Evening star., 1901-05-11
Paris Dealers Say Diamonds Are
Getting Dearer.
WILL GO up THIRTY Per Cent
Visit to a Club Where Merchants
Make Headquarters.
7 RICKS OF THE ADE

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
PARIS, May 1. 1901.
The price of diamonds is still to go up
some say as much as 30 per cent in
the next two months. In Antwerp and
Amsterdam, where the industry of dia-
mond cutting flourishes, there is great
perturbation. In Paris. a center of the
retail trade. the daily papers make much
of the news. while some of the fore
most dealers frankly confirm it. Diamonds,
like most precious stones. had gone up so
steadily during the last three years that
it seemed a top price had been reached
Meanwhile excitement rsigns in the Dla
mond Club of Paris.
These peculiar spectators of the Dia-
mond Club used to meet in the Cafe Scossa.
Now they have a club of their own. But
their ways remain the same and furtive,
half-scared secrecy, mixed with adventure
and surprise, continues to he the charm of
the trade. Its members have not the chic
of the great retailers they have not the
financial standing of old shioned whole
sale firms like that of the Hadamards,
father-in-law and brother-in-law of Alfred
DreyfuS, but what they lack in decoration
they make up in pcturesqueness. and their
society has the strong attraction of poSS-
blllties unusual, If not Illicit, gains.
Communicating little men, unkempt and
unciean, You see them grouped around
little tables. their heads close together,
mutterng in whispers. handling little paper
packages You might take them for third
class Guide-interpreters. planning So
sWlndle. But glance over those old hats,
and splendid burst Of white colored
lights will startle you. You will have a
glimpse of dozen magnificent unset dia-
mondS or rubieS, or it will be glittering
pile of chips or brilliants. Some of these
shapby men carry in their vest pockets
goods worth SJOO.OOO. Hastily the tissue
papers will be folded and slipped into those
vest pockets. Your friendly interest will
be met by suspicious glances. The group
VIII melt away, leaving you standing there
a guilty interloper.
Paris Sight.
This is what will happen still in the Cafe
Scossa. although the greater spectators
migrated last spring to club rooms of their
own. The cafe was becoming too Well
known English and American trippers took
it in as a Paris sight No one ever OBJ
jected to the visits of outside amateurs
with whom better profits could be made
than in the regular trade among the Paris
jewelers.. And then well-dressed American
and English women began going to the Cafe
Scossa-properly accompanied and vouched
for-they, too, were welcomed as possible
buyers 1t was noticed, however that they
did more looking than buying and that
having learned the way, they would return
each bringing seven others worse than her
self Finally, the prospect of the exposition
crush of tourists completely upset these Sc
rious little shabby men, whose business is
done on the quiet. They found we'll
lighted apartment on the boulevard and
before some of the lesser brethren knew of
the plan they had installed the Diamond
Club of Paris
One spring afternoon, about year ago, 1
happened to be in the Cafe Scossa while a
Well-known American sporting man was
cheapening diamonds. Later our national
pride was gratified to learn that he was not
looked on as q jOsSer. but an amateur ableto
protect himself from gross miSreDresenta-
tons They say that not only do his trips
to Paris cost him nothing, but he always
makes handsome profit. He buys fer his
own account. and then he buys lot more
for Mrs. X, America s most exclusive and
richest fence" Then, when he is 4,ood and
ready, he takes the transatlantic liner home
and passes through the custom house un-
concernedly. He does not cali it smuggling
A tourist may pick up pretty trifies nav
he not, and bring them home?
Such an ideal way of making an easy
living naturally struck us, and we began
1nquiring whether or not we, too, might rot
some day pick up enough stones at
low price to make it worth while 10 cross
over 1t seems. however, that it takes
some picking. Apart from natural gifts of
taste and instinct. there is the market ard
It's prices to be learned. not to mention
that kind of discrimination which distin-
guishes between diamond of the first Wa
ter and mean little jargoon, or white
sapphire.
Identifying a Diamond
That day l made the acquaintance of a
young Partisan from Hamburg, who. after
having spent half his life in London, was
thinking of removing with his own stock
and a line of credit to New York-by wav
of the good old tourist route.
Here is white stone,' he said. .'Is 1t
diamond?''
How do you tell?" 1 asked
''if can scratch it with a sapphire 7 will
know that it is not a diamond he replied
IF its specific gravity turns out to be less
than 80 It cannot be a ruby or sapphire If
it does not acquire electricity to heat 1t can
be neither a topaz nor jargoon; and if. in
spite of all, it scratches glass it must be
either beryl or quartz rock CRYSTAL
In this short conversation | learned that
there are white rubies. sapphires, topazes
jargoons and beryls. all capable of being
cut, so that they flash like diamonds Not
only are amateurs deceived, but dealers
also, when they trust to their unaided
Judgment. And not only dealers The
BraganZa diamond, for instance forms n
part Of the Portuguese crown Jewels which
King Charles Ferdinand Louis Marie Victor
Michael Raphael Gabriel Gonzagues Xa-
vier Francis of Assist Joseph Simon has
just taken out of ''hock' in London. where