The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-07-22
cAPRIcEs q EHE 81.
Strange Freaks of the Gem by Some
Thought Unlucfy.
Kew York sun1

the lucklsSt or all the precious stones
j People said they had ali the colors of
all the other gems and all their virtues
too.
! The very. name Of opal comes from a
/ Greek word meaning the eye and was
/ given TO the stone because the opal
/ was supposed to be q sort of perpetual
eye doctor to the people who wore It
/ Apparently the modern opal has given
up eye doctOring. for Queen Victoria
F.. practically lost her eyesight, although
( the opal was one of her faNOrite stones
/ King Edward VII recently had an
/ offer Of d fine opal TO be added TO the
! crown jewels, and was apparently
( quite willing to take it. But when the
rumor got out his loving subjects had
I chills of terror. They wrote him let
/ tiers by the score pleading with him
rot to tempt fate BY consorting with
/ Opals.
1 They evidently thought that if the
/ opal was put into the crown jewels it
would bring bad luck TO the kingdom.
/ From that point of view the king
agreed that they had a right to be con-
/ suited. He said he had no squeamish-
/ ness about opals himself. but If his
/ loving subjects would be more COM
Portable without oDals, the crown jew
/ els would have to worry along with
/ just KohinOor diamonds and big pear
shaped rubies.
chills over the prospect of an opal in
/ the royal jewelry pointed to the French
] crown Jewels Some of them are stil
extant even though the monarchy has
! gone to rack and ruin. There are two
i big OpalS in the French outfit. One was
1 in the Order Of the Golden Fleece, the
other served as q. clasp on the imperial
/ robe. It was unfortunate for Louis
XIV that these jewels did not make his
/ eyesight good enough to see what a
/ mess his kingdom was getting into.
The Duke and the Duchess Of Corn
| wall apparently have no fear of the
/ opal hoodoo. At Queensland they re-
Z ceived a present of some beautiful
/ Opals, which they accepted with alac-
/ rity. The superstitious viii now be
| on the lookout Tor disaster. The Ger
/ man royal family has an open fond
ness for this maligned stone and man
/ ages to get along without more than
/ its share of hard luck.
1t is said that Sir Walter Scott is
/ the guilty man who started the preju
/ dice against this stone which had pre-
/ viously borne such a good reputation.
! The opal in Anne of Geierstein" was
| a malevOlent specimen OF it's kind and
| struck a chill to the hearts of all
/ SCOTS readers. The prejudice took
/ root. grew and fiourished. It has had
its day now and is rapidly dying out.
! But there are plenty of men and wo-
J
| opal. They assert somewhat sheepish-
I ly that they are not exactly sdpersti-
/ tious, bUt they have a feeling about
/ the matter. A gem expert connected
with one of the large jewelry houses
! here owned up to having a feeling
! against opals One of the leading Chi
J cagO jewelers. has this feeling to such
! an extent that he won't keep an opal
/ for sale. That is a sad thing for his
] trade, because for a number of years
/ the opal has been one of the most
Z fashionable of precious stones.
There is one respect in which the
opal is absolutely unique. 1t cannot be
; initiated. There are magnificent Opals
and there are opals which are not
worth cents. But there are no paste
might be mistaken for one of these 8
cent opals, but scarcely for anything
much better. jewelers. divide Opals into
various classes-common, seHi-fiTe.
/ wood, moss, precious or noble and har-
/ lsGuin.
/ A great many persons think that pre-
/ cious stones have q certain living ma
/ ture. It would be easy to feel this way
/ about an opal. 1t has so much indi-
vlduality; it plays such queer tricks
with you and with itself
/ For instance. there is a certain va
/ riety of opal which is an opaque white
=
put it in water it gradually becomes
/ transparent and sometimes DEVELOPS
brilliant flashes of color. And that
I isn't all. 1t likes warm water better
( than cold, and, alas for its morals.
spirits of wine better than anything
/ When it gets over its little fling, like
some OF its human prototypes, it gets
! dull and lifeless once more.
Mr.. Kunz, the weli-known gem ex-
pert. has suggested using the hydro
phane, as II IS called as a magic stone.
A lock OF ha1r, or a tiny photograph or
other small object could be enclosed in
/ it and would be quite invisible except
( when the stone became transparent
through drink. 1t is said that this hy-
/ drophane viii drink almost its own
bulk Of water, which quite beats any
+ German beer drinking on record.
/ The nnest opals come from Hungary
and, of late years, from Australia and
/ Queensland. Opals are not picked up
I as diamonds are. They form veins in
/ the rock. Generally these veins are
/ very thin, more's the pity. That is the
trouble with the opal deposits on this
continent, so far as they have been ex-
+ plored.
When the patch Of opal isn't more
/ than an eighth or a quarter Of an inch
; IN thickness 1t cant be cut to adVan-
tage, especially as it is very brittle.
/ jewelers. who handle Opals and the
/ lapidarieS who cut them, as well as
some careless persons who have
4 dropped their own opals, know this fact
! to their sorrow.
/ The Hungary mines seem to be al
most worked out, so far as the largest
I and nnest specimens are concerned In
1900 more than 800 miners were en-
/ pfoyed in the most famous of the mines
where now only about thirty men are
/ st work The largest opals in exist
ence came from this mine
/ one of them is in the imperial cab
! met at Vienna It weighs seventeen
ounces and rurnor says that a half mill
lion horins were offered for it and re-
fused The Empress Josephine had a
superb opal called the Burning of
/ Troy because of the wonderful plays
{ of flames in it. This stone is an ex-
ample of the eecentricity Of the opal.
+ W lille 1t was alive with light on its
+ upper surface, it was absolutely opaque
, underneath.
I It seems strange that a stone which
/ is so full of color is really not coIored
itself. All the play of red and green
ana violet lights is supposed to come
i from the attraction of light The
stone is fun of tiny assures which con
tain water. In these the rays of light
are deconposed.
/ Opals in which the red and green
f colors predominant are considered the
finest. The green and violet combina-
/ ton is less sought after. Golden opaIs
/ or those in which yellow predominates.
are still less desirable The harlequin
/ opal has the lights in regular angular
! patches. almost like square spangies-
/ It is considered the finest type Of stone.
| As for Mexican opals. they are of all
J varieties and all degrees of value. One