Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-01-01
ROMANCE OF GEMS.
Women Who Care Nothing for the
Past History of Their Diamonds
Atlanta Constitution

A
Two old detectives sat by blazing
CRATE fire In q downtown office ex-
amining some jewels. There were
diamonds, pearls, sapphires and ru-
bies In the lot, all handsomely
mounted.
ct is strange" said one of the men,
chow people, especially ladies, yearn
| for these thugs. 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 encircled
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 an ything else that is worn. 1t is
practically indestructible. 1t may,
of course, be lost, but a precious
stone once trimmed AID 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 circum stances 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
81 know a lady in this town who
has sold her diamonds and will have
no others unless she can be assured
that she is the first weareg, but as a
rule the ladies do not care. I hap
pened to be interested in a peculiar
case connected Indirectly with a muir
der that had taken place in neigh
boring town a number Of years ago.
The murderers had long ago been
punished, bat la working up the other
case | found that some valuable dia-
monds, stolen at the time of this muir
der, had been purchased by a
broker la this city and afterward
sold to a firm of jewelers.. 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 I came
to the murder part she was horrided,
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 sparklcd respondent
ly, and screamed"
''She wanted to get rid of them,
eh?" 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
you2" 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 I don't know anything
about this bloody murder
Her husband and I talked tho
matter over after awhile, and / ar
ranged meeting of the innocent par
ties WAC 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"