Evening star., 1926-05-02
May Birthstone.


Who first beholds the light of dav
In Spring sweet fOWcring month OF May
And wears an emerald all her life
Shall be loved and happy wife.
THE emerald. the natal stone for
May, is the gem Of happiness.
II is believed to have the power 10
foresee future evil. reveal truth
preserve chastity and TO endow its
possessor with the gift of prophecy.
II sharpens the wits. quickens the
intellect, strengthens the memory
and promotes eloquence of speech.
The Persian and Arabian sages
taught that whether worn or taken
as d medicine il was AN antidote for
poison and an infallible remedy for
liver trouble. nervousness, epilepsy
and gout Its virtues are believed tp
promote wealth, TO insure congenial
business relations and TO endow its
Wearer with strength and courage.
Perhaps one of the most interesting
of all SuperstitiOns regarding the
emerald is that il reveals the truth
or falsity of the lovers oath by
changing color.
It II a gem that hath the power to show
II phghted lovers keep their troth or no
81 faithful. II is like the leaves OF spring
II fathless. like those leaves when wtherln.
The emerald the green variety Of
aeryl. is one OF the rarest and Prob
ably the most valuable of all known
gems. Chemically the emerald is a
silicate of beryllium and aluminium,
he former constituent being rare
chemical element of which beryl is
The only common mineral. The high
intrinsic value of the emerald is due
N part Ia the artistic popularity Of
its deep velvet green color (due 10
chromium. the element in the min
cral well known in commerce as
chrome alum and in part TO the
.arity with which perfect stones
occur.
Emeralds possessing the velvet
grass green color. characteristic of
he choicest stones. come almost
exclusively from colombia, South
America. Emeralds of pleas
ing green may also be had from
the Russian Crals when Russia il
IN a condition to attend TO mining
of her wonderful natural resources
These two localities, with the ex-
ception Of n few stones from the
ancient mines near the Red Sea.
Weld nearly all the emeralds of COM
nerce. \ few emeraldS have been
found in North Carolina. the only
North American locality, but they
We're not of good quality.
Emeralds have been known and
pIzed from the earliest times. They
are mentioned in the Bible in sew
eral places. and their use in Egypt
dates back to an unrecOrded past.
Tor they frequently appear in the
1NF1ts ,is.s.
The Incas. Aztecs and other highly
civilized ancient peoples of South
America have been reported as using
-heSe gems prOfusely for personal
idornment and for vOtiVe offerings.
There are many traditions about the
lost emerald mines Of South Amer
| ica. and it is believed by some his
toridns that it was in the hope of
| discovering these valuable mines that
Cortez. early in the sixteenth cen
tury. undertook the conquest Of
Peru.
OF the relatively small stones u
perfect emerald is. at the present
time worth more than the finest of
rubies and many times as much as
Il high grade diamond of the same
weight while the large emeralds
are so rare that they bring fancy
prices out of all proportion TO their
size. Tradition and unscientiic ac-
counts tell of phenomenally large
emeralds, but as d matter fact such
stones are exceedingly rare. Ono
of the finest large emeraldS known
belongs to the Duke of Devonshire
and weighs $50 carats. This fine
stone came from the world famed
Muzo mines of Colombia and in
| transparency and structure is almost
without fault. Among the Aus
| trian crown jewels was an emerald
weighing zoos carats. Fifty years
ago this stone was said to be worth
800 900 gold crowns (about $58,O0O)
and would now be worth many times
that amount. Whether II was
among the jewels valued at $4,000.
eco carried out of Austria by cN-
Emperor Karl and his empress. Ger
| tain of which were pawned IA
Switzerland in 1921, is not known.
Since fine emeralds are exceeding
| " valuable. the temptation to imi
| tate them has been great and many
very real looking artificial stones
have been marketed. The most con-
vincing of these have been made
of special kinds of glass in which
the emerald green color can be 'Tni-
tated almost exactly, but the arti-
fetal stone lacks the hardness that
gives the gem quality and also Is
| heavier than the real stone. Tho
most popular style of cutting the
emerald is in Il square, generally
known as the emerald cut This
style OF cutting so much used n
| brooches and little finger rings,
serves admirably to bring out the
rich deep green of the I.ne emerald.