Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1882 — A Swindler Foiled. [ARTICLE]

A Swindler Foiled.

Upon one of the ti-ains en route from the Pacific coast, a sharp undertook to sell a diamond ring to an old miner who had made his pile and was returning home. The miner looked at the ring and said to the seller: “The’ve got common stone up in the diggings wlieirn I’ve been that’ll cut that diamond all to pieces.” “If you find a piece of stone that will cut that diamond I’ll give it to you,” replied the peddlex*.— “All right,” said the miner, “If I can’t cut that ‘diamond’ with a stone I’ll buy it of you.” Thereupon the miner took the ring in his hand aud pulled from his vest pocket a small piece of brownlooking stone, similar to a bit of dark free-stone, except the graiu was vex-y fine, and with this he proceeded to cut and scratch the ‘diamond’ with several ugly-looking gashes. A group of passengers that had gathered about the miner Vi ere amazed, but while they smiled the peddler with his ‘diamond’ withdrew discomfited. “That little piece of brown stone,” explained the miner, “is a piece of eorundrum that I got in the Rocky Mountains, and it’s the best diamond tester in the world. It won’t scar a genuine diamond, but it will everlastingly cut up pieces of glass or quai-tz.”