The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1883-09-20


purples as any amethyst, blazes in such
points of fire as no topaz kindles, and
yet, with all its triumphs, lies in the
hand colorless and transparent. 1t may
be looked through and through; the
crystal is innocence itself. Yet, chal-
lenge its powers, and it lightens up in
stantly into restless activity of beauty
that traverses in flash the whole scale
of color, and is all the casket of gems
in one. No wonder, then, that the
diamond should have been so long the
king of precious stones, for, with only
its own inimitable powers of refraction,
it could have held the throne against all
competitors. just, however, as some
monarchs have descended into the COM
mon arena to meet rivals, and there
have worsted them, so this stone will
take the blue of the sapphire, as it were,
to show the sapphire what azure really
should be, or the green of the emerald,
as if to educate that gem in its duties,
or will add its Incompatible luster to
the red of the ruby in order that the
rosy crystal may see what it can never
hope to be. Yet these colored diamonds,
though immensely costly, are not the
jewels that have captivated mans fancy
from time immemorial, for it is the sim
pie colorless stone which has at once
attracted his interest and conquered his
admiration. At first the diamond
was a secret of the orientals alone.
"Only Kings knew of them," says Pliny,
land not many of them, either" In
time, however, commerce with India
brought the adamant westward-little
uncut stones only, and credited with
wondrous occult properties. 1t came
fifth among the precious things in actual
value, the pearl, emerald, ruby and
chrysolite all exceeding it; but Western
art found on cutting into the magic
mineral that the real beauties it pos
sessed far surpassed its traditional vir-
tues in witchcraft and medicine. Thus,
by sheer pre-eminence of loveliness, it
became mot merely the most precious
of all gems, but of all human posses
sions." After that it steadily consoli-
dated its empire, and as the glory of its
reputed potencies waned before the
growth of popular intelligence, its tri-
umph as thing of beauty in itself in
creased with the skill of the lapidary's
art. Some of the ancient superstitions,
however, still cling to it, for science re-
peatedlv detects in new facts the basis
noting the fancy that in its native state
the diamond scorned any companion
but gold, for it is beyond doubt that the
king of the gems is really, as rule,
the neighbor of the king of the metals,
and it was in this proud company that
Mr.. Rhodes CHANGED upon his splendid
stone.
What history is before this latest ad.
dition to the royalty of diamonds who
can tell? For the Old World belief
that these gems are the loadstones of
disaster and charged mysteriously with
messages of ruin to those who possess
them holds strangely good of the other
great jewels of history. Our " "Koh-i-
koor" reached the English crown
through treachery and blood and ruin,
and was followed by the East with all
the superstitious interest that attached
to messenger of fate. The "Sancy"
travelled from crime to crime, and came
into the hands of the Jews of Metz
from out of the ripped-up stomach of
its murdered guardian. The "Mogul," +"
now mysteriously disappeared from
human ken, caused much blood to flow
in it's time, and the story of the
"Regent " is a tragedy. A slave work
inc in Golconda found it and hid it in a
cash which he made in his leg for the
purpose, and then fled for safety to an
English vessel. The Captain found out
his secret, and, after numbering the un-
happy wretch, sold the stone to a ma
tive merchant. and, having rioted away
the proceeds. hanged himself in
delirium tremens. But the romance of
the great diamonds is too large a sub
ject TO be dealt with here. Suffice it to
say that their extraordinary value has
always caused them to be the objects of
the fiercest competition, of the first am
bition of conquerors and the last strug-
Gle of the conquered, and, except in
such times of comparative security as
our own, an incessant anxiety to their
possessors. Thus General Pitt, until
he sold his jewel to the regent for f135,-
600, did not know what an hours peace
was. He lived, as some tyrantS have
done-in perpetual terror of assassina-
tion-neyer let even his own family
know where he intended to spend the
next day, nor slept two nights running
in the same bed. He sold his terrible
possession at last, and thus obtained the
fortune which made it possible for his
famous grandson to devote his life to
politics, while Bonaparte, by pawning
the same jewel, procured the funds
without which he could hardly have
made good the proclamation of the 18th
Brumaire. So Mr.. Rhodes, in adding
to the worlds great gems this new
|
have given another ''stone of fate" its
first start on a career of romance, and
laid the foundation of more history than
he thinks. In the meanwhile, if it only
makes his own fortune, he is to be con-
graduated, and if it serves also to help
to dispel the prevailing prejudice against
Cape diamonds, he will, while enriching
himself, have also done our African col
ony substantial service.-London Tel
egraph.