Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1861-08-13
My First and Last Diamond.
BY ELLEN ASHTON.

We had been married for several wears.
We owned pretty house. had a pleasant
circle OF friends, and enjoyed social pn-
sition quite equal To our moderate desires.
My husband was kind aud thoughtful fer
my cumfrt. had two sweet chIldren.-
There was everything to make me happy.
Yet, strange to say, was not happy.
From ii child | rad longed 10 be the PCS
seesUr of diamonds. | never saw lady,
with handsome diamonds, tbatI did not
covet them. resolved never to marry
unless my husband should be rich enough
TO give NE diamonds. That, at last, broke
this resolution, is not wonderful; for who
ever did marry exactly the kind of person
they had determined on: For a while
forgot my longing for diamonds. But the
desire came back, in the end, and made
me again unhappy. When, at party,
met Mrs. Hope, | Gould do nothing but
look at her magnificent solitaire earrings.
AT last my husband discovered NV weak
ness. AID tined to laugh me out Of it,
Il did not know yen were go silly, Ellen
he said. ALI the diamonds in the world
would not make mo love you more
But others would A mans social
r"sIrI"h depends good deal on her dress
aId jewels =
Net with people of sense
Every body lunks up to Mrs. Hope
Mr. H"Pe is a sterling woman, apart
II M her dIamuuds.'
But then they are ST. beautiful
i d. not think them beautiful 1t is a
harDaric taste. 1t is Among the haIfciyil-
wed OrIerIals that diamonds are most
highly valued. Nor is it the snowy, val
gar taste nt the Casters that - aloue tn
blame You must recnllect, that, in such
disturbed countries as ASIA; it is prudent
to have some of your riches in property
thai you can hide IN a small compass
Then, why wouldn't it be wise to in
vent in lew diamonds even here? You
say that commercial panics will always
happen in this country. If ever disaster
should ove-take us, few diamonds, saved
from the wreck, might start us again in
IiCe.'
My husband laughed.
You are skillful advocate he said,
and since your heart is set on the dia-
monos, you shall have some. Butif ever
you are reduced to sell them, my dear,
you'll find they will have been but a poor
Inytstmeut.'
Diamonds will always bring nearly
what they est
so you ladies say so jewellers tell you.
But it's great mistake. We always like
To have some palliative for conscience,
when we are about to commit an extrava-
gence; and the cry that diamonds are al
ways worth nearly their cost is one of
them
No more was said about the diamonds
on that occasion, but few days later my
husband brought home a finger ring and
! two ear rings, each large solitaire. !
was delighted. had not expected such q
handsome gift. | lost no time is display
ing my new acquisition, and my pleasure
was heightened, when Mrs Hope, who
| knew what diamonds were, if any body did,
! pronounced them Of the purest water and
| faultess in shape.
She says they are real Golconda gems,
! ] pratt!ed to my husband, in the exuber-
ance of my heart, and you know such are
the best.
'Ah = he said, apparently very little in
terested, and hardly looking up from the
newspaper.
Yes; and they can only be bad, now
/ by buying up diamonds from decayed
families in Europe, for the mines are ne
| longer worked
My husband glanced at me and began tC
smile.
How knowing you are in diamonds al
ready, Ellen = he said.
| For about year | wore diamonds or
every suitable occasion. Indeed. wore
them sometimes, | am afraid, on occasion.
which were not suitable. But after a
while got accustomed even to diamonds
l did not think half as much of them a:
when they first came home. l even wen
out to evening parties, now AMI then, with
| out them.
Why haven't you your diamonds to-
nightf' said my husband, on one OF these
occasions.
oh I'm tired Of wearing them always.
'Humphv And that was ali he said.
After all, too, my Diamonds, handsome
as they were, ousshone by the diamonds o.
severa! of my acquaiutaoces. Mrs. Wal,
ters had, not only earrings. but a breas
pin. Mrs. Hope had all these, and a brace
let and necklace besides knew it wa,
impossible for me ever to get diamond,
like Mrs. Hope, whose husband was worth
a million. So. very soon, in spite of die-
monds, ! was no happier than before.
! Meantime the crisis of '57 come on.
had seen my husbands face clouded. fol
| several weeks, and knew that his bushes,
was not going on as iavurably rs he wished
but had no idea of the truth. till he cam,
home, one night, and told me that We WERE
ruined.
1t is hard,' he said, when we could talk
the matter over more calmly, after work
ing for twenty years, and feeling that one
is getting old, to have to begin life anew
But there is nothing else to be done 81
many of my debtors have failed. that am
utterly insolvent. shall make an assign
ment and then go out next
now bethought myselfof nv diamonds
l cried, exultiDgly, that the sale of them
would give us enough, perhaps, to begin
life anew.