The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1914-04-30
QUEEN MARY'S
CHOICE GEMS
Keeps Keys of Strong Rooms at Buck
Insham Palace and Of safes at
Other PIaces--Ail Are
Fully Insured.

London.-On more than one occasion
Queen Mary has been heard to con
Tess that she shares Andrew Carnegie's
opinion hat women are not at their
best when they load themselves with
jewels. Her majesty. as a rule, wears
comparatively few ornaments, al
though when occasion demands she
can rival any queen in Europe in the
splendor of her gems, not rel except
ing the czarina or the queen of Spain.
1t was computed when she was mar
ried that gems to the value of consid-
erably over G100, 900 were presented
to her majesty, and these. of course,
remain her personal property. Fur
thermore, King George has w per-
mitted n of Queen Mary's birthdays
to pass since their marriage 20 years
ago without adding to her collection
of Jewels.
Considerable additions have also
been made of late years to her ma
jesty's Jewels by Indian potentates.
During the visit of the king and queen
to India several rulers of leading In
dian states were permitted to present
to the queen jewels-principally pearls
of a value that it is not easy to as
sess. Diamonds are her majesty's
fayorite gems, and she cares little for
colored stones, although she has some
exquisite emerald and ruby ornaments.
1t was characteristic of the business
like ways of her majesty that when.
upon her marriage, she came into pos
session Of the nucleus of her present
wonderful collection of jewelry she
took the eminently sensible precaution
of having It valued for It's intrinsic
worth, and as 500 as this valuation
was complete the collection was III
sured for the amount. Since that time
other policies have been taken out
upon any additional Jewels, including
the crown jewels that have passed into
her keeping, SO that at the present
day, II the whole collection or any
part Of it were lost or destroyed, a
sum sufficient to replace it would to
q very large degree be forthcoming.
The whole of her matesty's jewels
are. as a rule, kept at buckingham
palace in strong rooms specially de-
signed to the order of the late King
Edward shortly after he came to the
throne. Each of the shelves is lined
with white velvet and everything is sc
arranged that whole sets. of jewels
orders, etc. can be kept together. max
ing it a matter Of very little difficulty
to obtain precisely the jewels that
fhe queen requires at the shortest
Aotice.
Smaller safes, all of them of con
siderable size, have lately been placed
at Windsor castle, Balmoral. >and Yorl
cottage for the safe keeping OF any
jewels her majesty requires wher
travelling about. The keys remain II
the queens possession and are onl,
handed to the lady in waiting on duty
when required.
The king, by the way. possesses
comparatively little jewelry and wears
next to none He possesses some mag
niicent scarf pins and rings. mainly
of diamonds and pink pearls, and il
would be difficult to say within a dozer
or SO how many watches his majesty
owns. He has also some jewelet
walking sticks, but the stick he fayors
is, as a rule, a strong plain one, very
simply mounted, and would probabl,
be bought for a guinea or so in any
| West end establishment.
EEY