Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1885-01-01
ROMANCE OF GEMS.
Women Who Care Nothing for the
Past History OF Their Diamonds
Atlanta Constitution.

Atlanta Constitution.
Two old detectives sat bv blazing
CRATE fire in downtown office ex-
aiming some jewels There were
diamonds, pearls, sapphires and ru-
bies Ia the lot, all handsomely
mounted.
1T is strange" said one of the men,
''how people, especially ladies, yearn
for these things. Almost every jewel
in the world has had some connection
with shame and crime, possibly with
violence and death. The fair and
yirtuous lady whose neck is encifcled
by cleaning diamonds of great value
little dreams that the stones in that
sparkling cham, so much admired by
herself and others, may some time
have graced a wanton's neck or been
the motive of murder. A gem is not
ike anything else that is worn. 1t is
practically indestructible. 1t may,
of course, be lost, but a precious
stone once trimmed ard polished
is likely to last forever, passing
from hand to hand. Think of the
various owners that the ordinary
diamond must have IN the course of a
century, the various methods resorted
to gain possession of it. and the var
ious circumstances under which PEG
pie have parted with it Almost every
one of these stones that is of value
has history often written in human
blood
II know lady in this town who
has sold her diamonds and will have
no others unless sh9 can be assured
that she is the first wearer, but as
rule the ladies do not care. I hap
pened to be interested in peculiar
case connected indirectly with muir.
der that bad taken place ia a neigh.
boring town number of years ago.
The murderers had long ago been
punished, but ia working up the other
case found that some valuable dia-
monds, stolen AT the timeof this muir
der, had been purchased by a
broker Ia this city and afterward
sold to a firm of jewellers. I
traced them and discovered that they
had been mounted in earrings and
sold to a young lady in town. Fol
lowing the matter up called on the
young lady in question, and Ia her
husbands presence briefly recited the
history of the gems. When / came
to the murder part she was Mortified,
and as | described to her the fact that
the box in which they had formerly
been kept was found in the blood of
their previous owner, and that the
stones themselves might at one time
have had blood on them, she turned
pale, put her hands to her ears, in
which the gems sparkled resplendent-
ly, and screamed
She wanted to get rid Of them,
eh2" said the other detective, remov-
ing his cigar from his mouth as the
other paused to light one.
You'd have thought so, wouldn't
your continued the first speaker.
But that isn't what she said at all
She just grabbed her earrings and
began to yell to her husband: Don't
you let this man take my diamonds.
They are paid for, and they are mine.
I've got the receipt for them, so there
now, and l don't know anything
about this bloody murder.
Her husband and | talked the
matter over after awhile, and l ar
ragged meeting of the innocent nar-
ties v 40 had had dealings with the
and they fixed up the mat
ter somehow so that the family which
owned them originally got them, and
the others did not lose much. But
that is fair sample of how much the
owners of Jewels think or care what
their history may have BEEN