Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-06-30
Most of the Precious Stones Said to
Possess Unquestioned Heal
ing Powers.
Many and Various are the Legends
That surround al Precious
Jewels.
There is a Structure Of Fact COncer Il
ing Gems That is Obscured
by Fancy.

The father of ieweIry was Promotions.
| When he was cut loose by Herulas from
/ the chains that tasted him to Mount
| Caucasus, be made a ring out of one OF
! the link of his letters, and in the bevel
| of it he fixed a portion of the rock. Ac-
| cor ling TO Pinpy, that was the first ring
/ and the first stone. Heir w tradition
says that the tablets Of Moses were of
sapphire. In Hebrew the word sappir
Imeans the most beautiful. 1t symbohzaS
! 70, atty, justice, beauty and nobility. TIE
| Emerald Is mentioned by st. John in MS
apocalypse. An emerald of inestimable
! falue ON mented the bevel of the ring
Of Polycrates, king Of Sawos. That
mOnncl, having been all his life favored
by fortune, determined to put his luck to
asevere lest. He threw the ring into The
sea. The next day ne went fishing. The
record OF that days sport still remains
! tlnbroken. His majesty caught fLe fish
and in Zoe inside OF tie fish he found Lis
| ring. That happened in the year go of
| ftul3a' ion of & me, and the ring, cjnsid-
cred as a taIisman, was placed among the
rbyal treasures Of the Temple of Concord
Eu'eralds from India, Persia, and Peru
are the most valuable, According to their
tints ard their luster they are classed as
| Prosines, Neronianes, and Domitianes
Acc prding to Suetonius, Nero used to look
at tie fighting gladiators in his emerald
The Stone is the emblem of charity, hope,
| joy and abundance 1t had the reputa-
tion Of curing epilepsy OF application and
of being an all-round pain killer.
Ths diamond has always been regar led
as theSmO precious stone, according to
the Parls Figaro. It resists the hardest
bodies. The Pontiff Aaron became 90.
scure, utmost black, when the Hebrews
were in state of mortal sin. If the
guilty deserved death it became red, but
IN the pres9nc OF innocence it came back
to Its original purity and brilliancy. Rues
assur-g us that diamonds breed, aud that a
certain princess Of the house of Luxembourg
hal two which had a family in the course
OF ii reasonable time. The same interest
ing assertion is also made by Boethius
The diamond was reputed as preServer
! against epidemics and pOisons. It Gains
anger and foments conjugal love. The
anclents called it ''the stone Of recon
cliiation.9 1t ermbolizes constancy,
streng and innocence.
The name of the precious stone inserted
IN the ring Of Gyges has not been handed
| down to us, but 1t il probable that il was
| the topaz whose wonders Pnllostrat4s re
&C UNITS In the life of Apollonius An at
| tribute OF the sun and of fire, the ancients
| called it the gold magnet, as it was
credited with the power of attracting that
| metal, indicating its veins, and discover
ing treasure4 Hello Dorous, in his story
of rheagensl land Carices, says that the
topaz saves pm fire all those who wear
it, and tnat haricies was preserved by
topaz from thf fiery vangence of Arsaces,
Queen of Ethiopia. This stone was one
OF TIE first tallsmans that Th9agenes
possessed in Egypt. The topaz at present
symboiIzes Christian virtues, faith Justice,
temperance, gentleness, clemency.
One Of the rarest and most precious
stones is the c3rbuDcIe, which is some
times COMPOUNDED with the ruby, from
which ii differs by the intensity of It's
fires, produced by an internal luster of
gold, while under the purple of the ruby
there only appear dottings of azure or
lacquer. Ethiopia produced the most
precious ancient carbuncles. The Chal-
deans regarded this stone as a powerful
dragons out OF carbuncles. G lrcias ab
Luz w. phJSLSloh VI Ollo vi U1t iCSlO1S
of India, speaks of carbunces which he
were so ex raordinary in their briIliancy
that has seemed like red hot Goals in
the midst of darkness" Louis Vertoman
reports that the king of Pegu wore an
enormous one, which at night appeared to |
be lighted up with the sunbeams. The vir-
tues of the carbuncle are resistance to fire, |
preservation of the eyes, promotion of |
happy illusions, and an antidote against |
impure air.
The ruby is valued highest when it con-
tains the least azure. The largest ruby |
that history speaks of belonged to Eliza
beth of Austria, the wife of Charles TX. |
1t was almost as big as hens egg. The |
virtues attributed to rubies are to Danish |
sadness, to repress luxury, and to drive
away annoying thoughts. At the same |
time it symbolizes cruelty, anger and car
mage, as well as boldness and bravery A
change In its color announces calamity. !
but when the trouble is over it regains It's
primitive luster. The amethyst, so called |
from the Greek Amethustos, meaning
mot drunk, was fayorite stone among
the Roman ladies. its principal virtue
was to draw away the vapors of inebriety
from the brain. 1t also drove away evil
thoughts and attracted to its possessor the
favors Of princes.
The opal, fallen from its ancient splen-
dor, is to-day called an unlucky stone,
even by those who laugh at old supersti-
tions, but it once held a high rank among
precious stones The belief that it at
tracted misfortune was founded on a
Russian legend which found its way into
France. The Empress Eugene had a
horror of an opal. At the sight of one in
The Tuilleries size manifest led terror That
mad the effect of lowering the price of the
stone.
The turqloi is considered as a tails
nan in Persia, its native SOIL It pre-
serves its possessor from accidents and |
nsures constancy in affections The {
Talue of the turquoise depends or its shade
nd its size, especially its thickness. I
Those classed as belonging to tie old rock j
re valued very highly. Emblem of youth
# sentiment, and tender recollections, the {
may be called the forget me q
lot of stones. 1t breaks on the death Of /
is proportion, and it changes color when q
le is Ill. This last observation is per- t
ectly true, and is certified to by all lapi- t
aries. The same thing has been re- U
marked of coral. "Not only do precious i
tones i've" says Jerome Cardan ''out r
hey IRE liable to get sick, to suffer from C
he in6rmities of old age, and at last to c
lie. " a
The most precious of all stones, accord Il
ng to Dr.. de Lgnieres, is the sde, on ac- e.
cunt of its rarity, its extraordinary fl
ualities, and the mystery of its cutting j,
was regarded as a sacred stone, and no b
ody had a right to possess it except a Il