Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-08-27

BOGOTA, Columbia, August a.
This city is now in the throes OF an
emerald craze. Various circumstances
have cambined to raise the value Oh
this beautiful stone, whose position
among the gems is as old as history.
until to-day it is worth five times as
much as it was only few weeks ago.
Not long ago one Hernandez, a deal
er in emeralds, returned from Paris
and threw the place into a mild state
of excitement by inserting an adver-
tisement in the daily paper that ne
would buy all the emeralds Of good
quality that were brought to him.
simultaneously with this offer came
the rumor that the great Muzo emerald
mine near this city, and one of the
greatest of its kind in the world, had
not been yielding for months.
BIG JUMP IN PRICES.
AS the result emeralds jumped 500
per cent in the jewel market. Until
about a week ago emeralds Of good
quality commanded fairly high price.
while for the light or poorer quality
there were few buyers. To-day one
fine dark stones, while the lighter and
heretofore undesirable ones now fetch
as much as the darker ones used TO
do
Contrary to what might be expected,
the rise in value has not acted as a
checkrin speculation in emeralds. The
gems are not being kept in the hope of
still higher price, but are being put
On the market from all sources. Beau
tiful stones that have rested in velvet
jewel cases of the old families here for
generations, stones of a richness of coll
or and setting unequaled in many of
the stones now being taken from the
mines, are being brought forward, and
many of them have found their way in
to the hands of the brokers.
Every one who has an emerald is
offering it for sale, and it seems that
almost every one here has one. From
all sorts of odd and unexpected places
they crop forth. From the country
and city the people are coming with
their green stones, in all sorts of set
tings, representing the styles in jew
elry for many decades back, and are
getting for them more than they had
ever thought they were worth.
ROBBING THE MINE.
With the great rise in value of jew
els the Muzo mine has come to be a
centre of fascinating interest, and, al
though the report that the mine has
ceased to yield has been spread broad
cast, every form of effort is being put
forth to fitch from the mine in any
possible manner even the smallest por-
ton of its hidden jewel treasures.
Some of the natives employed in the
mines and in the neighborhcod have
turned their chickens loose at the en-
erald workings, with the result that
on killing the chickens emeralds have
been found in their crops. Another
method resorted to to rob the mine
has been to pour into the streams run
ming through the mines the dirt gather
ed there. An accomplice outside the
mine would watch for the valuable
particles as they fioated down the
stream and extract from them the
much-sought-for gems.
In the craze for the gems objects OF
reverence, itsis said, have not escaped
dissertation in many instances. Stat
ues of saints and other holy images
often richly studded with emeralds
and other precious stones, have been
robbed of the emeralds.
BEST IN THE WORLD.
1t is estimated that the speculations
recently in this city in emeralds runs
into the millions of dollars The Mu-
20 mine is operated by French COM
pany under lease from the Columbian
Government Outside of Columbia
the principal source Of supply of emer-
aids has been the Ural Mountains.
Yet experts say the stones from the
Ural districts are of an inferir GALL
ty to those got here and often cloudy.
1t is said the Muzo mine is the only
one in the world producing a stone Of
high quality. Hence follows the great
craze for the gems here, and the pres
ence of Representatives of large Euro
pean houses devoting their energies to
the buying up of these precious stones.
Emeralds mined here are shipped in