Weekly Chillicothe crisis., 1884-11-13
RICH AND RARE GEMS.
Tow Lot Of Valuable Diamonds We're Re-
placed with Cut-Glass- Crown Jewels
from France-A Magnificent Col
lection to be Distributed by


I "Let me sell you fashionable ring, -
said u gem expert, holding up ring
set with a magnificent four-carat ruby,
surrounded by old India white dia-
mOnds.
Cant afford the luxury"
Cant afford it?" rejoined the Jew
cler. "How much, now do you sup
pose that is worth?" and he turned
the stones so that they seemed to
fairly blaze with luster. The writer
guessed $4,000. It's yours for
$3.50" rejoined the jeweler, land |
am making % per cent now. Yes, it's
IN actual fact. The stones are bogus,
and the gold is SO thin that it will wear
of in twenty-four hours, but the stones
are the finest ever brought into this
country; MS cut-glasS, they are beyond
criticism, and thereby hangs a tale:
"Somc months ago received let
ter from lady customer of mine who
lives beyond the borders of the United
States, and to whom | have sold thou
sands of dollars worth of gems, that
she would be in the city in a few days
and wanted to see me at such lime.
| was on hand punctually, and after
'Ome preliminary conversation she
told me that it was imperative that she
should raise 100000, and wished me
TO negotiate the loan, knew the value
Of the goods she had, so | accepted
the offer and took the caskct, and the
next day sent them to broker friend
of mine, to whom should look for the
money. thought nothing more about
it, but that night the broker came in
and said: John, if didn't know you
so well | should have come around
with an officer What do you mcan?'
said |, Did you examine those gems
before you sent them to me?' he asked.
No. | replied. 4 thought not, he re-
joined. They are all bogus, and |
came within one of advancing the
money on them was thunder
struck, 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
II packed them up, and We both
started for her house. | was ushered
in, and after | made my statement
my lady looked at me for moment,
and then, to my aStonishmcnt. burst
into fit of rage and accused me of
having sold her bogus gems. She
threatened to call the police, and
found myself in at least a disagreeable
situation, but finally she.sobcred down,
and told her she had no cause against
me, as always in making sale of val
uablc stones ! had the gems marked,
and at least twenty persons could
sware in court that had delivered
them to her in the first place of cor
rect weight and value. | then asked
her if anyone 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 a week later found that
the son was living 4 fast life in New
York, and within u year had spent a
large sum Of money. So, to come to
the point, met him and with de-
tectiye charged him with it and told
him we knew all about it. lie gave
in at once and seemed glad to tell all
he knew, and the trap that fellow had
walked into was II caution, We found
that he had fallen into the hands of a
gang of cOunicrfeitcrs, and they had
used him rs n 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 par of it was
that though he had seen the men time
and time again, he could not take me
there as it was on Il vessel. Every
time he met them he was put in close
cab, and did not see thing until he
was in the cabin of 4 vessel, and he
was taken of the same way.
"But we put up a job on thcm;hc made
an appointment and we followed the
cab and it landed us in what is known
as South Brooklyn, and in the cabin
of a small schooner with dcck-load
of brick we found them. They all got
off, however, but one old chap-a
fence, reckoned but we captured the
entire outtit-and n fine lot it was.
They had material there for making
any gem you can think of, from n dia-
mond to Il pearl. They had Il private
book, giving directions how to make
bogus gems. Here it is, just look at X.
'Ruby-To make a ruby, take strass, 80
per cent? that's glass, said the jewell
er. "Strass is the trade name"
Silica, 1922; red oxide of lead,
$50 That gives it coloring. Cal
cined potash, LIS; add proper parts of
calcined boraX, arsenic acid, and
alumina; melt one thousand parts with
forty parts of glass of antimony, one
part purple cassius.' | know some
thing about these things continued
the speaker, land that combination
will make tirst-class ruby, that, when
cut, will deceive almost any one.n
"You never recovered the real
gems?"
mo; they had been distributed long
before. But under the flooring of the
old craft we ran across fine lot of
gems, evidently stolen, and forward
was a regular shop where these bogus
gems were cooked.
"The rage for fancy gems is still un-
abated and curious thing it is. Five
years ago it was somewhat difficult to
get lady to wear colored stone, but
now not only the ladies, but every man
of fashion has his cats eyes. ru5ies,
emeralds, etc. They are generally set
in rings, fiat and mixed up every way,
so to look odd and give fine effects of
luster. Here is ring am making
for Cuban gentleman. Yes, it's only
a cat's-eye, but / value it at Sl,S00.
and when finished the ring will be
worth $4,000. Cat's.eyes are likely to
cost as much as diamonds. They have
one in the museum at Paris that is
valued at nearly $4,000. The finder
was poor boy who had never had a
dime before, but he was sharp enough
to take it to jeweler of repute-Ras-
poll, think, of Rome-who paid him
what was fortune in that country.
1t finally went to Perret, the French
jeweler, who sold it for S31, 900. A
mate to it brought S2S,000 and is in
the collection OF the French crown
jewels, and as many of these will un-
doubtedly find their way to this coun-
try you may see it yet. IT, u wonder
ful stone and is the most remarkable
imitation Of organic matter ever seen.
The sale Of the French crown Jewels is
an important one, and l guess every
jeweler of note has had orders to at
tend the sale. You know there a num-