Page:The Galaxy, Volume 6.djvu/49

1868.] 1829 on the west side of the Ural Mountains, in Russia, But the great supplies yet come from India and Brazil.

Diamond fanciers and dealers love old diamonds best; now who can say whether those of India, or Brazil, or Borneo, or Russia, are the most ancient? No one: and it is not, which did God make first, but which did man first polish in the dim light of the past, which still glitter in the blazing sunlight of the present?

I have seen a brilliant which the owner believes was once worn on the hand or in the diadem of one of the Pharaohs—and why not? Just how he could prove it I did not care to ask. What tales might this flashing gem not tell us of manhood, and virtue, and suffering, and crime, which existed in that wondrous old land, could it but speak a language that we might comprehend!

And this brings me to another little fact—the diamond does speak, and it speaks truth. Cheating of all sorts has been and still is practised by the sellers of false gems. But to the expert the gem itself whispers—"I am true; I am real." By rubbing or sounding the stones against one another they emit a whisper which is said to be infallible; a sound such as no crystal, or paste, or invention, is capable of emitting. What a pity that this test might not be applied to men!

Words are curious things, which brings us to the word "carat," now almost wholly attached to the diamond. It seems that centuries ago the pods of the coral-tree Kaura were used somewhere in weighing gold dust, and this weight has come to be universal in selling the diamond. The carat is four grains, so that in one ounce are one hundred and twenty carats. "Water," too, has come to have a technical meaning—and "first, second, and third water," express three grades of the gem. The finest are those which are purest and whitest, and these command the highest price. Though it is also true that exceptional diamonds of other colors, green or red, also command the highest prices. Few of the diamonds in use with us exceed five carats, and these are the prices we must now pay in gold:

1 carat, finest, - - - - - $125 to $150 2 carat, finest, ...... 450 to 600 3 carat, finest, ..... 700 to 900 4 carat, finest, ...... 1000 to 1500 5 carat, finest, ..... 2000 to 3000

A ten carat stone is about as large as our people buy, and they are not yet very common.

A few high dames in our midst possess jewels like these:

A Necklace, worth ..... $50,000 A Bracelet, worth ..... 10,000 to 20,000 A Pin, worth ...... 10,000 A pair of Brilliants, worth ..... 10,000 A Tiara, worth ...... 50,000

But as I said before, one of our largest collections is never worn. I am told that its worthy possessor loves to invest a few thousands from time to time in a beautiful gem, and that she is a judge excelled by none. She can show a number of individual, unset stones, unsurpassed in brilliancy and quality, ranging from $3,000 to $10,000 each. This taste is, therefore, not always one of ostentation or decoration, but is the taste of a collector, one who knows and enjoys differences and degrees: and it is a taste which grows with what it feeds