The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-02-22
MRS. AYRE'S JEWELS.
4 Private Collection of Pearls, damon
.na DwA.o. UaIua1 NJ a. IN 0On

q Private Collection of Pearls, Diamonds
and Rubies Valued at $4,000.
Washington Correspondence Globe-Democrat.
On Wednesday while making the grand
rounds" OF call on the Cabinet ladies,
met at Secretary Whiiney's Mr.. and Mrs.
John Bigelow and Mrs. Ayre, the rich
widow of DR.. AyTe, who is visiting Wash
ington with them. Going on to Mrs.
Endicotts I encountered them again
there, and the accidental salutation was
repeated shortly after in the pleasant par
lors OF Mrs. Don Dickinson.
"This means that you must lunch with
u.s." said the Bigelows merrily, and the
lunch came off next day at the Arlington.
The veteran editor is six feet three, and
seems to grow longer every year. Mrs.
Bigelow is q cordial and agreeable lady,
Democratic and cosmopolitan. who has
Kept her eyes open ever since she was
born, and probably has a wider acquatnt-
ance than any other woman on thus con-
tinent. Her husband is q Democrat this
year; but her grandfather was the first
Marylander to emancipate his slaves.
Their eldest son, John, is an officer OF the
10th cavalry, and they are visiting him
here; their next son, Poultney, is editor
of Outing; and their daughter, Grace, has
published popular trsnslations from the
French and German.
Mrs. Aver must have once been very
handsome. She is still a comely woman,
her fair complexion complemented by a
great mass of yellow hair. Sne dresses
quietly, and is modest and even reticent in
her conversation and bearing. ventured,
after lunch. to challenge her to show us
the wonderful Jewels she was reputed to
possess and promised not to say any more
about them than l could help.
She objected, and said she could not
bear seeming to make a display OF any
thing. l sppealed to her aesthetic sense,
saying;
they, say, 60 and buy some of the rarests
jewels in the world and lock them up
where nobody can see them. Is that fair?"
She yielded after awhile, and brought
them forth from her trunk in the other
room-$150, 600 worth Of pearls, diamonds
end rubies. The former predominated-
fifteen tremendous necklaces with perfect
pearls the whole length as large as filberts.
There were several other pieces, the NEST
important of which was a huge necklace of
rubies set in diamonds Several of the
rubies were as big as mans thumb nail,
and the central one, formerly the talismsn
OF RSjsh, Was uncut, and measured an
inch long, three-fourths OF an inch wide
and half inch thick. 1t was a heavy
nugget of fire. Several OF the diamonds
were as large as the So 600 stones in the
Queens tiara, as / remember seeing il in
the Tower, and the two largest, one pear
shaped, nearly an inch long.
These" said Mrs. Aver, my husband
selected, partly because Of their history, rs
well as because of their limpid brilliancy.
They we're worn 200 years ago as buttons
by that avariciops prelate, Cardinal Maza-
rim, successor of Richelieu-he had eleven
such buttons, We are told. Iscarcely ever
wear any of these largest jawels-it would
seem destinations. But love 10 Sit and
look ct them and hold them in my hands
and enjoy them as l would fine painting.
And it is pleasant to have my friends en-
Joy the beautiful things Too"