The Washington times., 1901-09-22
CAPRICES OF THE OPAL.
Peculiarities Of the Gem by Some
Thought TO BE Unlucky.
Widespread Superstition on the Sub
iect-A stone Which Is Fond of
Drinis-Uncxpccfed Variations in
HrilIiancy-The Mysterious Fires.

jcct-A Stone Which Is Fond of
DrinIS-Uncxpccted Variations in
HriIIiancy-The Mysterious Fires.
It's queer about opals. Until 100
years ago they were supposed to be the
luckiest of all the precious stones. Peo-
pie said they had all the colors Of all
the other gems and all their virtues
too.
The very name of opal comes from
Greek word meaning the eye and was
given to the stone because the opal was
supposed to be sort of perpetual eye
doctor to the people who wore it. APP
parently the modern opal has given up
eye doctoring, for Queen Victoria prac-
tically lost her eyesight although the
opal was one of her favorite stones.
King Edward VII recently had an Of
fer of a 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 chills
of terror. They wrote him letters by
the score. pleading with him not to
tempt fate by consorting with opals-
They evidently thought that If the
opal was put into the Grown 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 low
ing subjects would be more comforta-
BILE without opals, the Crown jewels
would have to worry along with just
Kohinoor diamonds and big pear
shaped rub!es.
OF course the people who had cold
chills over the prospect of an opal in
the royal jeweiry pointed to the French
Crown jewels. Some of them are still
extant even though the monarchy has
gone to rack and ruin. There were two
big opals in the French outfit. one
was in The Order CT the Golden Fleece;
the other served as clasp on the i'm
perial robe. 1t 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 received
present of some beautiful opals, which
they accepted with alacrity. The sup
erstitious will now be on the lookout
for disaster. The German royal family
has an open fondness for this maligned
stone and manages to get along with
out more than its share of hard luck
1t is said that Sir Walter Scott is the
guilty man who started the prejudice
against this stone, which had previous
ly borne such a good reputation The
opal in Anne of Geierstein" was a
malevolent specimen of its kind and
struck Il chill to the hearts of ali Scotts
readers. The prejudice took root. grew,
and fiourished Ii has had its day now
and is rapidly dying out.
But there are plenty of men and wo-
men even now who shy at wearing an
Jpal They assert somewhat sheepish-
iy that they're not exactly supersti-
Gous," but they have a feeling about
the matter. A gem expert connected
with one OF the large jewelry houses
here owned Vi, to having a feeling
against epals. One of the local
jewelers. has this feeling to such
I
for sale. This is sad thing for his
trade, because for a number of years
the opal has been one of the most fash
ionable of precious stones.
There is one respect in which the opal
is absolutely unique. 1t cannot be in1i-
tated. There are magnificent opals,
and there are opals which are not worth
five cents. But there are no paste opals.
a piece of opalescent glass might be
mistaken for one of these five-cent
opals, but scarcely for anything much
better. jewelers. divide opals into va
rious ciasses-common, semi-fre, wood,
moss, precious OF noble, and harlequin.
A great many persons think that
precious stones have d certain living
nature. 1t would be easy to feel this
way about an opal 1t has so much
individuality; 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
in its ordinary condition. But if you put
it in water it gradually becomes trans
parent and sometimes develops bril-
liant flashes of color. And that 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 jag. like some of its
human prototypes. its gets dull and
nfeless once more.
Mr. Kunz, the well-known gem ex-
pert, has suggested using this hydro
phane, as it is called, as a magic stone
A lock of hair, 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 it's own
bulk of water, which quite beats any
German beer drinking on record.
The finest opals come from Hungary
and. of late years, from Australia and
Queensland. Opals are not picked up as
diamonds are. They form veins In the
rock. Generally these veins are very
thin, more's the pity. That is the trou-
bic with the opal deposits On this con-
tinent, so far as they have been ex-
plored.
When the patch of opal isn't more
in thickness 1t can't be cut to advan-
tage, especially as it is very brittle.
jewelers. who handle opals and lapi-
daries who cut them. as well as some
careless persons who have dropped
their own opais, know this fact 20 their
sorrow.
The Hungary mines seem to be al
most usorlxed ont sn far as fha lar1aSt