The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-01-30
BUYS A HOODOO.
Edward Mclean Purchases the
Famous Hope Diamond.
Pays 100000 for Stone With
a Remarkable History.

washington, Jan. 3O.-The famous
| Hope blue diamond, known as one OIL
the most beautiful gems in the world
as we'll as one of the most unlucky, mas
been purchased for 100000 by EdWarI
b. Mclean of this city from a firm II
| jewelers. of New York and Paris. Inc
gem, which is sapphire blue, weighs
| 443s carats, and once belonged to II. f.
Hope.
The jewel is believed to have been cut
| from the large blue diamond, Weighing
| in the rough 1121A carats, sold by raw
ernier to Louis XIV, which disappearedd
| in the troubles of 1892. The diamond
was brought to this country from Paris
a bout four months ago.
| Mr. Mclean, the new owner of the
diamond, is fully acquainted with the
wonderful history of the jewel. He SAID
that he was not a bit superstitious.
Society is specializing whether Mrs
Mclean will have the courage to wear
the GEM She was the former Evelyn
Walsh. daughter of the late Thomas +.
Walsh, the multi millionaire, and is the
mother of Washington's $lOO,OoO,OO0
baby.
The gem has left ruin and misery in
| its wake from the day it left the hands
of an Indian potentate down to the
present time. Young Mrs. Mclean is
as fearless of superstition as her hus-
band, wherefore Washington society
may shortly enjoy the big sensation of
| seeing the Hope diamond shedding its
brilliant rays in the circles of the elect.
History of the Stone.
The sensational history of the Hope
diamond began, about the middle of the
seventeenth century, when Andreas
Tavernier, a French traveller, stole 1T
| from one of the sacred temples of India
and sold it to King Louis XIV.
King Louis had the beautiful gem
ont and nO1iShed and a mark OF
favor bestowed it upon his favorlte,
the beautiful Nine. de Montespan-
The superstition connected with the
jewel commenced at that time. Taver-
nier was torn to pieces by wild dogs
while on hunting trip. Mime. Monte
span lost every vestige of authority
and was abandoned by the king
Marie Antoinette was given the dia-
presentation France was torn by revo-
luton and Princess De Lambelle, who
| begged the jewel from Marie An
toinette, was murdered in the streets
of Paris while wearing it. Marie An
toinette was guillotined later.
For nearly half a century nothing
was heard of it. Then it bobbed up in
the hands of an English jeweler named
Eliason. Eliason declared he had
bought it from a Frenchman in Lon
don, who was dying of consumption.
1t was about this time that the jewel
came into the possession of the Hope
family. Elfason sold it to the London
banker, Henry Thomas Hope.
Hope Soon Died.
Hope died soon afterwards and the
diamond passed to his grandson, Lord
Francis Hope, who married May Yohe,
the actress and gave her the diamond
which she wore on the state. May
Yohe eloped with Major Putnam
Bradlee Strong, and soon afterwards
the famous diamond was sold to help
nav Sir E'ranciS'S debts.
1t was bought by Simon Frankel, a
New Yoak jeweler.
Frankel nearly failed in business
Immediately after, heard of the super
stitution connected with the diamond
and hastily sold it at great loss.
Jacques Coiot, a French broker, was
the purchaser of the hoodoo gem at a
price of approximately 100000.
Colot sold it to a Russian, Prince
Ivan Kanftovski. Kanitovski lent it to
vaudeville actress in Paris. Her
lover, mad with jealousy, shot her at a
performance two days later and a
week after the prince was found as
sassinated by revo1utionists. The jew
eler broker Colot did not escape the
influence of the gem, for after a
weeks brooding over the deaths of the
actress and the prince he went insane.
Abdul Hamid, the deposed sultan of
Turkey, was next to come in posses
sion of the gem. He was deposed and
| imprisoned soon afterward.
Then in 1909 the diamond was re-
| ported to have sunk when a vessel was
| wrecked off the coast of Singapore
/ The diamond, however was found in
| possession of a New York jeweler De-
cember 10, 1910. 1t was intact. in
spite of rumors that it had been cut
up and sold.