The Irish standard., 1895-02-02
MEXICAN ONYX.
r. 9pooiSs Of Marble That Is Much
Used in. This Country.
Used by tho Ancients for Making Masks
and Idols-Whore the Largest De-
posits OF the Agate Arc
49, Found.

xUO10-Vvn0E0
posits OF the Agate Arc
80 Found.
Some officers of the United States
army in the war with Mexico noticed
in chapel of that country a rarely
beautiful window made of thin trans
lucent pieces of richly colored stone.
One of the officers brought home some
pieces of the stone and left it with
jeweler in this city to be dressed and
shaped, but being ordered to the
frontier he went away without receiv-
ing the finished material back from the
jeweler. This was the first of the stone
seen in this country, and it attracted no
great attention. About thirty years
later considerable quantities of the ma
terial were exhibited as Mexican onyx
at the Centennial exposition at Phila-
delphia.
The Mexican onyx of that day was
greatly admired, but the price was so
high, about ten times what it now is,
that the material was looked upon as
semi-precious stone Ever since 1876.
the material has become cheaper and
cheaper, until now it is used in large
quantities, though only in expensive
structures. One of the earliest build
ings to contain large quantity Of
Mexican onyx was a luxurious London
hotel built not many years ago. Its
staircase of Mexican onyx cost twenty
five thousand dollars. Many new build
ings in this city, says the New York
Sun, have been ornamented by the
lavish use of Mexican onyx. A great
business building downtown has a
stairway of this stone, and several Of
the new Fifth avenue hotels have onyx
wainscoting and stairways A private
house in Chicago has twenty-five thou
sand dollars worth of Mexican onyx in
the hall.
Mineralogists have known all along
that Mexican onyx is not a true onyx,
but species of marble. 1t is specially
an aragonite, made up of calcium, oxide
of iron and magnesium. To the last
two it owes it's peculiar beauty of color.
Several of the Mexican states send onyx
to us, but the largest deposits are found
near Tecai, in the state Of Pueblo. It
masks, idols and other small objects,
and some of the modern Mexicans, find
ing these works of their ancestors adj
mired by travellers, turn out like objects
from the stone and sell them at good
prices. William Cooper, of Esperanza,
found about seven years ago in a vol
cano of Mexico deposit that is now
called mosaic agate. 1t is peculiarly
beautiful sort of MeAdcan onyx, in
which the formation has been broken
up under pressure. There are Cali
fornia onyx and an Arizona onyx, each
being marble of amber hues, and
aragonite is also found in Iowa.
Mexican onyx is easily worked, and
has been used not only for building
purposes, but for ornamental household
articles, lamp standards, table tops,
mantels, and other articles, large and
small. Some of the earlier articles OF
the sort have considerably decreased In
value since the price of the onyx came
down and it has been so lavishly used
in building. 1t is, of course, not suited
for statuary, because it's variegated col
ors would give the subject motley ap-
pearance that would not be beautiful,
but absurd. The material is too valu-
able to be used much in places where
it would be exposed to the weather.
Its use has become so extended in this
city that it is now largely imported by
few marble Dealers It hardly gives
in the crude state the promise of it's
finished beauty, and scraps and frag-
a. - %1o ,In CT
wasted that would have been eagerly
preserved were it's price what it was
nineteen years ago. 1t may be doubted
whether any church of the United
States has been decorated as the little
Mexican chapel of nearly fifty years
ago.
An extensive dealer in Mexican onyx
and other marbles says that the stone
is less used than it was ten years ago,
so he thinks, because other and cheaper
stones, notably African marble, are
within few years several notable
speculative importations of Mexican
onyx. In some of these cases the i'm
porters, finding the sale unexpectedly
slow, were unable to pay the duties,
and the quantity in port broke the
price. Mexican onyx sells in the rough
at six to twenty dollars a cubic
foot. Large pieces fetch more than
their proportional price. The saving
into slabs adds about two dollars
cubic foot to the price, and the further
cutting, fitting and polishing greatly
increases the value of the stone. There
is often loss of forty per cent. of ma
terial in preparing it for wainscoting,
so that the finished product fetches as
high as six dollars foot. When one
inch thick specially beautiful speci-
mems fetch even more, and it is posi-
bic to run up the cost of building
decorated with specially chosen onyx
to fabulous sum.
Making Up Lost Time.
In regard to the difficulty of making
up lost time on railways, writer in q
foreign paper says: Thus, to take