Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1890-01-11
ROYAL RICHES PAWNED.
THE FATE OF MANY ELEGANT AND
COSTLY KEEPSAKES.


Three Golden Balls Indicate the Char
acter of the Business Done Inside-Ssnae
Stories Told by ''Uncles."
"What is this worth 2" he asked, pulling out
Of his breast pocket beautiful velvet case
and opening it. In the gaslight the contents
Of the case flashed and shone like thousand
stars The jeweler took the glittering object
out of its repository and carefully examined
| it. He took up the case and critically exam
ined that also. Then he said: eff you mean
what the value of It is IN strictly business
sense, I'd say $3.50. That is what the gold and
the stones will sell for. If you mean the arts
tic value, together with that of associations,
it depends entirely upon the whirn Of the pur-
chaser. To me. as jeweler, the sum l named
| is all it is worth"
''That is very little. Can't you do better
than that? happen to know that this cost
the shah 81 900 when he had it made for me. :"
''Tell mellow did you get itg'
Every simply" said the owner. "It was
in 1873, at the time of the Vienna worlds
fair, when the shah of Persia visited there I
was then young member Of the Hofburg
Theatre troupe-the best in Europe-and one
night when the Persian monarch was present
at performance my acting pleased him, and
week later he sent me this"
THE HENCENESs OF II.
The speaker was leading member of tho
German stage in this city. Something had
happened to him from which not even the
greatest actor is exempt. Hence the yaVnmg
void in his pocketbook. Hence the visit to
the jeweler. Hence the Offering for sale of
his trophy. There was logical sequence to
it ALL
The object he had rendered for sale was
cigarette case-only that. But it was of
solid gold and studded with diamonds. There
were about 100 of these precious stones
grouped together in such way on the SUP
face of the case as to form a curious mono
gram. The letters were Arabic, and they
were the faithful facsimile-in diamonds
of the signature of Persia's ruler-Nasr-ed-
Deem, Shah, which means in plain Anglo
Saxon just this: Light of the World, King.
In his estimation there is but one king, and
that Is he.
81 haven't any doubt that this cost the
shah thousand dollars or So" said the jew
eler, "but the market value of the stones and
of the gold is only what l said. III keep it,
though, for you. Some wealthy board of
trade man may get stuck on it and pay you
something nearer its true value"
That seems to be about the fate Of nearly
all such costly keepsakes, gifts of honor, royal
or imperial presents, insignia and jewel in
crusted decorations Very few of them re-
main in the hands Of their original owners
and their descendants. Although Chicago is
not very old town, and its citizens are not
the subjects of any potent tate or Asiatic des-
pot, yet it is true that there are here in this
very city, in the custody or ownership of our
jewelers. and pawnbrokers, an aggregation of
such curious baubles large enough to stock a |
museum.
One West Madison street "uncle," for in |
stance, has whole Fayful of foreign decora- |
tons, all of considerable intrinsic value. |
Nearly all of them were once worn by former |
army officers-German, British, French, Ital !
ian, Austrian, even Dutch and Belgian. One |
of these decorations was bestowed upon |
Swiss officer in the papal army for daring |
feat Of arms performed at the battle of Cas- |
telfdardo. "This officer one day, a number |
of years ago, pledged this cross with me to
obtain a square meal. He had been but a
short time in this city then, and he was de-
cidedly down at the heels. Today he is quite
able to redeem this thing. But somehow he
don't seem to care about doing SO. And that
is a curious feature of it-just this class of
pledges is very rarely taken out of hook
once they're put in. It's singular enough.
And for that reason we never give more than
49,