Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-09-22

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among der private broberty.
''Quite so, - said Mr.. Padger, with q
nod OF approval, and turning over sew
eral pages, as he hastily SKINNED the
| list. "Ah, here we are The Sanci
Stewart. That is too big. Earl of Dud-
dley IS diamond. That is more like it.
Mr.. Badger" said the old man
You are honting vot you gall mare s
aest, NIGHT wahr2 / should know if soeh
shdones had peen shdolen.
POSSIBLY - said Mr.. Padger. ''But
| it IS my only chance. Piggott, The Mas
SAX, property of Lord Westminster,
925 ,000-my stars!'
| And so he went on through the whole
| list without any satisfactory result.
| Either the stone did not in the least pos
| sess the necessary qualifications, or its
present whereabouts were too we'll known
| for It to have been stolen without the fact
becoming public.
'tNo," said Mr.. Padger, at the end.
"It ism t there -
81 dold you 20, - said the merchant
holding out his hand for the book
| Every honest detective would probably
unhesItatiugly admit that in a large
majority OF cases of exceptional difficulty
he has owed his final success to a piece
of information obtained from some ap-
| parently trivial accident, and it is no
| disparagement to his skill to confess as
much, for it is in the power of awaiting
himself of such chance assistance, in the
! faculty of approaching to the full the
Importance of minor details that the su
perlority of the really clever detective
is most conspicuously exhibited.
Such happy accident at this moment
befell Mr.. Padger. He let go of the
little volume before Mr.. Van Cooler had
fairly taken hold of it, and as result it
fell to the ground between them Hastily
stopping TO atone for his awkwaTdness,
he perceived a scrap of printed paper,
resembling a cutting from a newspaper,
which in the tumble had tluttered from
the leaves between which it had been
slipped. As he was about to restore it to
its former position his eyes fell upon the
larger type of the heading, and he read:
''The Freiliger Diamond.
tHaIloh. What have we here, Mr..
Van Goeler?'' he exclaimed.
''Ah! - said the old Dutchman with a
deprecatory laugh. ''Dot ees brezictIy
vot you gall der eggseption do brooges
der rule. Dot tiamund has in vact dis
abbeared vor zeven or eight years ago. -
'Indeed!' cried Mr.. Padger sharply.
"May 1 read it. -
"Oh yes, oh yes, of course
Mr.. Padger did not waste time in fur
ther discussion, but Immediately took
advantage of the permission as freely
granted.
This is an authenticated copy of what
he read
THE FREILIGER DIAMOND. -
GA wrIter, whose name has temper
nil Cd
marked that if the true history of any
of our great historical precious stones
could be dredged from the all-devour-
ing nav of the vast ocean, oblivion,
and fairly painted it would present to
the startled vision of the Mortified on
locker a hldeous and revolving panorama
of treachery and assassination, midnight
murder and stealthy poisoning, private
feud and devastating warfare. This, it
is to be feared, too truthful conjecture,
has received within the past few days
terrible illustration, nay we may almost
venture TO say confirmation from an
appalling event IN our very midst.
''Mr. George Freileinger one of our
wealthiest, best known and most re-
spected citizens-yes, we boldly assert,
respected in spite of the ignominious and
despicable aspersions showered upon his
name by a degraded and veniaI contem-
porary-has been found barbarOusly
murdered under circumstances of the
greatest atrocity, and 1t calls for little
penetration to divine the motive of the
dreadful deed.
Zone more precious jewels, the devil $
choicest bait has started upon its career
of crime, for it is difficult TO associate so
potent cause of evil from its awful eff
fects. It was not without good reason
that the ancient mOralists, wrapping up
their mighty truths in parallels and
myths, as the Indians packed their pearls
in garbage, placed the choicest and most
dazzling gems in the heads of venomous
serpents
I'm the year 1879 it was rumored,that
Mr.. Freiliger, who had already distin=
guished himself by accommodating an en-
Ormous fortune, had discovered on a
claim of his particularly large diamond
of the finest water. Where it was actu-
ally found has never TRANSFERRED, as Mr..
Freiliger himself persistently refused to
give any information on the subject,
hoping we presume to make another find
of similar value. 1t was, however, no.
ticed by keen observers that he sUbse-
quently purchased eagerly all property
mine, which the fortunate finder had
then but recently purchased, and popu-
lar rumor attributed to that property the
credit of having produced the wonder.
There was, however, in reality no other
foundation for this conjecture, and the
only man capable OF revealing the secret
is now silent forever.
1.-The widest legends were at first cur
rent as to the beauty and size of the new
found stone, but as is usual in such cases
there was much exaggeration in these
The following particulars re-
produced from our columns, and gath
cred from MIR. Freiliger's own lips may
be implicitly relied upon.
The stone, now it has been cut.
weighs 17714 carats, is of an almost per-
feet oval shape, as nearly as possible,
one inch and a quarter in length, by |
of an inch in breadth and |
depth. 1t is of a remarkably fine and
pure water, and the lucky discoverer |
himself values it at upwards of one hun
dred thousand pounds.
What this beautiful stone would |
really have fetched in the open market |
was never proved, for Mr.. FreilIger, as