Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-08-28

~ AttsADt 20 Prove TAak Artificial Cen
WoalA Alvoys h RoDuaAr.

- AttsMDs e Prove TAa3 AFtiAeial Cess
WeaaA Alveys h Popular.
Tie question Is curious one, for is IN
wolves good deal OF human nature Ii
10 the value Of . precious stone Wholly do
pendent upon its rarity and the conse-
Quent proof IL aAo1ds that its Owner q
possessed OF wealth, or 1t al eveAtA OF
wealth which he can afford to waste?
That is nearly universal assumption,
especially with those to whom wealth
10 itself an offense, and it has this cup
port Ut least that many . woman who
would despise pFetense thinks, il
she actually has the diamonds 1t her
bankers she may wear their copies in
paste We venture. nevertheless, to
question its entire correctness
Fhe enormous market price OF pre-
cious stones, IS compared to their bulk
and utility, is no doubt due to their
rarity and the consequent gratifics ton
to vanity which their possession affords
but their whole value does not consist
in that The desire for them is pro-
voked also by their inherent beauty, IS
OF flowers gifted With an attribute OF
pefmanence and possibly also by that
instructive taste for shining things
which has made dewdrops strike al
races IS exquisitely eAutiful-nobody
ever paid for q dewdrop-and which, -
many doctors know, rises in some men
and women to . we'll marked kind Of
insanity. Many kleptomaniacsc can con-
troll themselves against their tempta-
ton so long IS the coveted article does
not glitter. No possible case OF manu-
facture can make an eternal dewdrop
other than beautiful or take AWAY the
ruby's gift Of setting of flesh or dim
the strange fash OF the opal, SO
utterly unlike any thing else that
nature has produced. By the way,
the reference to the opal may
be mistake, for the beauty of that
jewel, being the result OF natures fail
ure and not Of her success, for she can
hardly have intended those hiatuses
which yield the iridescence-may be
wholly beyond even the ablest chemists
art).
The taste for jewels would be univer-
sal il only the'people ever thought Of
them as possibly procurable. and if they
sank heavily in price they would be
universally worn, as, indeed. the cheap
er jewels and the limitations are al
ready. What would happen, we believe,
therefore, if jewels became cheap. is
that the rich would abandon them in
their present form, which tends more
and more to a costly simplicity-the
stones being, as it were, barred OF all
other ornaments-and that whole popu-
lations would take them up, thus con-
shutting them once more great article
OF commerce. Every woman above the
poorest would use the stones for orna-
ment 1t is Birmingham jewelry that
would die, not the real article. The
rich, moreover, would defend them
selves by calling art to their aid, and we
should see not only a wonderful i'm
provement in goldsmiths' work. now Of
ten devoid of even a pretense of art
feeling, but sudden and splendid re-
vival of the art of the gem engraver,
now so nearly dead. The ruby collar
of the Marchioness would be almost as
costly as ever, as a triumph of design
and workmanship socialists could
hardly make the first designer in
Europe use his gift with willing heart
for pound week-while diamonds
would become with the women of the
people what pearls used to be in some
parts of Italy, ornaments with which it
was almost indecorOus, certainly quite
bad form, on high occasions to dis
tot