The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-10-07
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into the eyes of Lord and Lady Hope.
They couldn't eat it.
They couldn't live in it.
They couldn't trayelion it.
They couldn't pay the tailors and dress
makers out of II.
The lady couldn't even wear it. now
that she had no longer the gowns TO give
it a proper SettingA
The gentleman couldn't even gamble
with it at his club where every one knew
it was entailed.
OF what good was it?
My lord and lady viewed. it ruefully.
Besieged by creditors they might con-
sole themselves by recalling appraise-
ments of its glory.
In size it Is 44A earats, and where it
was mined no man can tell.
A GLORIOUS GEM.
1t is set as a medallion, with a border
of rose cut diamonds.and brilliants, each
of the purest water and over n carat in
weight.
IT is of intense sapphire blue At one
moment the sky in a glory of sunshine IS
revealed there at the next the sea, un-
troubled, fathomless,, floats in it's depths.
Withal it has the fire and brilliancy of
the true diamond, the pure diamond, the
beautifully cut, rarely proportional dia-
mond, which is neither too. thick nor yet
too widespread. 1t stands unique AMI
alone among the gems of the world Next
to it comes what is known as the Bruins
wick stone-a pale, pitiful jewel, weighing
104 carats.
A blue diamond is almost DIS rare as a
blue carnation, and a million times more
valuable.
AN ENTAILED DIAMOND.
Yet the Lord and Lady Hope gazed at
their brilliant ruefully. In bankrupt eyes
a pebble on the beach is worth more
than an entahed diamond.
This one recalled the old adage that
says Possession is nine points Of the
law
In despair Lord Francis determined to
test its truth He announced that tile
gem might be bought for an even million.
He urged that inasmuch as the diamond
availed him nothing an ornament it
would be wiser to sell it for his benef fit
and that of his heirs than to allow it to
lie in a safe for the next 40 years.
This seemed reasonable enough TO
plebeian judgment. But it shocked the
aristocratic sensibilities of the Duke of
Newcastle, Lord Hopes eldest brother,
and of Lady Beatrice Lister-Kaye, his
eldest sister. They rushed before the
learned judge who presided over the
Court of Chancery and petitioned him
to prevent such Violations of family
heirloom.
Judgment was rendered in favor of the
contestants. The learned judge held that
it would be unseemly TO barter an heir
loom that had descended through genera
lions of Hopes. Furthermore, it was
entailed. When the grandmother of Lord
Francis died she willed him the great
blue stone with the proviso that If he
died without issue it should revert to
his elder brother, the Duke of Newcastle
His interest in the diamond Is merely a
life tenure.
| Now, happily for the exchequer of my
Lady Hopes dressmaker and my Lord
Hopes tailor, the Duchess of Newcastle
has two fads One is a passion for dogs,
pre-eminently Russian Borzol hounds; the
other is @ passion for jewels, pre-enll-
nenty blue diamonds.
The Duchess of Newcastle is clever.
and she has the ingenuity that belongs
to the humblest of her sex when she has
| set her heart upon an object
The object in the heart of the Duchess
of Newcastle was the Hope diamond.
RENTED THE BLUE STONE.
Lord Francis wanted to sell it, and yet
she couldn't buy it.
He was in need of money, and she
| had plenty.
The next step was obvious. Tho
Duchess took it. If she couldn't buy, she
could borrow.
The celebrated Hope diamond is to be
rented to the Dowager Duchess Of New
castle for an annual sum of $4,000, it Is
said.
The Hope diamond had a history many
years before these modern personages be-
gan to create one for it. 1t dates from
1885, when Jean Baptiste Favernier was
commissioned by the grand monarque,
Louis XIV, to go into the Orients,
I ~. i. IL,
ulous value, and bring back diamonds.
! The great traveller picked up twenty-five.
| The monarch gave him a pittance of
| 2,500,o00 francs in cash for them and
| bound the bargain by creating him Baron
| 'Aubonne. Among the brilliants, as the
| monarch turned them over, was one that
! caught his eye. 1t was still in the rough
as Tavernier had found it, fat and i'll
| formed, but it was of a color exquisite
| and unique. 1t was blher than Nine de
| Maintenon's eyes that radiated the glory
/ of the sky.
| 1t was cut specially to suit the king.
| From its original 1922 carats it was re-
| duced to 671a carats.
| On great state occasions the grand mon
argue. ablaze with jewelry, wore it as
! his piece de resistance suspended on q
| blue ribbon that encircled his neck.
| It was the treasured possession of two
| generations of Louis.
Then came the French Revolution and
| the sacking Of the royal treasury Some.
| how the famous so-called Tavernier dia-
| mond, the priceless blue stone. had dis
| appeared. 1t remained mysteriously hid
den for half century.
In 1880, with just as mach mystery.
there appeared for sale blue diamond
| CT 44i2 carats- Connoisseurs recalled the
| stolen Tavern;er diamond In It's absence
| This was the largest in the world It be-
| longed to one Daniel Eliason. who de-
| clared that he had bought 1t from a
stranger. It's lack of history aroused
/ speculation. From its size and It's resem-
| blanca 10 the descriptions IT the great
! Tavernier stone II was held to be a large
fragment OF it reduced by Tie thief to
| 81 carats to conceal its Identity
{ 1t was bougf. by a former. Lord Hone.