The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-04-26
FAMOUS Gem
OF TRAGEDY is
IN PAWNSHOP
EVaIyn Walsh Mclean in
Desperate Battle for
Ready Cash.
BY HARRY FERGUSON
United Press STAFF Correspondent


WASHINGTON, April 26.-The
famous Hope diamond, whose chill,
blue CLEANS have cast misfortune
on every one who owned it since
the day it was carried out Of uedi-
eval Asia, came to rest here today
in a side street paWnshop.
Mrs. Evalyn Walsh Mclean.
pressed for ready cash, sent it there
Tuesday in an attempt to raise
money until she can get loans on
her extensive Washington real
estate holdings BY so doing she
hopes to save for her children the
Washington Post, now in receiver
ship.
Superstitious persons, who lay
great store by the legends of how
death, poverty and disaster have
trailed the Hope diamond like
blooIhounds on the scent, pointed
to another ill-favored omen today.
Even while the 100000 jewel,
weighing forty-four carats, rested
among the trinkets, silver and
dusty watch cases Of the pawrshop,
Mrs. Mclean sat anxiously by a
bed in Baltimore, where lay her
14-year-old son, weak and white
from an appendicitis operation.
Disaster Strikes Often
The Hope curse was at its evil
work again, they said, and recalled
how another one of Mrs Mclean S
children had been killed in an auto
mobile accident shortly after her
husband purchased the diamond for
her in 1912.
The path of the Hope diamond
has twisted through the most bril-
liant social scenes Of the old world
and the new
Queens. actresses and society
women have draped its pendant
around their necks, and pretended
to laugh at the dire history Of the
gem.
Invariably disaster has struck at
them, and the diamond has been
passed along.
Oriental princes have coveted the
gem and paid fantastic prices for
it, and a Greek jeweler who handled
it for appraisal died in an automo-
bile crash.
Refused TO Be Frightened
Mrs. Mclean refused to be fright
ened by legends.
Years ago she appeared at a re-
ception at the Russian embassy for
which 1000 yellow lilies we're i'm
ported from England, and the Hope
diamond was a dazzling pool of blue
at her throat.
Life was peaceful and gay for the
McLeans in those days, and the
world thought the tragic chain of
the Hope diamond had been
snapped. Then misfortune crowded
on the McLeans.
Today McLean's health is broken,
their estate has been the cause of
countless suit and counter-suit, di-
Vorce actions have followed rapidly,
and now Mrs. Mclean is seeking
a quick means of getting money.
Like ali famous gems, the early
history Of the Hope diamond is
obscure.
A caravan carried it out of Cen
trail Asia in the seventeenth CEN
tury and it went along ancient trade
routes to Paris, where, in 1869,
Louis XIV purchased it.
Found Way to England
Louis XIV, engrossed in the in
trigues of Madame Du Barry,
passed the gem nonchalantly to his
queen.
The curse asserted itself again,
and Inundated France was
forced to sign the peace of Paris
that deprived the empire of India
and Canada
Then the diamond disappeared
for almost two centuries. but final
ly found its way to England, where
it received the name it now bears.
Lord Francis Hope inherited the
gem, and handed it to his bride as
a wedding gift. She was the ia
nous May Yoke, the American &C
tress who could dance an Irish jig
so comically that John L. Sullivan
could forget that Corbett knocked
him out at New Orleans and roar
with laughter when she appeared
on the stage
Lady Hope dazzled royalty with
the gem. but the last year of her
life she was a poverty-stricken old
woman. scrubbing floors in Chicago