The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-01
MORGAN JEWELS ! \ l ARE MARVELLOUS Creates Collection Now in
 Private Hands COAL SUPPLY SHORT England Aroused Over Threatened Coal Famine Although Not Due
 for 175 Years-Labor War
 Was Very Expensive
By PAUL LAMBETH

ny TAOb
 London, September 30.-(Special )-Art lovers, antiquarians and seekers after romance owe to J. Pierpont Morgan, the great American financier, debt of grati- tude for the opportunity he has given them to see his marvellous collection of jewels and gems, which have been on exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum. To say that this is one of the great est collections ever in private hands is but stating the truth. Dr. G. c. William son. perhaps the greatest English au- thcrity on such matters, has prepared catalogue of this collection which is worthy of the subject. More could hard | ly be said
 To writers having in view prepara- tion of historical novels l would com mend this catalogue as furnishing ma terial to keep them busy for long time. Hardly a jewel in the collection but | has its story of romance and tragedy | Many of these are told in the catalogue Perhaps the most romantic story is told 1 in relation to the Golden chain of honor | of Christian II of Saxony, composed of thirty pierced ovals of open scroll work decorated with enamels. This chain passed into the possession of Henry of Guntherod (who died in 161D and was buried with him in the Sophien church in Dresden. In 1s40 the grave was opened. the chain taken and desposited in the Green vaults in Dresden the treas ures of which in 1896 were removed to prevent their falling into the hands of Napoleon. When the danger was over most of the treasures were returned but this chain lost" and remained so for ne r lU ftft.xr ( lie sale in Dresden on June 27, 1S9S and by some amazing miracle, it was not con- fiscated by the authorities. Herr Gutt- man of Berlin bought it, and some years since sold it, with other objects of art. to the present owner. It is believed to be the work of Michael Botza, the cele- brated Dresden goldsmith, and dates from 1900.
 Another little romance is enshrined in the pendant jewel composed of two blocks of rock crystal mounted in enamelled gold, prominent in the reign by Philip III. It was the property of the member of this family when it deposited in the convent of San Pablo, at Valladolid, where it remained for many years, and whence it was claimed by an heress of the family, who carried it off to Ger many.
 Yet another little romance-a violent one probably if the actual facts were known-concerns the circular jewel of wrought and enamelled gold (v. and A. | No. l. 16D, tradtionaly said to be the work of Ghiberti and made for Gosimo de Medici, which was stolen from the latters son one night by Lorenzo, the Magnificent in November, 1469 shortly before Piero, died
 The humorous badges of various orders include one of the Order of the Annun- nunzita in enamelled gold, the Knights of this order took solemn VOW that they would not wear it's insignia with | that of any other order of St. Michel Of the many beautiful Pendant Jewels one of the most notable is that composed | Of wrought gold enamel, and ambergrs, hitherto thought to be wax. The value of a large piece of amoergris such as this is the 16th century would have been very great, and the jewel could only have been Tor person of great wealth; it's peculiar perfume never seems to leave the material; the centre piece of this jewel is small group of a woman and three children. It originally belonged to the Wencke collection at Hamburg and was acquired at the famous Spitzer sale . In Paris in 1885,
 It is understood that Mir. Morgan ex- II poets soon to take this collection to the United States where it will be placed on exhibition in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
 Sir William Ramsay has stirred up Eng land by the announcement that her coal supply is rapidly becoming exhausted. Inasmuch, however, as he says there is enough to last for about 175 years the alarm is not acute as yet.
 "We have In the British Isles," he said, "a very limited supply of coal. For the last forty years the rate at which this supply is being exhausted has been steadily increasing
 He continued: Tn 1870 no fewer than no million tons were mined in Great rif nd tba mt ipar ca1 by three and a third million tons a year. It is easy to calculate that If the rate of working increases 1t s doing our coal will be completely exhausted in 175 years.
 Between 1905 and 1907 the amount of coal raised in the United Kingdom in- creased from 236 to 238 million tons equal to six tons per head of the popu- lation. against three and half tons In Belgium, two and half tons in Ger many, and one ton in France.
 Our commercial supremacy and our power of competing with other European nations are obviously governed. so far we can see, by the relative price of coal; and when our prices rise. owing to the approaching exhaustion of our supplies, may look forward to the near ap- = proach of famine and misery
 The pay of the London police is to be - increased and the general opinion Is that IL IS aDOuI time. l0nOOn taxes pf1Qe Tn ' her police force and with cause. It is as fine body of can be found or anywhere Londons pride, however, has ne not taken the shape of paying high sal IT, aries, however. and the pay of "bobby" n- now ranges between s6S5 a week as a IT. minimum to the maximum of $s25 some O. what different from the pay of a New Of York "cop."
 The cost of the Cambrian collieries strike which has just ended after a long -' and bitter fight. provides another illus tration of the gigantic losses involved by : labor warfare. The total cost of own I CTS and men arising out of the strike, / which began in November of last year, ts roughly estimated at $75,50O.
 It will cost many thousands of pounds ,,. 10 put the colliers in working order for >A during the enforced ideness many parts Of the extensive mines have been flooded. and immense falls have taken place un- f. derground. Many weeks must elapse be- d, bore all the 12,000 strikers can return to l- work
 e. In consideration of the drouth and the ts other adverse circumstances to which ,e they had been subjected, the Marquis of s. Anglesey has made an abatement of 10 -- ha nf is ton mi far