The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-01-31
Diamonds Next to Aviate, Is
Jobbers' Propaganda.
Topekans Warned to Propose
Early and Dodge Increase.
$1,000 A CARAT, PREDICTION
Higher Gems Go More People
Want Them, Claim.
Declare New Fields VIII Not
Affect Quotations. @

Notice to all men contemplating
matrimony: Do your proposing early
the price is going up.
Within the next two years, a sales
man for an eastern wholesale jewelry
house in Topeka this week predicted,
the price of good diamonds will ad
vance to 1000 per carat. The present
value is about $500 a carat. This will
mean an increase of 40 per cent, and
local dealers concur in his opinion.
Whether it be evidence of prosper
ity, increasing domestic ambitions or
plain extravaganza, the demand for
diamonds in Topeka and thruout the
United States has reached q point
over, the price is steadily increasing
and the higher the price goes, the
greater the demand.
In Topeka the sales have increased
to an amazing extent. With the
greater demand has also come a de-
mand for higher quality. Gems of the
cheaper grades are now almost a drug
on the jewelry market, according to
retail propaganda. Perfect, or near
perfect stones, are insisted upon. it is
claimed.
Advances Continuous.
AS a matter of fact. the diamond
market has been advancing ever since
the jewels were discovered. The in
crease in past few years, however. has
been more rapid than before. The in
| NJ CdSillS 0tIIdtiQ anu the 6CdkClly Vi
| good stones is for this in
crease, dealers say. The discovery of
new mines in South Africa will not
| affect the market, it is declared.
Practically all the diamonds on the
worlds market come from Brazil and
South Africa-the larger number from
the latter fields. About ninety per
cent of these are produced by one
London company-De Beers. Inc. But
diamond production is constantly de-
creasing and becoming more expensive.
When diamonds were first discov-
cred they were picked up on the sur
| face of the ground but now the mines
lare from 1000 to 5000 feet deep and
yield only about Sc to a ton of rock
To produce the value of a one-carai
diamond in its finished condition
4 eighty tons of rock must be lifted tc
the surface. moved six miles, wealth
j cred two years, crushed and removed
ten miles to pulsating machines. Here
4 it goes thru q process to remove the
rough stones, which are sent to Lon
don. Now comes the cutting, in which
sixty per cent of the stone is wasted
This, according to dealers, is wha
makes diamonds high priced.
i Value I'm Perfection. Z
The value of a diamond rests not 81
much in its weight as in its perfection
In cutting the stones, care is taken tt
cut them at the proper angle to Civ,
the utmost ia brill!ancy and weight
One is usually attained at the expense
of the other, but the former usually /.
/ to be desired to the latter. In order
to obtain this brilIiancy, upon which
the intrinsic value of the gem depends
it is necessary to waste a great deal
of the stone in cutting at the proper
angles.
Activities in the diamond mines OF
| Arkansas are said to have begun, un-
der the management of a New York
Incorporation capitalized at $40, 900. 600
Local dealers claim, however. that the
stones produced in these fields are OF
little value. and therefore will not af-
feet the market
SoN the old refrain-"I can never
live without you'-may give place to
the acknowledgements a-sapphire-
lor-nothing attitude in Topeka. Or
perhaps it might be well for young
men who have not yet met the right
girl to begin now to lay up cash for
the rainy day in order that love-at-
first-sight cases may not prove fruit
less because OF the high cost of pro-
posing.