The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1898-03-01
Conc Daft on J8W8l8
Women of Fashion Fairly GIisten With Gems Must Wear
the Tiara as Well,

and little fingers on each hand. Some
times she Will elect to wear nothing bat
diamonds: again she will choose all ru
hies, or perhaps emeraldS and diamonds
but she never makes the mistake Of
putting on too many contrasting cOlors
in her rings She still clings to the mar
quise and to the high crown setting, Ire
cause that brings ont the stones best.
She has grown to be expert in her judg
ment of stones. No foolish superstition
would cause her to give mp a beautiful
opal. and the woman who is proudest in
New York this winter is she who appears
III her opera box wearing necklace Of
opalS. set around with diamonds, which
cost 100000. Extravaganza: Oh, | don't
know. The money is at least spent, the
tradesmen gain it and everybody is help
ed, since each man can the better pay
his bills.
TRADITIONS OF THE RING
The fondneSs of women for rings is
easily undels TODD. 1t is as old as the
hills; as old as Solomon himself. BY the
by, aprOpOs of Solomon, the Talmud
tells 4 story Of a ring which he Wore. 1T
was Il wonderful emerald with some
mystic characters engraved upon it, and
on his keeping this ring depended his
kingdom One day when he was in the
bath he took his precious ring off and
put it on Il shelf. Amina, one of his
wives, was angry at him, and stole the
ring. The fend fattered her and got
her to give it to him, took the form of
King Solomon and ruled the nation.
Solomon was distracted. Every body de
MED him, but at last he did something
wonderful in the way of an incantation.
HE fend grew frightened and threw
the ring into the sea. Naturally a fish
swallowed it, A fisherman caught the
fish, recognized the ring, gave it to Solo
mon, and he had his kingdom back. Tn
fortunately the Talmud doesn't say what
Solomon did to .Amina, but as strangling
a wife was not Thought much Of in those
days, it is fair to imagine some such
little cOntretempS occurred.
1t is funny how many ring and fish
stories there are. There is a Scotch
story about the Queen of Cadzow, rather
gay young person, who gave 10 some
gentleman friend 4 ring which her has
band had given her One day Roderck,
the husband, came home in the usual un-
expected husband fashion. The Queen
was all broken UP, but, being religious
kneeled down and asked st. MungO to
help her. st. Mlmgo had evidently been
a man before he was saint, and told
her he would stand by her, or some
thing to that effect. Then he communn-
icated with a monk he knew who was
a bit Of a fisherman, and told him TO 90
out and whip the stream. or whatever
was the proper thing IN those days, and
to fetch him the first fish he might catch
Inc monk took his fishing apparatus,
artificial flies and. reels and swept the
river near Glasgow and q beautiful fish
arose and when he had gaffed it and
played at he brought it to st. Mungo,
and in its stomach was found the ring.
Thus the Queens honor was saved, and
probably her neck, and that is the reason
why there is salmon wearing a ring
in its mouth which belongs to the armor-
ial bearing Of the City Of Glasgow.
! TROUBLES TRIPLE ALLIANCE.
Rings and women and trouble and
precious stones all seem to so together.
Since they imitatc fruit SO we'll in pre-
ciouS stones | have often wondered if
the appetite in the garden Of Eden was
not in reality 4 pretty little brooch
wrought out in emeralds with Il dia-
mOnd leaf This is THE sort Of thing Il
| woman would long for and not a mere
ordinary everyday apple. True tastes
| differ, and the Roman matrOn, so his
! tory says. was proud to wear iron rings
rs a symbol of her wifchood. To-day
Il woman would remain bachelor girl
forever before she would walk around
carrying half pound of iron on hel
finger. The ancient Romans may have
been great, but they certainly We're not
what one would call stylish. | hate
that word, but is their usual full dress
costume is only initiated by us in the
Turkish bath it seems as il they had ne
real idea of suita ability in dress or Orna-
ment. Everything that was good was
given to the men. We have changed all
that nowadays. If {; liberty cap was put
upon Il pole for the American man to
worship, | agree with the great Polish
writer with the unpronounceable name
that it would probably take the form
OF womans bonnet. He is another
one Of the cads who have come over
here, eaten our dinners, got our money.
and then "sassed back Well, thank
goodness, in less time than it takes to
read his tiresome books they will be
forgotten. They are 4 bad imitation
of Dumas at their best, and their best
does not come near to the worst that
was ever written by the great French
man. Perhaps YOU do not agree with
lne, but if YOU knew of the nasty things
he said about America and American
women YOU would think that nothing too
bad could be said about him, even by
the usually amiable person known as
BAD