The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-08-13
An Eastern Expert Says There Are
None, Aside From Their
Setting.
Information Elicited by a Trial
Involving the Value OF
Some Jewelry.
Value OF Metals-Gold Not In 1t with
Several Others-Gallium Worth
$3.50 an Ounce.

- wa
and jewelry that had been stolen.
So an expert from Maiden Lane WAS
called in. He needed to be an expert, for
Counsellor Howe was on deck for the de-
PENDANT, and what he doesn't know about
diamonds and things of that kind is not
worth knowing. He usually wears about a
quart Of diamonds about him; and as for
jewelry, well-when he comes back from
the country go and look at him. II his
partner, Abe Hummell. were to attempt to
wear as much he would have to be carried.
he certainly could neither walk, nor for
that matter. says the New York Sunday
News, stagger under such a weight.
But this particular expert knew his bust.
ness. 3
Eat any rate" said Mr.. Howe. at a GER
tain stage of the proceedings, "these were
secondhand diamonds."
IT beg your pardon, Mr.. Howe" said the
expert, but there is no such thing as a SEQ
ond-hand diamond. / see that the setting
has been removed from this stone and that
it has been nicked a bit, but except an in
consequent difference in weight it is just
the same diamond that it was before it fell
into the hands OF the person who tried to
damage it,"
saw this expert afterwards, and he told
me that this WAS an old trick of the pawn
brokers, who act as "fences'' for thieves, to
remove the setting from diamond rings or
brooches, or anything of That sort, to break
up or melt the setting, and then nicking the
diamond in such a way as to prevent identi-
fi%cation-and this they can afford to do, for
they pay small prices to the thieves. In
some cases, where a diamond is extra large,
it may be cut SO as to make two stones in
stead of one.
But all this is the trickery that comes
out of thlevery," said the expert. "There
is no such thing as a second hand diamond.
"A diamond is not like a suit of clothes.
You can't wear it out. You may pay q big,
price for a stone in a legitimate place or
you may pay a smaller one to some thief
it's a diamond, and dom forget it. II its
color be right and its weight true. md if
there be no flaw on it. it matters not if it
is 1000 years old and has been owned by as
many men. 1t is a diamond as it always
was. and that settles it.
1T is true,' said the expert, 'that prices
of diamonds fluctuate. 1t is not the law of
supply and demand. either, that governs
this. The supply is usually all right. 1t is
tho demand that bothers us. It is more
come into my place for diamonds, mark
you, ! will charge you quite as much for
what some persons call secondhand dia-
monds rs I would for those that are not.
called secondhand. "A ~pawnbroker may
make a distinction, but | don't, and ] re-
peat, once a pure diamond always a pure
diamond"
''Yhis matter of Ignorance about dia-
monds," the expert went on. ''puts me in
mind of another thing in our line that the
average person seems to know very little
about. That is the matter of precious
metals. Nine men out of ten that l deal
with seem to think that gold is above and
beyond all other metals. with platinum and
silver following.
swell, they are wrong. Gold is worth
about $240 per pound troy; platinum about
$3.50 and silver about $12. Nickel is worth
about sixty cents and pure aluminium from
SO to SO per troy pound. Now do you know
those metals are not in it witt some that
exist and are sold. But wait n moment I'M
til l get a list of them that I have made out
in alphabetical order, and | venture to say
I can tell you something that you don't
know"
And he was as good as his word. He
pulled down a big book in which all sorts of
hieroplyphics were inscribed and consulted
it. Then he told the reporter about some
costly metals that the latter had never
heard of before.
"There's barium," he said. 1T suppose
you don't know what barium isY"
The reporter thought of Il pun connected
with bay rum, but with q manly effort sup.
pressed it, and acknowledged that he did
not know what barium was.
"Well, it's a very rare metal and is not
often bought or sold. for the simple reason
worth 1876 per pound. That knocks gold
at $24O per pound out of the ring entirely,
But there's calcium, and that is worth
$1,000 a pound. Cerium is even more costly,
for it is valued at $1,92O Il pound, or SlG0
an ounce. ,
"Pretty good prices those, are they not?'
the expert went on. 'But bless you there
are higher ones. Cromium.'' he said, con-
sulting his big book again. brings a
higher price, for 1t is worth $500 an ounce,
$1.G80 per pound. But then comes the king
of metals. Assuming the wealth of the Van
derhilts to be 5000, 900, 900, they could with
that buy 312 tons of gold and have some
thing left over. But if thew tried to buy
gallium with their $500, 900, 900 thew wouId
stop a little short of two tons. Gallium is
worth $3.50 an ounce. This is the highest
priced metal as it is the richest and rarest.
But here are some other big prices brought
by metals:
"Gencirium is worth $3.50 an ounce: iri-
dunn S65S q pound, lanthanium $175 and
an ounce. Asmium brings 500 q pound.
palladium $500 and rhodium $512. Stron-
tium is worth $12s an ounce, tantium $144,
thorium $272, sanudium $500, yitrium $144
uuO AITCOItluIu pow.
''There are q few more." said the expert,
''but l guess those will do" The reporter
thought they would and suggested that If
the expert had a couple of pounds of gal
lium laying about loose he would be quite
willing to relieve him of the trouble of
looking after it. This unselish proposition
was frowned down Mt once.
Here" he said. ''is something that you
have perhaps never seen.'
The something was a semi-transparent
water-worn pebble of Il yellowish color and
the size of a pea. The expert took the
stone. and after warming it exposed it in "A
dark nook in the store. You would
scarcely think this pebble would throw
forth such glesms of greenish phosphores-
cent light.
That" said the expert, "is what is
known as a cobra gem.' l got it in India,
and but for the strategy of a coolie l would
have lost my life in getting it. The cobra
carries these stones about with him and the
coolies in the main have a superstitious
horror of them. But really there Is no rea-
son for this, and tho explanation of the
fact that the cobra carries about this sort a
stone with him.. The stone il what Ia
known az a ch%lorophnne, n very rare sort OF
fuor spar. Az you have seen. it will give
out a continuous soft phosphorescent glow
III it ia Kant in N larL p,Dt Wall - l.,