The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1909-12-23
Power Of the Topaz,

ago proclaim the fact that even at
time, when the world was in its
radiant south, and life infinitely
less complicated than it is today.
gems and precious stones were
used to ward off dangers and
troubles, and to attract some of
things deemed to make life best
worth living. As the centuries
swept on, these charms" of gems
or precious metals took many
forms; think of the old scarabs,
crescents, crosses of quaint shape
and lovely Colors; of the modern
lucky pigs and beans and boots
and hearts and bells and balls,
the symbolism of which are gener-
ally more attractive than their out
ward and visible appearance; think
of the beautiful present-day
charms, consisting of so-called
second-grade gems, such as bery1
and chrysolite, onyx and jasper,
carbuncle and cat's-eye, garnet
and sardonyx, and many more.
In their own time and season all
these charms and amulets were
highly thought of both for them
selves, as pretty ornaments, and
for the guarantee of good fortune
which they gave to the owner.
Perhaps some future generation
of wearers of such trinkets will
have it that the taste for all the
Internationally effective stones at
the beginning of the twentieth
century was deprived or decadent
or perverted; but those VINO are
best fitted to guide the esthetic
taste of the present day are agreed
that the delicate liquid lights,
green and golden and heliotrope
and gray, in beryl and topaz and
amethyst and opal, or the gorgeous
colors of the fre-opal, the carbun-
Gle, and the turquoise, represent
that which is of the very best for
personal decoration. Among the
stones most eagerly desired by the
lover of modern charms and trink-
cts is the topaz, the gem for No
vember. Perhaps because the
month itself is, as rule, so gray
and COlorless, the mysterious
powers in whose hands the making
of the laws of such fashion have
been from immemorial times, chose
this particular gem; for there is
hardly a precious stone which
varies more widely in tint than the
topaz, which now may blaze with
a fire as Of liquid gold, and now
may end in pure white, after run
ming through the whole gamut Of
color, from rich, warm yellow to
soft pink and to clear, tender green
seen sometimes in stormy sunset
skies, in wide rivers, or far off
where the sea and the horizon
meet when the day is young.
1t has strange powers, this
cleaning November gem which
takes its fascinating name from an
island III the Red sea, called To-
pazos Ito SEEK by the old mari
ners, because round it foated for
ever wells Of fogand mist, obliging
the sailors to seek for it again and
yet again, however often they had
found it. One old sage, having
made the study Of the topaz la
Dor of love and experimental as
siduously with it, makes the
statement that lit Gains the ana
creontic temperament. Another
rather less of specialist, but an
acknowledged authority oncharms,
declares that 1T has great healing
powers, curing mental disease and
sleep walking"
And here Epiphanius weaving
one of those weird legends round
the topaz which add, perhaps more
than anything else, to the fascina-
ton of gems, used as charms. IF
the gem, The says, is rubbed down
upon physicians home it does
not give out red juice in accord
with its color, but one like milk,
and fills as many cups as he that
rubs it down may choose, and yet |