DIAMOND ITEMS.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2457, 20 February 1882, Page 3

DIAMOND ITEMS.

This is a short statement written especially for my lady friend* (says " Sil terpen"), whose teeth will water when they read it, just as the fox's month watered when be saw those grapes so far out of bis reach. I know of no women in the world who set inch store on sealskins and diamonds ai those right here in the State of California. When they oan'fc get the real thing, spurious sealskin and Californian diamonds supplant the coveted article. Mrs Leland Stanford, wife of the ex-Governor, has a real set of jewels—in fact unsurpassed for beauty and costliness. A diamond necklace worth 86,C00 dollars is not a bad beginning ; it is made in the form of Marguerite's. Then she b« had another made by Tiffinay, of Paris. It is described as made of colored diamonds, mixed Kith small white diamonds, rubies, emeralds', and sapphires. A band of yellow diamonds clasps the throat, enciroled by smaller whits stones. Below the band are deep points of white diamonds and ooloured stores. 3etween each point is suspended an immense yellow diamond set in white ditto, and attached to the upper partbyaruby, emerald, or sapphire. The largest of the pendants' was once in the collection of the Duke or Brunswick. Oomb, brooch, and ear.irjgs match this superb ornament, whiob. -..0n itself be detached and worn as pics and hair ornaments. The same lady li.-b also three) brown diamonds in ring and earring*, whieh are worth a little fortune alonr. I n ish yea could see the possessor—a largo, common* place looking woman, with a remarkably plaia face, no style, no anything ladylike about her ; in fact, a perfeot type of the Californian nouveau ricke, who are too commonlooking and ugly for any use. Another lady, Mrs Haggin, has 88,000 dollar's worth of. diamonds and the celebrated ruby whioh Lola Montez (who is well-known here) wore) in her hair, of fabulous value. Anna Louise Carey, the American contralto, owns the largest and most perfect emerald is ths world. It once belonged to Queen Isabella, weighs 23 carats, and is worlh oO.OOOdole, How terrible it must be for the crowned heads to see their jewels falling into the hands of parvenuei. But, returning to the emerald; it is set in a broad band of gold, studded with twenty-four immense diamonds. Mrs J. W. Mack ay, the Bonanza Queen, has the largest sapphire in the world. It cost 800,000 francs, being over an inoh in diameter. She has also a set o£ pink coral, paler in shade than a maiden's blush. The set includes sixteen pieces, set in diamonds, the value being 125,000 dollars. Madame Elise, the circus rider, the protege of the Empress of Austria, and whe is supposed to be a daughter of the Emperor, has her tarlatan skirts powdered with diamonds instead of spangles, with a com. plete arch of the same spanning her head. Madame Januaschek, the famous German aotress, has a magnificent collection of gems, among whioh is a turquoise set containing 5000 stones. When she plays "Lady Deadlock" in "Bleak House" she wears 75,000 dollars' worth of diamonds and other jrwela. Don't it make your hearts aohe, ladies ? It does mine. If I had only a very few out of the collection I have stated, how quickly they should, by fairy wand, bs it were, be transformed into dollars. The craze for diamonds in this country, is something marvellous. The women think more of them than cf their dinner a good deal. Those and sealskins down to their feet are the pinnacle of their ambition, whether they can read and writs or not, as is often the case.