Diamonds.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3116, 12 February 1879, Page 1

Diamonds.

... -r, " ' " ■ '"*• '' 1«i ?*■:.•!■)''l A fcan Francisco journal, it will be seen m our columns, has been lately boasting, that no town for its population contaJM more jewelry. European cities put their; pride in.various possessions which bfie or" another may have taken to ftceutnulating. One has the most exquisite collection 6 ' pictures, another of sculpture, a third the greatest library in the Worlds 3u¥ we never remember that any place before vaunted its pre-eminent capacity for turn-" ing private houses into jeweller's shops. The wife of the chief owner of tbc Bonanza Silver Lode has a valuable' trinket ease. £500,000 is a large sum to .keep in a cupboard paying no interest $ This,lady,, however, prefers Paris and London' to the capital of California, and lfc*-Batt Francisco journalists appear not to reckon her diamonds among the glories of the .town. The principaljoellecti<>njof|j| jewels owned by one SanJErancisco citizenin San Francisco was, according to this authority, purchased for £20,Q(», and the price of such things has-tended of late years to go down rather than* Tup. !& jewel casket valued at £20,000"would not hold a very high rank in Pans,&r London, or Vienna. But San Francesco may claim to be matched with other.jtownsof 150,000 inhabitants, and not with jewel fancier! of cities which reckon their population— by the million. It would certainly,, be hard to find another Tbwiti' 1 of the same approximate «ze^ with so much money invested in thia way. Leeds, and Bradford, and Sheffield would fall far behind. M/mchester itself could not compete; and San Francitco may, glory in its comparative primacy, t Amen- * can cities and States are fond of designating themselves by some special charae«j teristic they claim to contribute to the general polity. Ban Franoiipo may call itself the Diamond City with as much appropriateness as many American towns hare selected the titles or nicknaiaes. California has not invented the Uite for precious stones. To a region of that nature the attraction is that older communities have created the taste, and that it can vie.with them on their own ground. The intrinsic beauty of the crrttftlt^tyled precious stones was the original motive, tor their collection. Not so much because thoy are rare, but .because', they are an embodiment of light in stone,,did prime*, val man search for them'and 'we&rvthem.., The pleasure is less artificial than many the world now assumes to be natural Al instincts., It,is a mistake of uneduoated Europeans to suppose that the Amsterdam diamond cutter gives its charm to the stone. An Oriental, with' an eye for pure light and color trained in an atmosphere where light fa-light and darkness is darknesß, Bees a pool of liquid radiance in the uncut diamond, or ruby or, omerahi. To him the facets the wheel forces upon the crystal are an outrage. They majt ? the serenity of the nati^ve,'.lu*trjs, ; ia| ; J;a;: stone disturbs the peace of a wobdland pool. Jkistern Princes layr up in their treasure houses diamo.g^pjßb > bJeij^. l^Mch. m charm them much more than would"Tbrife™ Hants. Only their courtesy, makes them disguise their opinion of a taste, which ; could split up the K6fe-i-Nbor^ ;~^r J#itb; v everything beautiful, this"'element' r of rarity soon adds itself. Gold and silver attracted men's admiration befora r their compacaitive scarcity pointed theib as convenient measures of value, f ;Had precious stores been: of less;-bewildering variety, and been j^rpad sufficiently over the surface of the globf^ /Jiamonds and rubies, or sapphires,' might /have taken. the place of the precious metalfl.^qagJ^i; however, they could hqt bS'ip^t %ttmj particular use, men when the^ had opco come to prize rare crystals for the,irlplen'i dour soon discovered that they had their utility also. A London jeweller, irheu the discovery of the South African, diadnond fields first fluttered theleajriM;!]^!;,. rielj for the value of their rings and neeldaces, endeavoured to appease anxiety by the assurance that every diamond, like every bullet, has its billet. Some doiibt my/, perhaps, be felt in the present state of *Jie diamoad market, whether this 4e* .claration was not premaituro, An asnnal? influx of £2,000,000 worth of^adiitionatc diamonds can scarcely create speedily . a sufficient increased demand to absorb them. Bat, on the other hand, the India* ■ supply of diamonds has been diminishing/ '"■ I Had, moreover, not a single Sooth African diamond been discovered, ih'ere has taea enough in the condition of trade for the last few /years to explain the .chief part of i the fall ju prices. As a principle, the T jewellerV statement was, however interested, entirely just. Fresh uses for , diamonds ia modern handicrafts are perpetually being discovered. The £5,000,000 worth of watches produced £ yearly in France, Switzerland, England, and the United States would of thejja§elr(Bf account for an enormous waste of precious \ stones. San Francisco has. now-begun to compete witlrthe old world- in the- dia.- ; r mond markets' and p omises to help to redress any inequality between supply and demand which threateniag ban* balances and South Africa may ha?# caused. ' ■' _' , •'■'■ ','. ■fi' l'-. '-'■'

We may regret that a sudden inherit lance does not bring good taste. -Vein* of silver enough to pave Europe^'with' florins and half-crowns might have made of California a homo of learning and refinement. The wealth was a new product • free from any claims or mortgages like * the riches of' Europe. Kurope miulit have beemdrained eff its treasurers ot art in favour of San Fr&ncj/spo. as a correspondent complained the other day ; i»'tll« fate England is now undergoing io favour of France and Germany. JS e w'f osojJWei , mi^ht have few new arts,or rerived old ones. If San Francisco delighted in personal ornaments, it might have c ille'cted the wondrous geius which have descended from the ancient to tlie modern world, or it might liave colonised''California with Tuscan and Jioman engravers. But San Francisco not uonaturully Joves to spend its millions on itself and for its %>vni

delight. It does not care for art and learning; it has not been educated to see beauty in au intaglio. A brilliant is the measure of its taste, and we cannot affect to be surprised. A passion for jewelry is is exactly what might Lave been anticipated in such a city. Silver would naturally be as of little account there as in the Jerusalem of Solomon's days. Gold is too deadly a rival of the special "wealth of California for a good Californian to encourage its pretensions by confessing a pleasure in it. Jewels are neither Californian nor anti-Californian; and jewels accordingly the San Francisco, citizen accumulates. A large Jewish element in the population, with its inborn Oriental love of trinkets, may, perhaps, have set the appetite going. Once, however, in mo- ! tion, it would'feed itself. A population suddenly enriched cannq£ buy virtue and learning, and good taste, or even good looks, in a day. But no envious tongue can dispute the value of a ten thousand pound necklace. Silver mines do rot yield a family pedigree ; but they yield what will turn into family diamonds. A reputation may have a flaw, but nny jeweller will testify that the diamonds have none, and that they are so many carats' weight. It is something, too, for the .architect of his own fortune to be able to ■cc and handle his prosperity. Stocks and shares he has to take on faith, and he has learnt very shrewdly the place they have in the faith of other people. The knowledge can scarcely make him value them implicitly. A tiara of jewels on his wife's head does not depend lor its worth on the machinations of a " ring-" The ornament can..sink or rise only with the fall or increase in the worth of the family diamonds of English Duchesses and Hungarian Princeß. As the East knew long before Mr Wemmick, there is a charm in portable property ; and of all portable property never was any so portable as a suite of diamonds. That is a quality which may be double-edged. What is portable in its owner's hands is portable also in those of any thief. The fact that San Francisco can turn hundreds of houses into so many jewel cases and have their contents advertised in the local journals may legitimately add to the satisfaction of the owners. They feel like the Saxon King, or if our Irish brethren prefer their version, the Celt, who hung gold bracelets on errant damsels to prove his subjects' honesty. A necklace worth 76.000 dollars on one fair neck, and a matchless cross on another equally fair breast, demonstrate irrefragably the uses of Lynch Law. Perhaps, when its lesson is supposed to have been sufficiently impressed, we may hear that San Francisco is beginning to sell its diamonds, and to pride itself on the possession of treasures which imply more than long puries.