Evening star., 1926-10-10

OctObrr'G child born 1Or woe
And Nfe's ycissitudes must know.
But Law an opal on her preast
And hope will lull those words to rest
The opal, the natal stone for Octo-
ber. is the gem of success. IL ~ sym
bolic of hope and achievement, and ~
believed to be sympathetic luck
stone, especially to men. The opa! is
above all. the stone of love, ana Is
said to promote happy relations be-
tween lovers who wear 1t. In adnira-
ton the Romans called 1t the gem
Cupid Paederos. child beautiful as
love, and to them 1t was essentially
the stone of beauty, which coveted
gift it was thought to bestow upon It's
Wearer.G
The name opal Is from the Greek
word for eye, which shows the esteem
in which the gem was held by the an
clients for treating diseases OF the eye.
If held between the eyes 1t was ne
lieyed to possess the additional virtue
of directing the mind to beautiful and
lofty thoughts. The poetic opinion or
the great Roman naturalist. Pliny,
was that the opal is made up or the
glories of the most precious gems. IN
cluding the gentler fire OF the RUDY:
the rich purple of the amethyst and
the sea green of the emerald. glitter
ing together in union indescribabie.
So highly valued was this stone III
the ancient world that the Roman
Senator Nonius. who wore an opal
ring worth approximately million
dollars, preferred to be eXiled by Mark
Antony (who wished to purchase the
ring for Cleopatra) rather than to give
it up This famous ring was d1ScoV-
cred few years ago in the tomb or
the firm-willed Senator of old Rome.
In the Middle Ages many virtues
were ascribed to the opal. 1t was be-
lieved to soothe the heart. protect Its
wearer from contagious and infectious
airs, drive away dependency and pre-
vent fainting, heart disease and ma
lignant affections.
In spite of the many virtues as
cribed to it, there is perhaps no other
gem that has suffered so much from
the bigotry of superstitious ignorance
as the wonderful opal. The reason
for this, however, dates no further
back than the fourteenth century--tO
the time Of the dreaded "black death"
in Europe In 1348 Venice was as
sailed by destructive earthquakes.
tidal waves and the plague. The cpl
demic in few months proved fatal TO
more than two-thirds OF the popula-
ton Of the city, sparing neither rich
nor poor. young nor OLD. The opal
was the favorite gem with italian jew
elers at that time and. as the story
goes, opals worn by those stricken be-
came suddenly brilliant. but lost their
luster entirely with the death OF the
Wearer.
This stone then became an object of
dread and for more than century
was considered an unlucky gem. This
erroneous idea has, however, entirely
disappeared from the public mind, and
today fine opal occupies a place or
high popular esteem.
There are many valuable and very
beautiful opals known, but the Flame
Queen" an Australian opal. Is unique
in beauty and composition. 1t Is a
large oval-shaped stone, surrounded
by border which stands out boldly
like a picture frame. This stone, meas
uring by 3 inches, weighs 253 carats.
Viewed from one angle the center is a
brilliant flame color, surrounded by a
green border. Seen from another
point the burning center yields, as II
by magic, to field Of cool yet vivid
emerald and the frame to royal blue.
Still another view shows n bronze CEN
ter, touched with points of darker hue.
within frame of changing blue and
amethyst. The stone Is truly cheme-
leon-like. bewilderling in its living
beauty
What is believed to be the largest
uncut opal in the world was discov-
cred In Nevada in 1917. 1t is common
ly referred to as black OPAL" but
in reality 1t is mostly peacock blue and
emerald green with considerable
amount of red. In size this great gem
approaches a quarter of an ordinary
brick and weighs 1876 ounces. This
stone was exhibited in Washington in
1920.
Opal Is very abundant in nature and
occurs i'm many varieties. The famous
American opal mines are in Nevada,
where many fossil tree trunks have
been converted into the ch-sought-
after opal.
To explain how, through the mir
acles of nature, these tree trunks were
converted into opal, 1t is necessary to
go. back many thousands of years,
when these trees clothed the noun
tainside or shaded the valley over
which roamed the mastodon and the
saber-tOothed tiger-a landscape very
different from that of today. One
must then imagine the country over
whelmed by widespread disaster (pos-
sibly an earthquake. which may have
been frequent In such a volcanic re-
gion), which reduced the growing for
est to swamp and buried the tree
trunks under many feet Of water
soaked debris.
It was then, when the trees were
water-logged and sank. that the chemi-
cal process which changed them to
opal began. for the water that pene-
trated their inmost cells was not the
pure liquid that one Is accustomed to
see flowing from a spring on the hill
side. but a solution heavily charged
with silica and probably heated by
volcanic action. AS the woody sub
stance OF We tree yielded to decay the
silica, separating from the water as a
result of evaporation, replaced. mole
cule by molecule, the soft parts OF the
tree. So delicate and accurate was
this replacement that the structure of
the wood Is shown in great detail on
the face of polished opal.
Hens scratching in a sandpit ON
the golf Gials I.iao4xs.a