Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-10-10
MONEY DEPRECIATION HELPS
Men Of Wealth, Nervous as to Finan.
elai Outlook, Buy Diamonds In
stead of Securities Because
the Safest Investment

Antwerp.-Antwerp is in the throes
of a ~"dia.Iond fever" such as has
never been known anywhere before.
Not less than six diamond clubs"
have been opened in the last three
months.
These are "clubs" only in name, for
they have nothing Of the usual COM
Portable accommodation generally as
ISOLATED in u minds with such in
situations. Their main feature is a
large room filled with rows OF small
card tables. The room looks for all
the world like a card playing estab-
lishment.
1t is the guests, however, who pre-
sent the strangest appearance. There
are smart young men dressed In the
latest styles, and important looking
men bearing the unmistakable mark
Of the stock exchange habitue and pc
culiar old men with long boards and
soiled linen and ancient Prince Albert
suits all mingled together and driving
bargains among themselves at figures
that would rejoice any banker even in
America.
Handling Diamonds.
Two by two they SIT, opposite each
other at the little green tables, care
lessly lingering handfuls of uncut dia-
monds as If they were common poker
chips.
The conversations are pretty much
<I,o n a oil ora. tho roopo.
"How much did you pay for this
LOTT"
1.-TWO hundred thousand crowns"
"All right; I'll buy 1t with 8 per
cent profit for you."
"Done."
And the money is handed over at
onee in cash. Then the seller looks
around and having nothing better to
do, leans over the shoulder Of an ac-
uuaintance at another table, driving
another bargain. And the gambler
fever gets him again and he feels
sorry he has sold. So he buys an
other lot and sometimes he buys back
the very n he has sold.
Thus the prices are pushed up In
this extraordinary diamond ex-
change" of the world.
One of the oldest firms has given
the following figures concerning dla-
mond prices:
Before the war the uncut stone o s
S23 a karat and S32 after cutting.
Immediately after the declaration Of
war the price slumped to $zS and re-
manned that low as long as 1915, when
the Germans, beginning to get nerv-
Gus about the value Of paper money,
started buying all the diamonds they
could find on the market.
France, Switzerland, Italy and Eng
land followed suit, and the price went
up by leaps and bounds. On the eve
Of the armistice the karat was worth
$40 and fell again to 1874 within a
few weeks Of the cessation Of hostil-
tiles.
Since the beginning of the year the
diamond market has doomed, owing
to the general depreciation Of Euro
pean money. the difficulty Of exchange
and the embargo on export Of curren-
cies from one TO another European
country.
Demand Is Heavy.
Today a karat of uncut stone finds
An easy market at $50. Merchants
need no longer seek customers. Cred
Il is no longer given. AS soon as a
new consignment arrives from Lon
don the diamond clubs are filled to
e~-A-fowing and the bidding starts
with uuheard Of zest. Many accounts
are settled In America, and even
there merchants prefer to be paid In
kind rather than In money.
II seems certain that the price OF
diamonds viii continue to rise until
the economic condition of the world
IN better balanced than at present.
In every country there Is an aston
fishing number Of rich men who are
still very nervous as to the financial
outlook, especially in relation TO pos
sible labor troubles. These men do
not buy securities n do not keep
large bank balances. They buy dfa-
mon6s because they know they are
tbe safest investment and the easiest
to transport.
The fact that Germans have been
the heaviest purchasers of cut and
uncut stones since 1918 Is beginning
to worry the allies who find In 1t the
exclamation Of the apparent optimism
shown in Germany as to the economic
future q zse country. It is said that