San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-02-10
Lockwood National
BANK.
SAN ANTONIO, IEAAo'
j. S. LOCKWOOD, Pres. j. MUIR, Cashier.
SAFE DEPOSIT VAULTS
THE OPAL SUPERSTITION.
Reasons why Sickness May Change
the Color of the Stone.

Reasons why StcknesS May Shdhso
the Color of the Stone.
From Minerals.
The silly superstition about opals-
that they bring i'll luck dies hard.
In tact, although Queen Victoria has
taken q firm stand against it and
proves her position by making
presents of opal jewelry to her
friends and relatives, there are
many who think that it is increasing.
This superstition and the arrival
within year of q bushel or SO of
opals from Australia, unsurpassed in
color, have had a tendency to lower
the price Of these lovely gems,
and some dealers are willing to dis.
pose of their stock of them for less
than their cost. One jeweler in New
York, who formerly sold good many
refused to keep them any longer. II
haven't an opal in the place, "sald he:
"Mind, Pm not in the least affected
by this idea OF opals bringing bad
luck, for love the stones and would
as lief have an opal OH my finger as q
diamond, but they are running down
in value and have few buyers, so
that it does not pay me to keep them,
and, besides, women come back here
with opal rings and pins that sold
to them years ago and demand TO
change them for something else, be-
cause, in the meantime, their pet cats
have died, or their babies have had
Group, or their neighbors have ex-
pressed horror at their temerity in
wearing forbidden gem. In other
words, they want to exchange worn
and unstable goods for things
that are newer and of more
value, and i'm cases where
they are good customers 1 have to
submit to it," One man in Brooklyn
took the opal out of his ring and
smashed it TO atoms with hatchet
because he had failed in bdsiness.
While Sir Walter Scott did something
to give the opal a bad name by his
account of it in "Anne of Geierstein, !"
it was held in distrust long before his
time. 1t was considerably In use in
Venice at the time of the plague, and
it was noticed there in the hospitals
that before death the stone would
sometimes brighten on the victims
finger. 1t never seemed to oc-
cur to the people that the ILL
ness could produce the glow OF color;
they took it for granted that the
stone occasioned the illness. AS
matter of fact. opals are affected by
heat, even by that of the hand, and
the fever being at its height just be-
lore death, caused the colors TO shine
with unwonted clearness. This con-
firmed the superstition and to this
day there are sane and able-bodied
people who believe that q chip in the
house can cause calamities Some
times it seems as if mankind had not
gone far beyond its swaddling clothes
as yet Probably another reason Tor
the distrust excited in Opals Is
the fact that they change and
lose their color. This has its cause
in the softness and porousness of the
material, and it's capacity both for
absorbing water and of parting with
what it has, one of which transforms
ton tends to make it dull, the other
dhalky and Opaque. A peculiar vari
ETY. of opal. black in color yet exhibit
ing iridescent flashes, was cut into
handsome stones, but on opening the
papers that contained them a few
weeks later it wss discovered that
they had been crum oiled into powder
They were said to have come from
New Zealand. The transparent opa 9
that come from Honduras are be-
lleved to regain color, after 1t has be-
come faint by soaking them in oil.
Doubtless the most curious form of
opal, but one that does not commend
itself for use in ornament, is the hy-
drophane, that WAS known centuries
ago as the oculus mandj, or "eye of
the world"-a name purely fantasti-
caI-and that has recently been found
in small quantities in Colorado. This
stone has a wonderful power of alb
sorption. In it's usual state 1t is of
yellowish, waxy tint, but when waite r
is dropped upon 1T the tint slowly
passes away, and from being trans.
lucent 1t becomes transparent. On
exposure to the air the water evopo-
rates in an hour, leaving the stone as
Ii was before.