespasses were forgiven or forgotten. 80, one fine day, he landed in New York with his “hostages to lortun shape of a wife and two small children; but in spite of the hostages, fortune refused to smile upon his ventures in speculation, and his first' slip on the ladder of life seemed to make the descent so easy that he never paused until the owner of a bank he had broken forcibly persuaded him to do so by running a knife in his side. , The widow gave a sigh of mingled relief and sorrow, assumed modest mourning, and prepared to return to native iland. Nobody hindered her; bat on counting the little money left, she found it not near enough to pay for the passage. From time to time during her husband’s career every article oi luxury and value had been parted with to purchase the necessaries of life. Only one remained, and that she oould hardly think of as possible to

sell—a diamond necklace, an old heirloom in her husband’s family—one that his mother ahd her mother before her had clasped round tljeir white necks on their wedding day—and she, too, had worn It when fresh fromjher convent life, dressed in her bridal robes, Henry de Marc hand had clasped it about her throat and saluted her playfully as Madame. But at that time no wires stretched across tbe broad Atlantic. Messages of love and eiimity, death and disaster, came slowly over the water instead of flashing along tbe wires; so thV widpw. feeling that she could not wait to send an appeal for help and receive a response, sallied out to get what she could for the necklace. Store after store was visited, and after being regarded with suspicion, and offered a mere pittance for the ornament, she was about to return home, when the thought struck her that perhaps she might get some one in Tiffany’s to look at it. Bhe bravely retracted her steps, entered the store, and, opening the well-worn case, commenced once more her story, but this time in the hearing of a superblydressed woman, who advanced as the widow was about to display the necklace and asked to see it.

The diamonds were fine, well cut, and the setting good, the shopman said, after a careful examination. Without another word the lady invited the owner of the necklace to drive to her husband’s office, and the upshot of it all was that a wealthy banker, with love iu his heart and money in his pocket, paid the anxious widow $25,000 for the* glittering ornament. That necklace has nestled in soft* laces and shone on blaek velvet at many a ball since then; but one fine day fortune took it into her head that she was growing too idle, gave her fateful wheel a turn, and behold the owner of The necklace as poor as the sister woman from whom she had once bought it. And so it came to pass that Mr. Wetherell, out of the depth of his affection and purse, bought and presented to this bright, particular prima donua the diamond necklace.

The ornament is composed of three hundred and fifty-seven diamonds, made first into plain chain set in square blocks of gold. Through the center of this runs a large coil' of the precious stones, supplemented by other coils diminishing in size, and from their lower edge falls a shower of pendants, long and swinging, giving, when on, the effect of a rope of fire around the throat, radiating in every direction. This is worn with a heavy diamond cross, in which the gems are of unusual size