Mexico weekly ledger., 1896-11-05
GEM WORTH THREE MILLIONS.
Most Valuable Diamond Ever Found In
the Worfd.-AsL Large as a Base Ball.
From The San Francisco Examiner

From The San Francisco Examiner.
The greatest diamond in the world.
the most valuable gem ever discov-
cred, is at last to be cut and put on
the market. Any lady or gentle
man who has an odd 50, 600, 600 or
s., 00o, 900 lying around loose in the
house may now acquire the gem as
soon as the cutting process is fin
ished.
In the rough the diamond was
valued at 80, 500, 600. How much
the cutting may enhance this valu-
alton or depreciate it only the future
can tell. If it falls into the hands
of a particularly skillful man he
may easily add $500, 900 to it. If on
the other hand, the cutting is un-
skillfully done. $500, 900 may be cut
off with equal ease.
The stone has never been out of
the possession of the great diamond
syndicate, of which Cecil Rhodes is
the head, and which controls the m
tire diamond outputof South Africa,
1t was found by one of the syndi-
Gates workmen in June, 1893, in the
lager Fontein mine, near Kimberly.
1t is known as the jaeger Fontein
Excelsior. From the moment of its
discovery up to the present time it
has been guarded as carefully as the
treasure in the bank of England.
To makei its security all the greater
strict secrecy has been observed as
to its exact location. It was first
kept under military guard at the
syndicate's South African place, and
then sent under special escort to
London. There it has remained
ever since. But beyond the fact
that it is in the city somewhere, no
one has been permitted to know any
thing about it. The secret or its To-
cation has been kept by the officers
of the company and a few trusted
employees.
No effort has heretofore been
made for its cutting, because a Gus
toner for a So, 500, 600 solitaire is
not to be picked up every day. And
as the cutting process is very expen-
sive, the syndicate did not go ahead
with the work until there was some
prospect of a sale.
1t takes an emperor or a king to
secure control of such a stone as
this, and the emperors and kings
of Europe T rather hard up at
present. Who it is that has finally
promised to take the jaeger Fontein
Excelsior off the syndicate's hands
is not known. 1t is rumored in Lon
don, however, that, like all other
great things in the world, the big
is coming to America; that
some great American millionaire, |
who has much more money than
good sense, is going to enter the
lists with the effete monarchs of
the old world, who now practically
control all the big diamonds.
AS to this, however, the syndicate
people refuse to say anything and
beyond the fact that the stone is in
process of cutting, the officers de-
clineto give information. Compared
with the jaeger Foutein Excelsior all
Ill the other great stones at present
existence are as hazel nuts to
hens eggs.
1t weighed when exhumed 9601
'arats. Its extreme girth in width
was Sc inches, and its extreme girth
length was 81 inches. It's great
'st length on any one side was 24
inches and its greatest width on
my n side was 2 inches. Its
'mallest width was II inches. AL
ogether it is not unlike a small base
,all in size, and in the shirt front of
summer hotel clerk it would make
showing that would be simply {
lazzling, bringing ruin and desola-
ion to all his rivals. i
u