The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-10-15
The
jewelers. Wife.
How She Fell Victim to His Pas
sion For Gems and How He
Was at Last Saved From
the Fiend.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES

~o~O~o~o~o~o~~o~o~O~OvoVov
There dwelt years and years ago in a
quaint old city on the banks Of the Rhine
handsome young jeweler who loved his
gems so well that he thought them
brighter than any woman's eyes and was
impervious to the smiles Of the loveliest
girls who came to his shop to firt with
the proprietor rather than for the sake
of the broken earrings and bracelets
which made their excuse for doing 50.
It was known everywhere at last that
Max Rudolph did not intend to marry,
that his heart was given to his aYt-for
he was rather an artist in gems and gold
than a mere workman-and as he was
not only handsome, but charming and re-
puted to be rich, this was a very provok-
ing fact indeed to the young ladies who
had cherished hopes of winning his favor.
However, the Turks are right when
they say that no man can escape his fate.
One day, going into the country for the
sake of the fresh air and to enjoy himself
with ruriil dainties at a little wayside
tavern, there happened to be detailed to
wait upon him beautiful young country
girl 30 sparklingly beautiful that he said
to himself: ''She has diamond eyes and
ruby lips and teeth Of pearls. She Is
made of jewels"
Then there came into his mind the
thought that she was jewel herself well
worth the winning and wearing. Still
she was but a poor girl who earned her
bread as handmade at an inn, and he
b;c x,,ar xr;fhou% doiu0 moro than To
look at her. But he came again, and this
time threw her a kiss, and again and
this time the kiss was on her lips, and the
third time he said to himself that at last
he had found the woman he desired, and
he wooed and married her and took her
home with him dressed in splendid gar
ments, with silken shoes upon her feet
that had so often followed the kline in
wooden sabots.
For q little while the jewelers. love
ruled bis soul. He forgot his most pre-
cious Jewels for his fair Mina's sake, and
q happier pair of married lovers never
wandered together in the moonlight or
vowed eternal constancy by the winter
Preside. 1t was not long, however. In
year the jeweler had gone back to his old
habits. He spent hours In his workroom
watching the polishing Of some rare
stone. He would leave his Nina for
weeks together while he sought some
gem Of which he had heard. He would
sit and gloat over a great diamond, turn
ing it this way and that that the light
might the better fal' upon 1t, while she
sat unheeded.
Nina never reproached him with this
change; but she grew sad and often wept
when no one observed her.
The husband never noticed it. His love
Of jewels had grown to be monomania
with him. He had not the usual desire
of craftmen for fame or for wealth. He
had become a miser, who boarded gems
instead of gold. He refused to sell one
of them at any price. Men said that he
was mad and that satan in person had
been seen standing behind him whisper
ing in his ear.
Still he seemed to love his wife at
times, and to show It would bring jewels
and lay them In her lap and tell her how
to know their value.
The simple woman admired them, but
she could not comprehend the power they
had over her husbands heart. And once
or twice she also thought that she saw a
figure, hideous, though shadowy, at her
husbands side and cried out in terror.
She was now about to become a moth
er and was full Of strange fancies, as
women are, and the dark figure may have
been merely born of her Imagination. But
it seemed to her to have the shape of sa-
tan as he Is represented in the pictures
that peasants see.
There was at this time talk of a great
jewel-a ruby OF wonderful size and bril-
liancy such as no one had seen before.
None but a king could be its owner,
men said, and there was a great contest
for it. The handsome young jeweler with
the cleaning eyes and eager gestures
who gloated on Its splendor, Max Ru-
dolph from Rhineland, was thought to be
out of his mind when he declared 1t
should be his. But his it actually became.
Where he got all the money no one
could guess, and there were those who
said that they saw strange black fig
ure sitting with him at his inn one night
and heard the chink Of gold and that sa-
tan helped him.
But the Jewel was his, and he returned
home to his Nina wild with Joy. She sat
upon a little balcony that overhung the
river watching for him, and he embraced
and kissed her and clasped her to his
heart.
''Now hold your hand" said he. 1.-THE
Jewel shall lie In It's palm. See how love-
" 1t is! And thou-thou art the loveliest
Jewel Of a woman. There is none like
thee anywhere"
And Nina, happy In his praises, looked
up at him rather than at the gem-looked
and saw over his shoulder the hideous
face of the fiend, and forgetting all about
the ruby, clasped her hands and shrieked
aloud, and as she did so the jewel drop
ped from her palm, glittered at her feet
an instant's space and glanced from the
floor of the balcony into the blue depths
of the Rhine.
Rudolph had started to seize 1t, but
when he saw he was too late he uttered
a hideous imprecation and lifted his hand
threateningly above his wife's head.
''Low born peasant kitchen drudge,
COW driver, beer server" he shrieked.
sTooI that l was to think that your
clumsy fingers could hold jewels fast!
Fool that I was to marry coarse crea-
ture like you, born to eat black bread and
walk barefoot"
And then he struck her furious blow
upon her white bosom, and she staggered
and fell.
The balcony was only defended BY
rail of carved wood that time and weafn-
CT had weakened long ago. As the form
Of Nina struck It 1t broke from its fas-
Jennings, and she fell with a splash into
the river and vanished beneath Its wa
teEa. and Mag -Rpd0lRh sAB beside hsp