Connecticut western news., 1922-03-23
ANGEL HIS FRIEND
How Youth Learned the Secret ot,Diamond Cutting.
According to History, the First Stone Y Was So Treated at sruges In
 tTthe Year t470.


 With the exception of the few stones cut in Antwerp, all the rough diamonds of the world are cut in Amsterdam. There the diamond-cutting business Is carried 0n in between 70 and 80 estab- lishments, which give employment to 12,O00 cutters, that Is, in normal times.
 The first cutting of diamond was accomplished something like 450 years ago, says the Kansas City Star. The ancients knew nothing of the hidden beauty of the stone, called by Seneca, "The sage whose impassability noth- ing can conquer" But, even in the rough, the diamond won the favor of princes, and, very gradually, eXper- ments revealed some of its fires. Until the Fourteenth century enameled but tons were the chief articles of jewelry.
 In the beginning of that century, when the price of enamel fell so low as to bring the decorated buttons within the reach of all purses, enameling lost the favor of the fine world, and buttons of gold and silver, ornamented with pearls, diamonds and colored stones took the place of the enamels. The finest of the stones then known as diamOnd-a formless mass the size of a pigeons egg-was a gem worn on great occasions by the king of Portu- gal.
 In the year 1470, when Bruges was a residence city, the court lived a life of extravagant luxury. Men and wom- en went about in garments stiff with gold and silver ornaments, and sewed over with pearls and precious stones. But the stones were uncut and shape less. Charles, son, of the duke of Nor mandy, owned great diamond, which he amused himself by exhibiting to his "chaperon"; but, as he declared It's virtue, he bewailed its shape and its lack of light.
 At that time one of the important jewel merchants of Bruges was served by a clerk who was a native of Ffan- ders-a young man named Louis de Berquem, who was deep In hopeless love of his masters daughter. Young BerQuem was on the verge of despair when, one night, as he was hanging up his apron and preparing to go home te his attic, he saw his master bending over his bench, grooming at the futility of his labor. When Berquem asked: Gan do something for you before ' go?" the master sneered:
 "Yes, bring me tool that will cut these accursed stones I will give a fortune to the man that does it."
 From that hour the boy thought of nothing but to find means of conquer ing the hardness of the diamond. All l day he did the bidding of his master; all night he sat at a rough bench in his | attic trying to make some impression | orTsa stone stolen from the workroom. One night he fell asleep at his bench, and dreamed that an angel said to him: "Iron Is the master cutter; steel | Is iron purified. Take the file, get | powder take thy steel and powder 1t, then cut,Ht ,..
 Berquem awoke. He fixed two dia- monds in a wise, filed like mad, and collected, the fallen dust. That done he Fmadeia set of little wheels and with wheels we'll powdered with the dia- n1ond dust set to work to win a for tliIe Some days later he stood before his master, and in his outstretched palm lay brilliant whose facets gIeamed with light.