Louisiana capitolian., 1881-11-05
BOeUs BRILLrANTs.
People Who Wear Imitation Dia.
mOnds-.A COngressman's
blazing ssSpark."
Cincinnati 1'imes.star.

How do your diamonds compare
with the genuineq"
"Put them side By side and you
can't tell them apart. Let me show
you some SAMPLES" and the dealer
turned to his iron safe and got out q
box Of unset diamonds of about
three carats each. Handing The
scribe q dainty pair of tweezers he
requested him to examine the stones
before the light. The reporter pick
ed up one of the gems as carefully as
though it were q $4,000 stone, and
held it before the optics. 1t sparkled
brilliantly, was cut perfectly, and
anybody but an expert would sup
pose it to be a genuine diamond. The
reporter was tempted to slip the stone
MP his sleeve, until he asked the
price oft, when getting the reply,
"One dollar" he dropped 1t as though
It was poisonous. "Here are some
thirty beautiful specimens" remarked
the merchant as he unfolded another
paper and laid before the scribe a
half dozen stones about the size of p
door-knob. "These are worn princi-
pally by gamblers on account of their
extraordinary size.
"They come great deal higher
than those others ! have shown yon.
sell these at $3.50 apiece, or pair
Of them for serio- comic singers ear
rings ut 1926. They are exceedingly
brilliant, yon see, and at night shine
like u locomotive headlight. Here
are lot of little diamonds that sell
from 25 to rs cents eacb.n "Are
those made of paste or fish-scales "
ooh, no; | never deal in paste goods.
These stones are from the Sierra Ne
vada mountains, and are cut and pol
ishcd in New York, and some are
even sent to Paris to be cut and are
then returned to this country. They
are the best imitation of the diamond
made, and retain their brilliancy for
ever. Not being as hard as the dia-
mond. care has to be taken in not
getting them scratched" "You re-
marked before the trade was simply
immense. Isuppose that the second
or middle class Of society are the
greatest purchasers Of these lmita-
tons :" "That's where you're wrong
The principal buyers and wearers of
'snide diamonds are those who move
in the highest society, and I'll tell
you the reason why. Let a lady who
counts her wealth by the hundreds of
thousands appear in public with a
pair of six or eight carat diamond
earrings, and people never suspect
that they are snide. They imagine
that because the wearer is wealthy
she would never degrade herself by
wearing 80 diamonds, but such is the
case. Hundreds of times have I
matched genuine diamonds for high
toned ladies, and it was actually i'm
possible to tell them apart. You see,
when u person of wealth wears 'snide'
diamonds, YOU can hardly make peo-
pl9 believe that they are anything
else than genuine; while on the 9TH
erhand, let q person in more reduced
circumstances wear genuine dia-
monds, and everybody they meet will
turn up their noses and remark that
they are snite.' So that is the rea-
son the people Of wealth can throw
on so much style with very little ex
pense."
"And Cincinnati people are great
on 'snide' diamonds" "Wellj >honld
remark that they are. They beat
aDy other city III the Union, You
bet they take the diamonds Let
me tell you something. Now this is
between you and ], and / don't want
it to go into print. There is q mem
her Of Congress FROM this district
whom | presented with a blazing
six-carat diamond. It's costprice was
s2.47. That Congressman fastened
that pin securely to his immaculate
shirt front and went to Washington,
where in less than week he ated
such q sensation with his massive
diamond that the Washington cor