The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-03-01
'THE AhERIcAN CONSULATE
rs SITUATED ON ONE or
THE BEST S7REETSS
Y AK57zRAAM5 BkTfE5T
ZlAHoND hCT0RY"

very profitable. One tin company has re-
Gently doubled its dividends, and the BILL
ton mines are turning out even more than
in the past.
HoLLAND-AMERICAN COMPANIES
PAY GOOD DIVIDENDS.
The Dutch steamship companies are maxi
Ing money. The Holland-American line
pays good dividends. The great company
that has the monopoly of the trade OF the
Malay archipelago is prosperous. and there
are q number Of other companies which pay
from to II per cent right along.
The Dutch are making fortunes out o. dia-
monds. They buy them in the rough and
cut and polish them for the markets. They
have been doing this for generations and
have made Amsterdam the chief diamond
cutting and polishing place Of the world.
The work Is mostly done by Portuguese
Jews. who have been engaged I'm It from
father to son for hundreds of years. There
are 1000 such men here who do nothing
else. and they are the most skilled Of their
kind In the world. They work for the
capitalists at regular wages, some in little
shops and others I'm factories. There are
In all about sixty factories in the city. with
100 or 800 polishing stones. In which the men
work day In and day out upon diamonds
for export.
About SO 600 worth of rough stones are
bought every year and when polished sre
last few years Of good times in the United
States some Of the best stones have come
to Us and We are now taking about &, 900, 900
worth every year. We have now the green
Hope diamond. for which Pierpont Morgan
Is said to have offered a quarter Of a million
dollars. and several other large stones are
now being cut which may go into the hands
Of American mfllionaires.
In company with Mr.. Frank d. Hill. our
American Consul, was shown over one Of
the largest and richest of the Dutch dia-
mond works this afternoon. 1t was that of
Mr.. Roster. on Zwanenburger STRAIT, tho
factory that cut the Kohinoor for Queen
Victoria. the one in which the Grand Mogul
was shaped and the one where the Orion
diamond was polished up for the Car of
Russia. 1t IA, venture. the most important
d!amond-cutting mill Of the world.
And still It Ii anything but imposing. 1t
Is Q dirty three-story brick building IL
the Jewish quarter Of Amsterdam, situated
on a narrow street and looking more like a
tenement house than q mill which grinds
ornaments for millionaires and their heir
esses The hall which We entered was mar
row and the wooden stairs we climbed were
no better than those Of many a barn in
Pennsylvania. The walls as high US as your
shoulder were painted dead black and white
washed above. The steps were black and
everything was 50 colored that IL any white
thing like diamond fell upon it It could be
easily seen.
DIAMONDS ARE CAREFULLY
COUNTED AND WEIGHED.
But from this you must not suppose that
the diamonds are careessly handled or that
they lie around loose. They are counted
and weighed again and again, and every
diamond atom brought in. even to the dust,
must be accounted for.
But IL you will come with me I will show
you how the precious stones are handled.
We first enter the room where the splitting
is done. 1t is the same in which the great
Kohinoor diamond was polished. 1t is of
the size of an ordinary parlor, but the floor
Is as bare as that of a kitchen, and the two
men who are handling the stones are work
ing at a table which a country carpenter
would knock UP for IS cents
The men wear caps and rough suits, over
which are smocks made Of blue jeans. Their
clothes altogether would not sell for IS to a
secondhand clothier; and the furniture of
the room all told. tools included, would not
bring more than $40. Still those men are
daily handling stones worth many thou
sand dollars THY split single stones worth
fortune, and each has fortune in his
little workbox.
But let us see how they do H. One OF the
men speaks English and he shall give you
the process as he gave 1t to me-
This" said he. as he picked up what
looked like an irregular piece oe mica or
half-transparent crystal az big as the end Of