The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-11-27
GEMS IN AMERICA.
Opals Worth 100000 Have AL
ready Been Mined Here.
DIAMONDS FOUND IN WISCONSIN
A New Mexican Turquoise Worth $4,000
Pearls In Fresh wster-Montana
Sapphires Not . Success.

NEW YORK, Nov. 21.-fSpecial Core
spondence. lin the days when the IN
pardoned judges who sentenced King
Charles |. to death were living in caves
and hiding in the cellars IN the Connecti-
cut colony,the Moodus mountain began to
rumble as though with subterranean thun-
DER. Inc Indians, who had heard that
NOISE before and who knew of il by tradi-
ton, became greatly excited and said 20
the white men who were then their friends
that the mountain was again preparing to
produce q beautiful stone. When the
rumbiings ceased many men, Indians and
whlte, searched In the vicinity that they
might hno this gem. but without success.
Ihere came one day man ofmysterious
manner and such strange expression in
has eyes that the superstitious persons of
that time were ready to believe that he
was In League with the evil spirits. He
searched at the base of this mountain, and
by and by he discovered stone so beauti-
iui that the coruscations of light it emit
ted were as vivid seemingly as biood-red
hghtnlng, and he said to the people: ''Be-
noid this carbuncle. By some mighty con.
vulsion of nature and some combination
OF the elements beneath this mountain
maze by herce heat and of which you
knew by the strange rumblings, this glor-
ious gem was produced and vomited from
the bowels OF the earth. By and by, twenty
years, perhaps 100 years hence. the
elements Will again conspire and the
mountain will be delivered of another
gem. Some man will come, as 1 have
done, and find it, and in these colonies of
the king. let me tell you that some day all
the jewels that men know about will be
found and gold and other precious metals"
mus saying, the strange man went away
and took ship to England, where he be-
slowed his carbuncle upon a favorite of
the king and became himself powerful
thereby.
Thus runs pleasant tradition of the
Connecticut valley, and there is so much
OF truth In 1t as this, that these rumblings
are even to this day occasionally heard be-
meath the Moodus mountain, and in that
vicinity garnets and other precious stones
have sometimes been discovered.
In the spring of 1890 young man filed
with enthusiasm and with great knowl-
edge Of the nature and locality of all the
precious stones that delight the eyes of
men and women was in the city Of Moscow.
They had shown him what few persons
not connected with the court of Russia
had ever been permitted to take into their
hands. the Russian jewels in the Kremlin.
He held these gems with such tenderness
and skill as showed his familiarity and
fondness for them. It was not the fond
ness of one who sees in jewels only market
prices and dollars and cents, but the de-
light Of an expert, and the fancy of one
who admires the most beautiful things
that the earth gives to men. This man
had also been permitted to handle the
crown jewels in Vienna, and men all over
Europe who possessed treasures of this
sort had gladly shown them to him, and
with delight listened to his comments
upon them and other gems of their kind.
George Frederick Kunz, gem expert, of
Tiffany's, the man to whom refer, was at
this time on his way to Persia that he
might examine and purchase the turquoise
gems which come from that country. The
Persian mines were, it was believed, be-
coming exhausted. and it was the mission