News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-11-27
RICH AND RARE GEMS.
How n Lot of Diamonds were Replaced
with Cut-Glass.


'sLet me sell you fashionable ring, "
said a gem expert, holding up ring set
with magnificent four-carat ruby. sur
rounded by old India white diamonds.
Cant afford the luxury"
Cant afford it?" rejoined the jew
eler. ''How much, now, do you sup
pose that is worth ?" and he turned the
stones so that they seemed to fairly
blaze with lustre. The writer guessed
ten thousand dollars. ats yours for
$780," rejoined the ieweler, "and am
making twenty-five per cent now. Yes,
it's an actual fact. The stones are
bogus and the gold is so thin that it
will wear off IN twenty-four hours, but
the stones are the finest ever brought into
this country;as cut glass they are beyond
criticism, and thereby hangs tale.
''Some months ago / received note
from lady customer of mine, who lives
beyond the borders of the United States
and to whom 1 have sold thousands of
dollars worth of gems, that she would
be in the city in few days and wanted
to see me at such time. L was on
hand punctually and after some prellm1-
nary conversation she told me that 1t
was imperative that she should raise
500 600 and wished me to negotiate the
loan. / knew the value of the goods she
had, so 1 accepted the offer and took the
casket and the next day sent them to a
broker friend of mine, to whom / should
look for the money. l thought nothing
more about it, but that night the broker
came in. and said: John, if didn't know
Won so we'll / should have come around
with an officer What do you mean ?
said /. Did you examine those gems
before you sent them to me p he asked.
No L replied. i thought not, he re-
Joined. They are all bogus and 1 came
within one of advancing the money on
Them was thunderstruck and would
not believe it, but he soon convinced me
and went over the gems to find them
all bogus, but exact limitations of the
ones / had sold my customer.
81 packed them up and we both
started for her house. / was ushered in
and after made my statement my lady
looked at me for a moment and then to
nv establishment burst into fit of rage
and accused me of having sold her bogus
gems. She threatened to call the police
and 1 found myself in at least a dis
agreeable situation, but finally she So
bered down and 1 told her she hadno case
against me, as always in making sale
of valuable stones 1 had the gems
marked and at least twenty persons
could swear in court that 1 had de-
livered them to her in the first place of
correct weight and value. 1 then asked
her if any one had access to them be-
sides herself and soon found that her
son and husband had the handling of
them. The old gentleman / did not
suspect, but week later l found that
the son was living a fast life in New
York and within a year had spent large
amount of money. So to come to the
point, I met him and with a detective
charged him with it and told him we
knew all about it. He gave in at once
and seemed glad to tell all he knew, and
the trap that fellow had walked into was
q caution. We found that he had fallen
into the hands of a gang of counter
letters and they had used him as tool
and he had brought the gems to them,
had them replaced by bogus ones and
had been paid well for it. But the
curious part of it was that though he
said he had seen the men time and time
again the could not take me there, as it
was on a vessel Every rime he met
them he was put in close cab, and did
not see thing until he was in the cabin
of a vessel, and he was taken off the
same way.
''But we put upa Job on them; he
made an appointment, and we followed
the cab and it landed US in what is
known as South Brooklyn, and in the
cabin of small schooner with a deck
load of brick we found them. They all
got of, however, but one old chap-a
fence, I reckoned; but we captured the
entire outfit-and a fine lot it was.
They had material there for making any
gem you can think of, from a diamond
to a pearl They had a private book
giving directions how to make bogus
gems. Here it is. Just look at R:
'Ruby-To make ruby take strass, so
per cent? that is, glass;" said the jew.
eler. "Strass is the trade name.
/" Silica, SO 2; red oxide of lead, 50. o.
-Ehats gives ~ soloIins. .Oalcinea-pe.-
ash, Is; add proper parts of calcined
borax, arsenic acid and alumina; melt one
thousand parts with forty parts of glass
of anthony, one part purple cassius.
know something about these things"
continued the speaker, 'tand that COM
bination will make a first class ruby,
that, when cut, will deceive almost any.