The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-24

than once The most famous fraud has | passed into history as the Arizona dia- | mond swindle." In 1870 company claim | ing 10 be backed by prominent business | men of the east, placed in the Califor-
 mia bank al San Francisco great quan-
 tity of rubies and diamonds, claiming they l found them in Arizona and New Mexico. | A large local company was formed, and | experts brought from the Royal school | of Mines in Saxony, and in two years | well equipped expedition set out to see | the new Golconda. As the men had said | there were diamonds and rubies lying on | the ground. In fact, there are still dia- monds and rubies to be found in that To- | cality, for the men had purchased many | carats of these stones in London and et- | fectually 'salted' the mountain sides. EX- | citement ran high for while, and before the United States government discovered that it was all fake, the clever schem- CTS had made $150,000.
 In 1888 muh exctement was caused in | Georgia by the discovery of the famous Blue Ridge Sappvne," or Georgia Mar
 vel" which two southern jewellers pro- nounced of great value. On their advice the owner priced it at $50,000 and went to New York to sell It. Imagine his dis appointment when he learned, after q 1 heated platinum wire had been applied to it, that 1t was only a bit of blue bottle glass. The Wetumpka ruby that created
 lot of excitement for awhile. was l found to be only a garnet In lo56 Lon don firm offered to name as Ruby King the person who would find a sapphire or
 ruby in its original matrix, and a man | in Franklin county, North Carolina found
 one that answered this description It was a blue stone so oddly marked that
 a white band crossed over both matriX | in the Sapphire Country" near Ashe- l vile, corundum crystals have been found in almost all colors of the rainbow. A ruby. an emerald and a sapphire. each of 1 considerable value, have been taken from
 the same mine. One emerald Drought
 Sl000. Amethysts and topazes of value have also been found there. Sapphires
 have been found by men who were sluic-
 ing for gold in the neighborhood of Helena, Montana, and in some parts of Colorado.
 Turquoises have been mined in New Mexico and Arizona. and In the shadow of the Mount of the Holy Cross, Colorado. It was in New Mexico that the ancient Aztecs got their famous green-blue tur
 quoses called Chalchihuitl, long before the coming of Cortez and his conquering army The mountain, twenty-two miles southwest Of Santa Fe, was found de- serted and the shaft-mouth oVergrown
 
 settlers came that way. legend tells Ithat one day as the hundreds of Indian worlSmen were tunneling under the noun { tain, already honey-combed with shafts, , there was a caVe-in and several were 1 killed. The mines were then closed and the entrances to the wonder caves" made fast with cement, not to be disturbed again until the white man came. Some say that the mines were being worked under the direction of Spanish conquerers when the disaster occurred, and that the Mexican peons had 1t closed in revenge for the loss of their comrades. Cortez was offered some of these green stones as tribute, and was called "Ghalehhihuttp' as a great compliment to his own great ness. In 15i0 Coronado sent stones of this kind to his king in Spain. To the Peublo Indians they are still sacred and must go into the hands of no one who is not a believer in Montezuma as his savior. Montezuma's tribute of turquoises sent the Spanish king was valued at s57 900, and the stones are now distributed between Rome, London, Berlin and Gotha.
 Tourmalnes, sometimes called Brazilian emeralds. have been found in Maine. while California and Connecticut have both pro duced excellent specimens. The finest col lection of tourmalines in the world was made in 1873 by Dr. Augustus C. Hanlin
 
 California Arizona and Virginia; zlrcons or hyacnths in North Carolina, New York and Colorado; amethysts in Pennsylvania, Maine. North Carolina, Georgia, Texas and on the borders of Lake Superior The finest ehrysoprase in the United States comes from the nickel mines of Douglas county, Oregon, and fire opals of good quality from Pennsylvania, Georgia and Colorado Jet comes from the Frinchera Mesa In Colorado, and from Colorado coal seams in Fl Paso county The crystals from the corundum mines of the Appala- chians, and chrysoberyls from Maine, Rhooe Island and New Jersey are cut into beautiful cats eyes. The moonstones from the Cataline islands are quite famous.
 The Knight Of Elvas" tells that De Soto carried away REQ pounds-weight of pearls from Indian sepulchres in Florida, and that an Indian queen threw a neck lace of pearls several feet long about this gay leaders neck. Father Hennepin tells of pearls owned by Indians In the Missis- sippi valley and Sir Walter Raleigh sent 5000 back 10 England from Virginia Diff ferent fresh water pearl fields have been found in the United States the first being at Patterson. N. J., in 1857 Tlte famous Queen Pearl' purchased by the Elm press Eugenie for $500, and now worth four times as much, was from this field
 Then Kentucky. Tennessee and Texas were scenes of pearl hunting excitement, followed by Wisconsin, where s1oOOO worth were sold .n three months. The last to be discovered were in the White river country in Arkansas.
 Tomorrow-Breeding the Tobacco Plant