Evening star., 1924-02-10
PARIS, January 81.

plain, silent men penn oNcE
little tables in small groups.
i It is an ordinary public: cafe
Anv one is free to enter and read ms
paper or write letters over coffee or
hot chocolate in peace and deeency.
Yet the clients, as a rule, are obvi-
ously different"
You have q glimpse of white tissue
paper and glorious glitter. But
should you stroll near q bunch OF
these plain men the rubles ana
pearls you thought you saw have dis
appeared, the men sip coffee and
make brief remarks about the
weather, waiting. by discretion, for
You to be on your way.
Then, when alone again, out come
the tissue paper - magnihcence,
riches! ...,
Men who look like cheap clerks
carry 500, 900 worth of. loose dia-
mands or emeralds in their pockets
They are both courtiers, or interme-
diaries, and speculative dealers on
large scale. They are also producers.
They have no offices. Yesterday
they were in Antwerp buying lots.
Today they are i'll Paris, showing,
selling. Tomorrow they will meet In
this cafe other quiet. plain men who
have come second-class from Mexico
or New Orleans with a job lot of
opals or river pearls.
Cosmopolitan spectators from Cey-
ION or South Africa come straight 10
this cafe, run in the name OF T..
pumont, but really owned and run
by 'the trade" at the corner or the
Rue Lafayette and the Rue Bunauit.
1t is the Cafe of Diamonds.
1t took time and pains originally to
make the acquaintance OF Vladimir
kutner. But, once knowing Nia0-
mir, mere mention Of his name got
me on good terms with Miriam EkmeK-
jian and Ishwar Dass.
Personages like Bonner, the pearl
man; Bloch Brothers, called the
Mexicans," and Pouzet and Leventhai,
the great diamond spectators, have
much dignity and caution. But here
is the astoni shing thing about the
Cafe of Diamonds: II one of them
will say he knows you, you are free
to know them all.
A tourist friend proved it by ac-
curing an opule1t-looking three
carat diamond for $40, plus SCI COM
mission. which he Swears Will make
them sit up in Muncie, Ind. And III
tell you why think it's likely.
4 r X =
THESE men do not care for tender
foot business, such being done by
pure good nature. And always, when
you cannot show you are a dealer,
they insist upon the 10 per cent conf
mission. Also when the tourist
pounced upon a different packet, all
agog by prices he heard mentioned,
Jacques Kahn pushed his hand gently
aside.
You do not want TO buy that
stuff" he said. 1T is a specially,
and you are not a dealer. It's all
kinds Of defective stones, which they
come here and buy up for Morocco
and the negro countries--two-car
diamonds, which l would not buy for
$40, stuff for the exotic trade that
can be sold here down to $s5 or $50
for stones Of two or three carats"
To make up for the "impoliteness,"
no and Michel Berman showed US
"very beautiful three-carat stones
up to $1,000 apiece; very fine' ones
at. say, $3.50, and good diamonds"
of the same three-carat size as low
as S300--a lot dearer than the tourist
friend had just paid for his bargain.
Let be, let bev the tourist said.
II know stones, and my diamond is
4 knockout I will smuggle 1t into
Gods country on my finger and have
something worth $500 for my old
age"
There is no deception.
"By the price you know them," says
Kahn. "AlI arc four or five times
dearer than before the war. Here is
a lot of 'four-grain' diamonds Of one
carat or thereabouts that sold for
1000 francs the carat, now 1890 to
$500 francs. Here"-unfolding-
a lot of mixed little briliants' that
used to sell at ESQ francs, and now
1900 francs the carat. All are four
or five times dearer."
But, reducing francs to dollars, you
find the 'exotic" in the wood pile.
In francs, four or Ave times dearer,
hut in dollars almost as reasonable
as pre-war sparklers.
Now you see why Americans in,
Paris are so interested in precious
stones.
Miriam Ekmekjian is an Armenian
from Mount Ararat, where the ark
landed" Ishwar Dass is an East
indian, who buys his ruby lots in
Burmah.
Neither cares hoot to sell to
tourists pearl or ruby, real or ire
constructed" Japanese, or orient, or
Mississippi river. Ishwar, as q fact,
hates the RECONSTRUCTED" article,
which cannot be detected from real
rubies "by any liquid, file or polsri-
zation," the eye being sole judge.
Miriam, too, is in too big way of
trade to dabble in tourists.
Yet squirm into an acquaintance
and Ishwar will procure you recon
structeds" at So apiece, and Miriam
will delay a lucrative deal to find you
= 81 string of imitation pearls SO
solid that you can slam them on the
marble top Of the cafe table.
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