The Irish standard., 1891-02-14
LUCK IN or AIS.
The Old Superstition e Fast
Dying Out.
Some Strange Qualities Attributed to the
Gems-What the Leading jewelers.
Have to Say About
Them.

precious stones. One reason for this is
that the art Of polishing the hard jew
els, diamonds, rlbies and sapphires
was not then known in such perfect
ness as at the present day, and the
beauties of these stones were not
brought out The OPAL on the contrary,
Is soft, easily polished and with very
little work radiant, lovely surface is
obtained.
In the far East, says a writer in the
New York Journal, opals are held In
great awe by every one. One peculiar
superstition regarding the stone is
that if the red shade in the stone be-
comes the most prominent and the blue
tint less so, it denotes d waning of
love on the part of the giver. Another
superstition existing in India among the
Hindoos is that if the prismatic colors
| fade out of the stone it is sure sign Of
death to the wearer.
1t is an unquestioned fact that the
opal does change it's intensity Of color
according to the health OF the wearer.
This, however, is due to natural causes.
as the stone is very sensitive to heat
!
blood, so the co]ors are more Or less
vivid ...."
The modern superstition regarding
opals can not be traced further than the
beginning Of the present century, and
owes it's origin to the story of ''Anne Of
Gelerstein," by Sir Walter Scott, who
| introduced into that romance an element
of ill-luck which befell the heroine who
possessed d talismanic opal. This
strange idea of the ill-luck attending
owners of any of these beautiful jewels
and very few men or women have been
found who were brave enough to possess
or wear one.
Until recently it was indeed quite
rare to find an opal in any Of the pronai-
nent jewelry houses. There was atso-
lutely no call for them, and the value
naturally was ridiculously low. But
the other day: in passing % window
where handsome jewels of every va
riety were displayed, I noticed several
gorgeous opals set in a number of at
tractive ways, SO / made a number OF
inquiries as to their present popular
ity and whether the omen Of bad luck
still influenced people about purchasing
them.
eyes, I am sure the feeling Of super
stition in regard to the opal is dying
out. said one of Tiffany's clerks. owe
| receive large orders fo1. the once unpop-
ular stone. ! would not care to call it
exactly fad now among women; that
term would hardly apply to such deli
| cate, lovely object, but I can say that
the stone is certainly growing in popu-
larity, and women are beginning to de-
| sire to add it to the collection in their
| jewel cases.
Here is glorious beauty Of enormous
size, set in circle of diamonds. 1t is
cut round, and the brilliant blues, reds
and greens flash together in and out,
back and forth, in a bewildering COM
bination of shades that is absolutely
dazzling.
! A large importer of the stones says
that there is no difficulty in selling any
fine specimens as the demand is greater
than the supply, but as in the case. OF
many other things the American people
demand the highest quality obtainable;
this limits the amount of sales, as par
ticularly fine specimens are not easily
procured.
One prominent jeweler informed me
that very few of the new millionaires Of
this country owned any opals. In the
first place it was not snowy enough for
them. They wished something flashy
and brilliant that could be seen and adj
lnired at long distance. The opal
taste is essentially refined taste, and
one looks successfully for owners of the
precious stones among the old aristo-
Gratis.
A number OF other jewellers said that
their sales in opals were now much
larger than heretofore and that many
attached no Importance to the unlucky
omens. The value Of the stone had
largely increased owing to the demand,
The finest opals i'll the world are
brought from Hungary, where they are
sometimes found of enormous size.
Some fine specimens also come from
Honduras and from Mexico and New
| Mexico.
| Ancient Fashions.
DR.. Julian j. Chisholm, of Baltimore,
has been inspecting the Babylonish cyl
! inders in the British Museum, and has