The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1897-10-02
Continued next week
MEXICAN ONYX.
1t Is Really u Species of Marble and Its
Price Is Constantly Falling.


Some officers of the United States
army i'll the war with Mexico noticed in
q chapel Of that country a rarely beau
tifnl window made Of thin translucent
pieces of richly colored stone. One of
the officers brought home some pieces
of the stone apd left it with Il jeweler of
this city to be dressed and shaped, but
being ordered to the frontier he went
away without receiving the finished
material back from the jeweler. This
country, and it attracted no great atten-
ton. About thirty years later consid-
cradle quantities of the material were
exhibited as Mexican onyx at the Cen
tcnnial exposition at Philadelphia.
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 n
semi-prccious 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 a large quantity of Mex
lean onyx was II luxurious London hotel
built not many years ago. Its staircase
of Mexican onyx cost s25, 900. Many
new buildings in this city have been or
namcuted by the lavish use of Mexican
onyx. A great business building down
town has q stairway of this stone, and
several OF the new Fifth avenue hotels
have onyx wainscoting and stairways.
A private house in Chicago has $25, 600
worth of Mexican onyx in the hall.
M~ineralogists have known all along
that Mexican onyx is not a true onyx,
but a species of marble. II is specially
an aragonitc, made up Of calcium, oxide
of iron and magnesium. To the last
two it owes its peculiar beauty of color.
Several of the Mexican states send onyx
to us, but the largest deposits are found
near Tccali, in tho state of Pueblo. 1t
| vas used by the ancient Mexicans for
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 Espernnza
found about seven years ago in a vol
cano of Mexico a deposit that is now
called mosaic agate. 1t is q peculiarly
beautiful sort OF Mexican onyX,in which
the formation has been broken up I'M
der pressure. There are a California
onyx and an Arizona onyx, each being
n marble of amber hucs, and ara9onite
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 aud
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 its variegated col
ors would give the subject a motley APP
pearance that would not DO beautiful,
but absurd. The material is too valua-
BILE 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 new largely imported by n few
marble dealers. II hardly gives in the
crude state the promise of its finished
beauty, and scraps and fragments OF
the crude stone are now wasted that
would have been eagerly preserved
were its 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
ana 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
more beautiful. There have been with.
in u few years several notable %spcculat-
i've importations of Mexican onyx. In
some Of these cases tho importers, fHd.
ing the sale unexpectedly slow, were
unable to pay the duties, and the guam
tity in port broke the price. Mexican
onyx sells i'll the rough at Sc to $40 g
cubic foot. Large pieces fetch more
than their proportional price. The
saving into slabs adds about 50 a cubic
foot to the price, and the further cut.
ting, fitting, and polishing greatly in.
creases the value of the stone. There
is often a loss of 40 per cent of matcria'
in preparing it for wainscoting, so that
the finished product fetches as high as
IS a foot. When one inch thick spe
cially beautiful specimens fetch even
more, and it is possible to II up tho
cost of q building decorated with spe
cially chosen onyx to n fabulous sum.