The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-06-11
The Great Hope Diamond.

HO GtOdl itOpO OidiitOilut
To sketch briefly the romance of that
famous great jewel. the Hope Blue DIAM
ond, which the young Lord Hope recently
tried in vain 70 market, one may Go no
better than 10 begin ike julius Caesar.
The original of the Hope diamond. then,
is, as was all Gaul divided into three
parts-which was never the intention OF
the man who first bought It out in India.
and in which lies q curious story.
The diamond is big enough today-it
weighs 4414 carats-to provide a vast
amount Of entertainment and good liv-
ing for Lord Francis Hope and his wife,
who was May Yohe. Chicago actress, #
the could but convert * into CASH Its
marvellous radiance is an aggravation 70
them. It's size is tantaiizing. It's IN
usual CLEAN lights only one Of the dark.
unfathomed caves" of the old PARIS
bank.
But big and bright and valuable as is
the Hope Blue damon today, there was
q time when il was far bigger, and there
fore brighter and more valuable. and
that was before it ever bore the name Of
Hope.
Every one knows what the sentiments
of the prodigal lord are toward the stone
which the law vii mot let him gal nd Of;
but who can ina CINE the feelings OF the
first possessor when the jewel came in the
rough out of the earth. weighing 1924
carts? A prince of India, Of whatever
wealth, there could hav1 been no ether
gem in his treasury 10 match Il.
eDfnte history attaches 20 the diamond
in the year 1912. A famous teweler and
traveller, Tavernier, bong II il hen in IN
dia and took It in the rough to France
where in 1868 King Louis NV became its
owner. To make il a perfect gem he
king sacrificed part Of its bulk. and the
diamond came from the cutters hands
reduced to 6712 carats, some twenty more
than the stone that is identified with the
house of Hope.
It's long being cast with that of the
royal family OF France, il was a fore
gone conclusion that the diamond would
come TO grief. Troubles came to the
royal family in 1872. In 1892 troubles came
TO the diamond also. II was deposited IN
the Sar1e Meuble, in Paris, in the month
of August. The next month il was gone.
The thief never has been discovered.
OF course there was only one thing that
could happen to the diamond. In all Eu-
rope there was no gem like It. To bring
it into the market once more 1t must be
cut To avoid instant Identification Il
must reappear diminished. And that piece
Of vandalism Is just what happened; but
for some reason or other, between its
disappearance in 1872 and its return 20 the
light of day, there is an elisiOn in its his
tory Of nearly forty years. WHAT poe
SCISSOR gloated over 1t nobody knows.
One day IN the year 1880 the diamond
turned up. but. alas, with so much Of its
glorious proportions Clipped away that
Tavernier himself could not have recog,
nized It. Still, with part of its glory
shorn, it was a prince among Jewels, Al
carats fine-tust as it is today. Ii was
the principal portion Of the great stone
that had disappeared in those revolution
airy days of France.
One Daniel Eiason had possession of
the diamond when Henry Thomas Hope
first saw It. He was Just the opposite Of
the gay Lord Hope of the present genera
ton. 1t is not on record that he con-
tributed to the support Of any concert
halls, but reaped where he had carefully
soWn in profitable mercantile enterprises.
He was wealthy. a virtuoso. He built a
fine mansion in Down street. Piccadilly.
london, where the Junior Athenaeum
Club is now, and in il he altered rare
collection of Dutch paintings, which the
Hopes Of Amsterdam. great merchants
Ike himself, had spent years in collect
ing.
He bought the great blue diamond and
paid 800, 600 600 for IL. 1t is worth per-
haps. twice that now.
But what of those twentv-odd carats
which the diamond bad last in its hiding?
Jewel fanciers waited. knowingly. They
knew the missing portion Of The great
stone would some day reappear. It was
matter Of fascination 10 speculate in
what quarter of the globe the fragment
would be marketed.
How long the late Duke Of Brunswick
had his blue diamond is uncertain. or Of
whom he purchased il; but in 1874. when
his effects were sold, there was among
them a rare. blue diamond. It was about
carats of the same .ustr0us quality as
the great Hope diamond. It was pur-
chased, in Geneva At the sale of those ef-
fects which the Duke left 70 the city.
Experts compared the two diamonds. and
their verdict was that they had once been
a part of one stone.
There was still some more Of the dia-
mond TO be accounted for. and this third
portion came 70 light in Paris where II
was purchased for 81 900 by r. ". Street
err It was the smallest fragment Of the
three. the remainder being lost in the
cutting-that is to say, lost so far as his
tory goes.
So the Hope Blue Diamond comes down
to our day and burns the fingers Of young
Lord Hope, who has really no use for II,
and signs for it's equivalent in coin 70
scatter as he knows how. He got Il from
his maternal grandmother, Mrs. Hope, o.
Deepdene.
The cable told recently Of the young
lords petition 70 sell the blue Indian dia-
Tnond. known as the Tavernier, or Hope.
diamond: how his brother. the Duke Of
Newcastle, and mis- three sisters objected,
and how Mr.. Justice Byrne decided that
the diamond could not be sold
So the diamond is safely deposited IN a
vault IN PARIS Bank
L is marvell0usly brilliant L CLEANS
with a hundred fires; but for all the world
sees Of It the diamond might Just as well
lie deep IN the soil 81 India where It lay
for ages before an Indian found It in the
rough.
Frank ThompsOn's sore Thumb
u was mangled thumb. Mr.. Thompson