Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1913-07-21
fBy william, BigIer, Expert Lapidary.)

IJBy William 6igIer, Expert Lapidary)
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 unlucky
stone.
Many people going to Europe wear
opals to keep them from getting sea
sick and insure them a safe passage
while on the Water, and 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.
A 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
opal scarf pin. 1t was a marvellous
stone, At that time there was heavy
mortgage on their home. His bust
ness-he was coffee broker and had
been fooling with the wrong end of
the market-was in desperate condl-
ton; he was threatened with appen-
dicitis, and things were going wrong
with him generally. Pretty soon cof-
Zee began to rise. 1t kept going up
and carried this man right along with
1t. He got his business into good
shape, paid on his mortgage and went
along swimmingly. Now, here's the
most remarkable part of the story
some one slipped 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-
ger; one of the carriage horses de-
veloped glanders, and the hired man
slipped on a banana peel and broke
his leg. During the next week
shutter fell off the front of his house
and hit policeman on the head; the
eiectric meter in his house brought
him in debt for electric light for $1,000
tor 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-
tives known and told them to get that
opal back if ii 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
and four-leaved clover are nothing to
it.. I. -.
A child fell cut CT a six-story win
dow of Harlem fiat 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 anonymous 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 afterl, the
fire or reddish opal, which has also,
occasionally, fine play of colors, and
several others. The opal Is infusible
before the blow-pipe, but gives of