Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1911-11-11
A PLEA FOR THE OPAL.
No Foundation Exists for the Idea of
It's Evil Powers.

ing that its delicate colors and tender
ness reminded him of a loving and
beautiful child, says writer in the De-
troit Free Press. Cardanus goes on
record with statement that an Opal
costing ID crowns gave him more pleas.
ure than diamond worth 500. All the
old writers declare it to be the fairesl
and most pleasing of gems. The Ro.
mans adored it and Mark Antony offered
to exempt Nonnius from exile if he
would only surrender a splendid Opal.
But Nonnius preferred that one gem to
all his other possessions and fed with it
to Egypt. There he lost it and for 100
years It never saw the light.
The people of the Middle Ages, igno-
rant and superstitious as they were,
never thought of accusing 1t of any evil
power. They actually believed it united
all the special virtues of all those gems
whose colors were to be found in it's
cheerful, glowing heart. But the story
of the finding of Nonnius' lost Opal
gives the best proof of its good quail
ties.
One day along in the Eighteenth Gen.
tury poor Arab named Sibbi wandered
from the fields at Achoris. As he lay
gazing into the depths of dry cistern
and thinking of his wretched life of
constant hardship the moon arose and
he saw its light reflected from something
on the floor Of the cistern that glowed
and sparkled with wondrous sheen.
All night long he gazed and wondered,
but when at sun-up it flashed in the
morning light with e myriad of glorious
colors he scrambled down to find out
what it was. But when he saw the Opal
and was about to pick it up with a tri-
umphant shout he started back, afraid
to touch it, for engraven on it were four
mystic letters. The blood of thousand
story-tellers was in his veins and those
letters conjured up all sorts of frightful
things in his mind. 1t might be the
"Great Name"-the tetragrammaton of
the occident. Some terrible JUN might
guard it and his hair stood on end as he
reflected that at the touch of the human
hand the earth might open and the
mountains fall. So he sat little ways
back; for he could not take his eyes of
II, and as he drank in it's splendor he
fancied himself in Aladdin's cave.
Castle. building comes easily to oriental
minds half their pleasure in life spring
from this wonderful faculty. In the
midst of desert, with crust of bread
or handful of dates, the poor easterner
can create paradise.
At last Sibbi remembered that what is
written must happen-if he was killed
for touching the Opal it was only his
destiny, anyway. So he picked it up.
Nothing happened, and hiding it under
his cloak, he hurried away to Cairo-the
mother of cities-where he sold it for
untold bags of gold. Intrusting his for
tune to the Madresi mosque he set off to
Constantinople and purchased the office
OF cadl. NOW, he might have lived a
long and merry life, but he endeavored
to reform the manners of his country
man and he reaped the usual reward.
One day an insulted citizen stabbed him
in the back and he died. The gold be-
came the property of the mosque, and
to this day 200 loaves of bread are daily
distributed from its doors to the poor in
memory of his lucky find.
We could tell hundred other tales
but enough. Looking at the Opal before
US, We forget everything mean and vile.
Child of love! You know naught OF
evil, your beauty increases with every
glance. Take your place ss of old, and
may you ever gladden. us by the glow.
ing crimson glory of your true and hon.
est heart.