Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-04-15
CEYlON'S CAPITAL.
me Chief Center of the Jewel Trade O.
the Oriental World.

The Chief Center of the Jewel Trade OF
the Oriental World.
Colombo is in some respects more
favored than other tropical cities, and it
Is as healthy as can reasonably be ex-
pected, owing to its long extent of sea-
shore and its constant exposure to sea
winds. The site is low and forms a sort
of cape, with the open sea on one side
and the bay on the other. An elevated
region also, with temperature far diff
ferent from that of the coast, offers its
advantages at distance of three or four
hours by rail. Still the merchant who
has made fortune in Colombo, the
civil official or the army officer who has
dutifully accepted his exile to Bishop
Heber's paradise. rapturously halls the
opportunity which permits him to re-
turn to his native land, either to spend
his life, to pass brief leave of absence
among his friends, or, if he is an officer,
to be assigned to post less purgatorial.
From Ceylon, as elsewhere, the long alb
sent returns to England with the bile in
the cuticle instead of in the liver, giving
that old parchment look which Thack-
cray and other English novelIsts have so
often described. and complication of
disorders which even a full purse and a
regiment of physicians fail to put to
flight. The chief center of the jewel
trade of the East is at Colombo, princi-
pally in the hands of Cingalese and Mo-
hammedan merchants. These, with
their long-haired runners and cappers,
are numerous and so importunate that
even a personal chastisement is some
times an insufficient hint that one de-
sires to be disembarrassed of their So
ciety. Their ways are wary and spider
like when they once see the traveller be-
ginning to be entangled in their web.
Only the least valuable of their wares
are displayed in cheap showcases, and
they usually begin by selling some trifling
article, like a fan. or some little per-
sonal ornament. From these they pro-
ceed to handsome mOOnstOneS and cat s.
eyes, and then they draw forth from I'M
seen table drawers or perhaps from some
old-fashioned safe fine emeralds. fine
rubies, sapphires and diamonds, for
which they ask three or four times as
much as they expect to receive. Some
times they will sell some pretty small
jewel at bargain to tempt the pur-
chaser; then they will offer a large en-
erald or sapphire, for which they ask
perhaps eight hundred or one thousand
dollars. If the visitor seems indsposed
to purchase. but still fingers, they grad
ualfy lower the price, often selling what
they may at first have asked from four
hundred to one thousand dollars for
seventy-five or possibly for two hundred
dollars. Some of the merchants are
prosperous, but most of them are con-
stantly in trouble, having brought their
misfortunes and liabilities with them
from Point de GALES at the time of the
commercial change of base.
Great bargains always await the
the requisite means. Unfortunately
good judgment and a hong purse do not
always 90 together, and mistakes are
often made, stones that are absolutely
worthless being purchased for genuine.
Good cat s-eyes can be bought for from
five to ten dollars, and exceedingly
handsome ones for fifteen and twenty
dollars. So sapphires and rubies begin
the scale at fifteen and twenty dollars
and end at any figure the purchaser
chooses to pay. Small stones of the
three or four most valuable kinds, such
as are used for setting larger ones, can
be bought for from a few cents to a
dollar or two, and sometimes at a nom-
inal figure by weight. 1t is safe to say
that almost any jewel can be bought in
Colombo for from One-tifth to One-tenth
of the amount for which it is afterward
sold in America.-COr. San Francisco
Chronicle.