, 1883-12-15

and pitched upon me as umpire, for
said one of 'em, Guess that strange
gentleman as wears the KohinOOr
ought to understand the subject
81 own felt very much like draw
ing my six-shooter and cleaning out
the crowd, but 1 kept my temper and
said Gentlemen, l don't under
stand small potatoes. Them little
bits o things may or may not be
genuine but il you want to brag on
diamonds l guess I'll take the pool
At this they kinder sniggered and
asked to look at my ring. Ilet them
look as long as they liked, but kept
the ring on my finger. At last one Of
them said A: That stone must have
come pretty high, 1 judge 'Yes,
sir said 1; $4,000 cash. At these
words they sniggered again. So /,
putin on that 1 was riled, rounded
on 'em sharp: Il don't know, gentle
men, what you see tOlaugh at Then
the gracefulest and politest cuss in
the party says: Il fear it is no laugh
In matter for you sir. guess you
air stranger, and l suspect some
rascals in the city here have stuck
you with an imitation stone.' At
this l pretended to rile right up, and
swore that l bought the ring Of
perfect gentleman, and had no end
of trouble to buy it at all. The pO-
lite man stiffened up his back at that,
made some remarks on gentility in
general and wound up by offering to
bet 81 900 that my diamond was bO-
gus, to put up the money right away
and leave the matter to be decided
by any jeweler named by the pro-
prietOr Of the hotel
"Then l felt that / had struck a
lode, and turning round sharply,
says IOokee here, sir! bets of a
thousand dollars is good enough
for a small game but when my
word is questioned and, my
property is run down, l put down
my whole pile, and will back my
diamond with my bottom dollar
They kept their faces very well, but
l could see their eyes Tglisten, and
knew that had 'em safe. One said
he couldn't put up much just then,
but he could lind eight thousand in
half an ~hOur, and would stake it
with pleasure agin mine. Then
another struck in, and thought, as Il
didn't look satisfied with such little
bet, he would back his friends opin-
ion,' and, as l still kept on sayin' l
was not goin' to show my diamond
except for a bet Of twenty thousand
dollars, they scraped up eighteen
thousand dollars among them. l
covered the money and handed it
over, with the ring and a written
memorandum, to the proprietor A
lapidary was named, called in, and
decided at once that the diamond
was genuine. Quite a considerable
scene took place, and the swindlers
insisted on callin' another witness,
and / nearly busted myself with
laughin' when they named the very
man l bought the stone Of. When
he saw the stone, his face was a study,
but he never let on that he had seen
ii before, and said only that II was
perhaps the finest diamond he had
ever seen in ring,' bowed to
the company and walked off, To do
my rascals justice, they showed grit,
drank the champagne Treated them
to, and walked off cOolly enough.
But the best part of the joke is to
come.
"The story of the big bet some
how got around, and all sorts of ver-
siOns got into the papers. l was in
terviewed pretty heavily by re-
porters, and Col. Nathaniel ]. Cool
ing, Of San joaquin, was credited
with owning the biggest diamond
ring in New York, when who should
walk into the hotel but my original
friend and his friend. The cusses
believed that by some unheard Of
chance they had purchased a real in
stead Of a bogus diamond, and they
were, no doubt, raging in their in
nards to think that they hadn't sold
me in the first instance, and had put
the gang in the hole for $4,000. But
the stone was now celebrated, and
they began to try to work on me to
let 'em have 1t back for $4,000, as 1
had made such good speculation in
bets. The original proprietor said he
was in funds agin, and couldn't sleep
for thinkin' of his mothers ring. OF
course he wanted it back to sell at a
big profit and recoup the gang a bit.
l declined to sell, and kept him off
and on till l was ready to start, and
told him l must wear the ring till
was aboard ship, when, II he would
pay down the money in gold, he
could have his rlngagain. You guess
what l did ? No? Why the day
before we sailed l had the real dia-
mOnd set in the ring you see on my
hand, and Col. Bogus put back in the
Old setting. My friends came on
board, paid the money in gold, ,strang-
er-nary shinplaster-examihed the
ring and the same old sham diamond
they sold me, and went off as happy
as coyotes round a dead mule. l
wonder how they like the deal now (!
As far as can figure 1t, I make about
$4,000 by the spec-twO-thirds in
diamond, and the rest in gold. Our
glorious Golden State Is, / guess, the