Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-07-21

The most popular thing in the way
of gems just now is. the opal. Not
that any one objects to presents of
diamonds, but the opal is enjoying a
boom in the best society. The reason
for this is that late researches into
ancient lore have entirely reversed the
old notion that the opal is an ualucky
stone.
( Many people going to Europe wear
opals to keep them from getting sea-
sick" and insure them safe passage
lEIlile on the wzter, ana the people
most successful over there at the
races all wear opals at the course,
and those people who are most sue
cessful in specializing at Monte Carlo
and the race tracks in Europe gener-
ally attribute their good fortune to
wearing precious opal at the time
they are taking a long chance with
their good money.
Al jeweler once interested me very
much by relating what he called a
little story. He said the wife of one
of his best customers bought flor a
Christmas present to her husband) an
opal scarf pin. It was marvellous
stone. At that time there was heavy
mortgage on their home. His bust
ness--he was a coffee broker and had
been fooling with the wrong end of
the market-was In a desperate condi-
ton; he was threatened with appen-
dicitis, and things were going wrong
with him generally. Pretty soon cof-
fee began to rise. 1t kept going up
and carried this man right along with
it He got his business into good
shape, paid on his mortgage and went
aiong swimmingly. Now, here's the
most remarkable part of the story.
some one shipped the pin out of his
scarf one day in a crowd. The very
next day he fell downstairs and broke
two ribs; his wife upset a bottle of
purple ink all over his new summer
Clothes; his little boy played truant
from school and got arrested for tying
a pack OF firecrackers to dogs tail;
the parlor maid smashed the new
chandelier to flinders with a steplad-
der; lone Of the carriage horses de-
veloped glanders, and the hired man
slipped on banana peel and broke
his leg. During the next week a
shutter fell off the front of his house
and hit policeman on the head; the
.eleetrie meter in his house brought
him in debt for electric light for 1920
for one month alone. His cook left
because there was not piano ordered
for her room and the moths were dis.
covered in the new parlor carpet.
When things came to this pass the
man saw that he would have to draw
the line. He sent for the best detec-
tiyes known and told them to get that
opal back if il took all the money in
New York. The next day they found
the opal in pawn shop, and, do you
know, that man just got his opal back
in time to get out of the coffee mar
ket before the panic, and if he had
not got out he would have gone high
er than a kite There's nothing in,
the world like an opal Horseshoes
and four-leaved clover are nothing to
it.
A child fell out of six-story win
dow of a Harlem fat the other day.
After catching on to four different
clothes lines it struck on the back of
a cat, and the contact killed the cat
The child got up and walked away
It is claimed that the child was wear
ing an opal necklace.
This magnificent gem is composed
of SILICA in an amorphous state,
mixed with water, and is in reality
the same mineral as quartz, with the
addition of or z per cent of water.
There are many varieties, the pre-
cious, or harlequin, and the black opal
always the most sought after, the
fire or reddish opal, which has also,
occasionally, fine playiof celors, and
several others. The opal is infusible
before the blow-pipe, but gives off