UNLUCKY JEWEL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 72, 20 March 1912, Page 3

UNLUCKY JEWEL.

AMERICAN LADY DEFIES SUPERSTITION. FAMOUS “HOPE” DIAMOND. Tlio famous “Hope” diamond which lias such a tragic history, and Which lias long been regarded at the world’s unluckiest stone, was worn for the first time for years in Washington early in February. The occasion was a reception to the Russian Ambassador given by Mr and Mrs E. B. McLean. The diamond was worn by the hostess as a pendant. Mr McLean bought the diamond last year from a famous Parisian jeweller, on the understanding (according to a New York paper) that if the stone brought misfortune within six months it could be returned. Mr McLean desired to return it within; the stipulated period, but the jeweller declined to receive it, and a lawsuit followed, which has, now beep amicably adjusted. Mrs .McLean! agreed to retain the diamond, and the price of £52,000 has been paid. The reception afforded a fitting setting for the exhibition of the famed gem. More than £6OOO had been spent for the decorations and the collation, including £I6OO for 4000 English lilies, specially ordered from England.' The McLeans a*re the para cuts of the “billion dollar baby,” so called because he is expected to inherit the vast wealth of his multimillionaire grand-parents, Mr John 11. McLean and Mr Thomas F. Walsh. He ivill be the richest' baby in the world. The Hope diamond was brought from tho East by the French traveller Tavernier, who sold it fo Louis XIV. Taverneir’s son ruined his father by speculation. Fouquet, Louis XlV.’s famous Minister, ■'borrowed the stone and met with'disaster. It was given to Marie Antoinette, who died on the scaffold. The Princess de Lamballe, who occasionally wore it, was torn to pieces by the Paris mob. In 1830 Mr Henry Thomas Hope, from whom it gets its name, bought it for £lB,000. Ha escaped disaster, and it seems to have remained quiescent until 1001, when Lord Henry Francis Hope sold it to. a London merchant, who re-sold it to Now York. The Now Y ork jeweller promptly became a bankrupt, and in 1908 a French broker got it for £60,000, and sold 1 it to a Russian Prince, who gave it to a beautiful actress. He shot her from a box tho first night she wore it, and was assassinated by revolutionists soon afterwards. Tho broker wont mad and committed suicide. The next owner, a Greek, came to a violent death a few days after he sold it to ■the then Sultan Abdul Hamid of Turkey, who lost liis throne.