Arizona republican., 1911-04-10
@ SOUTH SIDE NEWS

II The immense blue diamond which
was formerly the property of my hus-
band, Lord Francis Hope, has cut a
sinister trail down the centuries. a trail
that is red with blood and black with
shame and wet with tears Death and
disaster have logged the footsteps Of
the temporary owners Of this malignant
stone, for it is a notable fact that it
has never remained long in anyonc's
possession. l have wondered sometimes
if the bane were laid upon Il by the
will of jealous eastern god in revenge
for his loss. Because the first positive
bit of history relative to the diamond
is that it was stolen from India in the
latter part of the seventeenth century
by one Andre Tavernier, a subject f
Louis XIV
To the grand monarch he took his
find, bartering it for 100000 and a
barony. But the good merchant did not
long enjoy his fortune Within a year
he was torn to pieces by wild dogs on
a hunting trip in Spain, and the dia-
mond's work of destruction was begun
l have read that when Louis pur-
chased the gem il was still in the rough
and weighed 1927 carats. But after the
Amsterdam jewelers. had worked at it
/ only siXty-seven and one eighth carats
were left After the French Revolution.
when it was bought by the grandfather
of Lord Hope, it had been cut down to
forty-four and three eighth carats.
which is its present size.
Nine. de Montespan. the beautiful IA
vorite Of the great Louis, is the first
woman on record to feel the baIeful in
fluence Of the diamond. Coincident with
her acquisition of it came the growing
ascendency of her successful rival
Mime. de Maintenon. The latter. who is
said To have depended on charm of
mind rather than of person, was wise
enough or careless enough not to de-
mand the jewel as her guerdon. But
another favorite Of Louis, NJ. Fouquet.
borrowed it, for one of his magnificent
fetes-and two years later he lost his
head
Louis XIV had the sense to leave the
magnificent thing in his treasure vaults
during his entire reign. But Oueen
Marie Antoinette. another beautiful
woman, insisted on wearing it to a
great ball at the Tuileries Afterward
she loaned it to her bosom friend. the
princess de Lamballes. Not so long aft
er the latter was torn TO pieces by the
Paris mob. And not long after the
queen herself went to the guillotine
one can only guess at the secret
tragedies linked To the diamond during
the next forty years, though l do not
fancy they were few. But in 1880 II an
peared again as the property Of an
English jeweler. one David Ellison. He
admitted that he bought il Of a man
who died Of starvation the next day.
and who in turn told a tale Of receiving
1t from friend who committed suicide.
The stone had been cut down some
twenty carats, but il was almost imme-
diately recognized as the crown jewel
Of France. The nation, however, made
no attempt to recover it, She had had
enough of the hOodoO.
Instead. it was bought by Henry
Thomas Hope. to whom it brought
series of family misfortunes From him
it descended to Lord Francis Hope. the
man I married.
| have nothing in the world but the
most cordial respect and admiration for
Lord Hope. It was a love match on |
my side and, l believe, on his. We had |
happy years. But the curse of the great |
diamond fell upon US both.
l frankly admit that / was altogether
to blame for leaving him. Captain
Putnam Bradley Strong. with whom | |
eloped, was not worth one little finger |
Of Lord Hope. He was simply a hand |
some, dissOlute New Yorker. whose |
father was twice mayor / should new |
er, never have taken such a step-but |
the Hope diamond bewitched me. I'm |
der its spell | committed the most I'M |
happy mistake of my life-and the
proof is that after Lord Hope disposed |
of the diamond. and l got beyond its |
Influence, We both pulled ourselves up |
short.
He did sell it for $16S,O0O to the firm
Of Frankel. jewelers. in New York and
London. Then he married a nice Eng
lish girl. paid his debts, has an heir
now. and is very happy. Meanwhile, l
have got a divorce from Strong and
come back to the stage. sane, happy
woman.
But of course the Frankels began to
have financial troubles, till they sold
the diamond, this time to Abdul Hamid.
sultan Of Turkey. Out of sheer curiosi-
ty l have followed the recent history
u 'le D4uS StO4e lHdI Is always ledVlng
its mark in red The man who polished
1t for the sultan carelessly crushed
great pearl a few minutes later and was
beaten almost to death and thrown in
to a dungeon.
The keeper of the vault in which the
jewel was laced was strangled. a
afterward made custodian of it, |.
was hanged by the Turkish mob. And L
the great stone adorned the bosom of
the sultan's favorite, Salma Zubayba,