The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-16
0rEETS FULL OF GEMS.
Ia Who Garry Fortunes That Are
Not Their Own.

q bst is until you have time TO think about
and then it isn't surprising at all-is
- raiiIing of diamonds.
& Men 20 about the country with from
,oooo TO $4,000 worth of the costly, tiny
'-4es in their clothes, hunting for Gus
'.n,srs in all sorts of places where they
~ likely to find customers, and they
lie at least some of them, good living
out Oiit
And one really curious thing about it is
- very few of them own the goods
NO. carry They do not, in some cases,
IN give bonds or put up any sort of Sc
s,ritv excepting that of their own per-
.mal character.
Tbev are known or believed to be
B ,harojqhlv honest and reliable, and the
& rarshapts who really have money invest
y in the goods, trust them fully and
NJ New York man, who travels almost
8 .ontiDually, met one of these peddlers in
4 w. reading room of hotel in Hartford
& .Dr,a time ago, and told afterward how
II ostonshed he was when the stranger ap-
y nroached him and began to show his
3 goods, E.,
Fl INV, Sdlu bllC wow AOANCA3 esAAN "0S
DRESSED VERY QUIETLY
4 and tastefully. l noticed that there was
Tot single article of jewelry visible on
his person, not even gold button or
4 watch chain.
\ w was KEY chain, Iobserved afterward,
Htbat that was made very strongly and APP
neqred to be, as / presume it was, made of
~ worry finest steel
He sat down beside me, and, pulling
4 At his chain, drew out of his pocket
Ecbamois leather bag or purse. Out of
his he took what looked like a handful
/ nj small packages, each wrapped up in
/ fne tissue paper. These he unwrapped
one after another and showed me the con-
tents.
I'm each one was a gem. There were
diamonds, rubies and emeralds and two
or three pearls, but nearly all of them
were diamonds, and only three or four
'were what | would call unusually large
stones. They were without settings, and
as he unfolded the papers he rubbed each
stone gently and deftly with a small piece
|of flannel. .-.
Naturally he was talking while he
did all this, and ! soon got very much in
|terested," the speaker continued. He
began by asking if he could not sell me a
and | told him [ thought not,
but said it hesitatingly, because wanted
Ito hear what he had to say.
4 have them here said the peddler,
'all the way from $50 up to 800, but l
|can sell you one that any gentleman
would be pleased to wear for three or
flour hundred Most persons, even those
who can afford it, do not care to wear
Very large ones, though / have some Gus
tomers who won't look at small stone
|l you have regular customers, thenW
asked the man from New York, and he
answered "Oh, yes; my trade is mostly
among actors and hotel men, and | know
nearly all the prominent ones east of the
Mississippi"
And then he took out a powerful glass
and asked the New Yorker to look at a
beautiful brilliant he had just I'M
Wrapped.
Hooked at it and admired it, but 1
tOld him was no Judge of diamonds" the
New Yorker went on. "All stones of the
same size
LOOKED PRETTY MUCH ALIKE
Ito me, though l could see that some
seemed to me more brilliant than others.
.He laughed a little and said that he
found that comparatively few people
'were Judges, but that great many were
reluctant to own it, and either believed
Tor pretended to believe that they could
tell genuine diamond from the best pos
|si0e imitation and a good stone from
bad one
Such people, he said, buy diamonds
Whenever they can be made to believe
that they are getting bargains, but as
rule they pay more than they need to.
|Strlctly speaking, there is no such thing
as bargain in diamonds, excepting in
buying one from somebody who is ignOr-
ant or careless of the true value of what
he has, because a diamond has an intrln-
Sic value as well defined as that of gold.
However, he continued, lam always
glad to meet anybody who is on the
lookout for bargains, because l generally
manage to sell them something at a good
price
Then he went on to tell me that he
'ny carried the other stores as a sort of
side show. Once in a great while he would
sell pearl or ruby, but nearly all his
business consisted of sales of diamonds
and watches.
He kept on chatting, even after l had
satisfied MIN that didn't intend to buy
anything, and he kept some of his parcels
open for considerable time while he was
slowly wrapping up the others.
j thought at first that he seemed to b
careless about it, but as | watched him
nouced that he never looked anywher
excepting either at his goods or straigh
III my eye, and | could see that his vigi-
lance was never relaxed for an instant"
his description affords very fair no
ZION OF the business these peddlers do, an6
Inere are more of them going around tn
word than most people have any notion OF
Inc stuff they take with them, too, Isl
AInd that it would be practically i'm
possible to trace, for diamonds, eve
soodSlzed ones,
ARE HARD TO IDENTIFY,
as rule. There are cases, of course, i
"Aich some popularity of cutting or til
%;GlIuent Of great size renders identific
T r,2H possible, but the stones that could b
PoSSauVely sworn to are very rare.
.I 0ue mat could have been identified il
+t55l'ySl every one of the great capitals OF
9ig world was recently offered for sale by
7 walden i1ane dealer, but although it was
b,-'33"u 10 be more than 400 years old, and
4dq been sold for as much as 81. 900. 1t had
~ ~ Nv; og iecut at a sacrifice of more than on
s s,.iIu OF Its weight before it could be so
again for $500
ay,,,n was a beautiful stone, pronounced b
b,!1iiiv 10 be perfect, and was rare
ar -,'is'oIV' out Its shape made it unsalabl
en- ,uc same time that it made it ideuti-
t,"'Ilu possible, for il was the largest
C c,t i. known to be in existence that was
~ ~ NY Jne coolies in India in the 18th
NIT ue shape was nearly square, and i
M, ~'euVeu fewer of the faces that multi
tbril,!. eIractlon than the more modert
do,,'l.IlIah does. It seemed a pity 10 Gu
~" u Such stone, but it was done fol
lssys,, ~. -