THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND, SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 25, 1920.
; i jf u ww) ;y
iQMOhuJ
VAT t
- V,
The Original Shape . of the Hope'
piamond Before It Was Recut -by
European Lapidaries.
TO find herself mistress of the palace of an English Duke,' with jewels out
rivaling the jewels of many a crowned head, with London town house,
country estates, castles, shooting preserves would probably fulfill the
happiest dreams of millions of American women. . '
And yet May Yohe, the daughter of a Pennsylvania country dressmaker, had
all this in her grasp AND THREW IT ALL AWAY.
i May Yohe, the beloved and petted wife of Lord Francis Hope, was also to
ahare with her husband the, added title and still greater estates of the Duke of .
Newcastle. Was it the malevolent power of the unlucky Hope diamond that then'
intervened and blighted her life?. " '
The story of May Yohe's career will be told from week to week In. these
pages by May Yohe herself. Few plots in drama or fiction equal the extraordi
nary real life experiences of this remarkable American girl.
And the "curse" of the famous Hope diamond? -y .
Something, indeed, seemed to cast its sinister shadow over her life and pur
sued her relentlessly in America, in Asia, throughout Europe, and even in South
America. May Yohe discusses this famous gem which once was hers, and reveals
much of its past history which has not before been made public history which
begins with rts theft from the sparkling ornaments of the Buddhist idol fourteen
hundred years ago and drags its sinister trail down through the centuries to the
shocking death of little Vinson Walsh McLean, whose parents now own the
"cursed" stone. - ' ' ' ' '
Jean Baptiste Tavernier came into possession of the stone in 164a, stolen
from the sacred golden statue of Rama, in the Temple of Rama and Sita, Burmah,
India. Tavernier was torn to pieces by wild dogs.'
Madame de Montespan, who wore the jewel, was abandoned by the King.
Nicholas Fouquet, intendant of France, who borrowed it for a festive occa
sion, was executed by order of the King. . ; T
Queen Marie Antoinette, who wore it, was beheaded.
The beautiful Princess de Lamballe, who wore it, was torn to pieces by a
'French mob. .
King Louis XVI., who owned It, was beheaded.
Hendrtk Fals, the diamond merchant's son, who stole it, was a suicide in
"Irte'fir'sVof the Hope family who bought it suffered a long series of mis
fortunes, including the death of his favorite son.
. Simon Frankel, New York broker, who bought it for $168,000 In November,
loox, met financial difficulties. ;
Jacques Colot, another owner, was afflicted with madness and committed
suicide. ' "
Prince Ivan Kanltovski, next owner, was killed by revolutionists. .
Lorens Ladue, to whom he loaned it, was murdesed by her lover.
Simon Montharides, who sold it to the Sultan Abdul Hamid, was thrown
ever a precipice while riding with his wife and child; all were killed;
Zubaya, the Sultan's favorite, was killed by her master."
Abdul Hamid paid $400,000 for the stone. r He was dethroned.
' Jehver Agha, an official of the Yildix, attempted to steal the stone and was
'hanged. . . ::-',!..
Selim Habib, Persian ' diamond merchant, who had handled the gem, was
drowned. ' ,
January xx, xgir, Mrs. Edward B. McLean, of Washington, D. C, bought it;
wore it, and was sued for $180,000 by Car tier, the jeweler.
In May, xgig, her only child, little Vinson McLean, the "Hundred-Million-Dollar
Baby," was crushed to death.
Nothing else in all history, nothing in fiction or the drama1 parallels the' ex
traordinary record of this sinister jewel, which is related for the first time by a
remarkable woman whose own life was blighted by its wicked "curse." This
will be told from week to week on this page.. - -'
CHAPTER III.
(Continued from Last Sunday.) v
(Cppyright, 1920, by International Feature Service, Inc.)
a SI said on this page last Sunday, toy'
Z ambition as a child was to be a
great lady on the stage, and all my
thoughts akd energies were bent in that
Urection.
Up to the day Lord Francis Hope mads
xne his bride I had met with every success
la my stage career." And then, when I
found myself a member ot the British
titled aristocracy, with all the future
seemed to promise wealth, title, social
position, castles, estates, . Jewels then
there came into my life a sinister Influence
which ruined everything.
Was It the 'curBe" ot the great, the
famous, the malevolent Hope Diamond?
Can a gem, can any inanimate object, cast
a spell, a curse, over a human life?
I would like to ask this question of the
long list of personages, great and incon
sequential, whose lives and fortunes and
misfortunes have been bound up with the
lstory ofthe famous blue jewel for four
Teen hundred years".
- Last Sunday X narrated something of the
seml-historio or legendary story of the
early episodes, centuries ago, which sur
rounded the first supposed record of the
gem on the bosom of the -great Thibetan
jade Idol and the unfortunate Princess '
Brisbu. N
However much of truth or misty legend
may be mixed up in this ancient story we
at least have authentic, historic, definite,'
reliable knowledge of the stone In the year
1642, when Jean Baptiste Tavernier ;ame
Into possession of It.
Tavernier, in his many travels through
the then little known principalities of the
maharajas of India, came into possession
of many jewels of a kind to fascinate the
pretty eyes of the favorites of the rich
dukes and nobles in France. He tells us
In his quaint, old volume, printed cen
turies ago, of how he was received at the
Tke Startling History o
Tkis Fascinating Stone,
tke "Curse Tkat Has
Folio we J Its Owners for
Fourteen Centuries and
trie Story of tke Ruined
Life of May Yoke,
Vno Once Owned
! It and Wore
: miniature court of the Due d'Orleans upon
his return from one of hia visits to India
with a bag full of "the most precious of
stones the fair eyes of the lady of the
noble due had ever looked upon."
Tavernier returned to India, Already
his fame as a traveler had spread through
the East, and upon his arrival at Delhi he
was summoned to the court of the Great
Mogul to visit with him the far-famed dia- :
. and splendor were noted throughout the '
Western world. Here Tavernier was ini
tiated into many secrets of the 'East and
many of its customs. The Great Mogul;
entertained him royally.
But that .. which . Interested Tavernier
roost was an invitation from the Great :
Mogul to visit with him the far-famed dia- :
mond mines fn the midst of the Himalayas
mines that were worked by the slaves
of the Mogul and the" product of which was ;
dedicated to his purse alone. .
With a great elephant train the Mogul
: and his party, with Tavernier as the hon
ored guest, set out for these mines. They
spent many days in the neighborhood, and
Tavernier saw, for the first time, how the
strangely shaped crystals came from the
earth to be cut and fashioned Into the ;
sparkling gems he knew. r
Some of these crystals were of wondrous
size. Tavernier was delighted when the
Great Mogul placed in his hand a rough.
uacut crystal, larger than any he had yet -
aeen, and told him he mieht have it as a
remembrance "for his favorite wife" back
in France.
Tavernier tells us that it was now, when
he was so gratefully thanking the Mogul
and dwelling upon his admiration for such
a large and splendid stone, that the mon
arch told him of a jewel even larger 'than
that ''larger than any we princes of India
have yet added to our treasury." i There
was no more fascinating subject for Taver
nier.
fa
It
- Jean Baptiste
Tavernier, the
... Distinguished
Traveller, Who
,. Secured the
Blue Diamond
in India and
Sold It to King Louis XIV. and
Was Created Baron d'Aubonne.
This Painting-Show Taver
nier Dressed in the Robersof
Honor Presented to Him
by the Shah of Persia.
Then from the Hps of the Great Mogul
himself Tavernier learned the tragic story
ot the Princess Brisbun and how she had
placed the gem her husband had given her
as a nuptial gift on her favorite Idol before
she had been slain by the frenzied mob in
the Temple of La Brangas I related on
this page last Sunday.
During the' rest of his visit to the Great
Mogul this diamond ot the ill-fated prin
cess, which had rested untouched upon the
idol- Rama-Sita for almost two thousand
years, guarded by jealous priests and re
vered by millions upon millions of wor
shippers, was - constantly In Taverniers
mind and the subject of most of his con
versation. He discovered quickly that the
Great Mogul himself coveted this gem-r-for
the Persian princess who was at that
time the newest and prettiest of his wives.
But even the Great Mogul did not dare to
brave the wrath of Rama-Sita and its fol-.
lowers, else he would have' secured the
famous gem long before.
With his servants, Blares and guides
loaned him by the Mogul Tavernier trav
elled toward Mandalay, a fabled city upon
the famous Irawaddy River, in what now
Is known as Burmah. Few travellers "ad
yet ventured that far. - .
Here he was received at the court or
the Sultan and entertained with the ro
mantic dances and fetes of the Burmes
As a friend of the Great Mogul he was ac
corded every courtesy. But Tavernier. he
tells ns, was restless. Here from every
pundit, or religious teacher, with whom he
talked he heard new stories of the famed
Rama-Sita in the temple at Pagan.
Tavernier does not tell us that he de
liberately set out from Mandalay to steal
the diamond from the IdoL Rather, he
tells us, he hoped to "barter for it- -from
the priests on guard. Perhaps he had had
experiences . with these temple priests in
connection with his many other trips and
the bags of rare jewels he brought back
to France. But history lives long among
the peoples of the East, whose pundits and '
professional - story tellers bring down
through countless generations tales of
things that happened even thousands of
years ago as clearly and with as complete
romantic detail as if they were told in the
printed record. So from these tales that
one may still hear In the market place of
Mandalay, where the name IHope ; Dia
mond', means nothing, but where the
merest mention of "the gem of Brisbun
and Rama-Sita stirs vengeful gleams in
the dark, mysterious eyes of the native
priests and pundits, we may gather almost .
a detailed narrative of what happened
when Tavernier started out from Mandalay
toward the nearby city of Pagan.
Tavernier was accompanied by a care
fully chosen, group ' of retainers, selected
from those of the Mogul's men whom he
thought he could trust with the aid of
bribery.. Distributing alms as he went, he
was hailed as a foreign prince all along the
.
C) 1920. XntonstioMl Testur Serrio. Ina.
' 'fa XvX
X
I f i ? ', -e .1
How Travellers Journeyed Through the Orient Fourteen
Hundred Years Ago. Thia Picture Gives an Idea of How
the Distinguished Lapidary and French Traveller, Tav
ernier, No Doubt. Made Hi Way to Delhi When He
Secured Possession of the Great Hope v Diamond.
road. He announced that he had
come to pay his devotions to the .
famous Rami-Sita. Arriving at
the outskirts of Pagan, he wqn
the respect of the natives by go
ing with the whole company to
thev river and "bathing twelve
times that he might be pure in
the presence of the God of the
Sun and the Goddess of Love."
. For five days, until the novelty
of his visit began to disappear,
, Tavernier stayed at Pagan. Each
morning, noon and night he vis
ited the temple and made hia' de
votions to - Rama-Sita. And at
each visit he added one more to
- the getns which decorated the
IdoL These gems Were of his own
store, and one may believe they
were not the most - valuable
. either. But they 1 gratified the
nriestjr " - k-- - -
Qa the fifth day, after a. day of unusual
ceremonies--a distribution of largesse
' among beggars by the rich traveller
priests and travellers retired to their sleep
ing quarters much wearied, That is to say
the priests were really fatigued and the
travellers apparently so. It was a moon
less night There, were no watchers on
the hillsides to see the , email herd f
elephants Used by the travellers noise
lessly assembled by (drivers who moved
with echoless feet and muffled commands.
The white robes .donned by the travellers
at their first approach to, the city were re
placed now by sombre garments, which re
flected none of the star gleams.
Suddenly there was a quickly hushed cry
from some belated priest or attendant still
hoveriag within the temple. A few beg
gars who had taken advantage of their
privilege of sleeping on the stone floors of
the temple moved uneasily and then awak
ened to find themselves neatly bound and
rareed. Thr u anHft
toward the Bilent, majestic jade IdoL A
euiuen jcnaiHS, ana men
outside the temple the soft thud of the ele
phants' feet. .
, In the morning, when the priests awak
ened to observe the early morning devo
tions of the first worshipers; there was
panic among them. They unbound the
beggars, who snay have had fanciful tales
to tell of what happened to them. From
the outside came -the shout, "The travel
lers have gone!" It was some time, we
may well believe, before the priests dis
covered that their idol had been defiled
that from among its breastplate of gor
geous jewels the most magnificent of all
was gone! We may Imagine, too, that it
took some time for the priests to realise
that their eyes were not deceiving them-
for such a. saerilege might well have
seemed to them impossible.
At any rate, we hear of Tavernier again,
many miles away, with his retinue, safe in
the domain of the Raja of Luckimpur.
Tavernier set out at once for Franca
In the year 1643 tie King of many foV
Tries, Louis XTV.. fenown. as the "Grand
Monarqne, ruled France.-His was a retgn
of fiokle loves and extravagance. The two
hobbies of the Grand Monatque were beau
tiful women and beautiful gems.
- Tavernier spread before the King twen
tyjflve gems of great beauty, rubies, emer
alds and uncut diamonds. Among the lat
ter 'was one of great size and wonderful
color a pale, opalescent blue, as delicate
in its shimmering tint as the frothiest
tloud on a Summer's afternoon. This was
the "blue crystal which had rested in the
breastplate of the great Idol, Raima-Sita, In
, the temple at Burmah, as I told last Sun
day. . It weighed carats, and was
then, as now, one of the largest diamonds
la the world.
The French monarch was fascinated by
the jewels, especially the blue one, and In
sisted upon purchasing them immediately.
Louis sent 'word to Tavernier that If he
would part with them he would be given
2,500,000 francs and, "besides," a title of
nobility and be created Baron d'Aubonne.
The title appealed to Tavernier, who
was old and ready to cease his travels and
' settle down to an enjoyment of the fortune
he had gathered In his years of wandering.
He sold the gems to Louis, and thus the
"blue crystal," which afterward became
.known as the Hope Diamond, came into
the possession of the Grand Monarque.
Tavernier had possessed the diamond
but a few months, and when' he. parted
with it he seemed In a way to enjoy his
declining years in luxury and with the full
Great Britain Ktrbta
- La'dy - t'''.'M -fa K
Hope mi ,
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joy of his new title. But the "dev.ll in
the diamond did not spare him. Soon
after he transferred it to the King, Ta
vernier. discovered that his favorite son
had embarked upon : a most disastrous
series of speculations during his last ab
sence in the East The - son had gotten
into debt and had even committed many
serious indiscretions from which his father
had to save him. Tavernier was obliged
to part with not only the 2,500,000 francs '
he had received from the King for the blue
crystal and the other stones, but with all
the rest ot his immense fortune.
Broken-hearted, impoverished, but still
courageous, Tavernier, at the advanced
v ag of eighty-one, embarked Upon another
journey to the East, hoping to discover
more diamonds and rubies and thUs recoup .
a portion of his lost fortune. But the old
man never reached his destination. He
arrived safely at Moscow, where he fitted
out an expedition with which to pene
trate the then comparatively unknown, be
low the Caucasus. Leading his company,
he set forth bravely, but just outside the
city gates, he was set upon by a pack of
ferocious dogs, which came from no one
knows where. Poor Tavernier was torn
to pieces before help could reach him, and
his followers, attacked In turn by the dogs,
fled in a panic, leaving the old man's body
where it had fallen. Thus Tavernier paid
for having taken the blue crystal from its
resting place in the Buddhist temple, and
from his time to mine the history of the
Hope Diamond is a continuous story of
- ruined lives and wrecked ambitions.
. Let me now return to the broken nar
rative of my own childhood.
During my girlhood student days In
Dresden, Germany, I was regarded as a
wild, untamed American tomboy.- When I
i "finished" my schooling In Dresden my
mother sent me to Mme. Broniers School
In the Rue de:Passy, Paris. After two
terms there I had completed my education
and sailed home to my mother.
Mother wanted me to be a fashionable
governess to teach the piano and French
and German. -1 did not Intend that this
should be my career, although I appar
ently ' submitted to mother's wishes. I
was determined to go on the stage, though
I didn't know how. and at last destiny in
tervened in my favor.
Quite unexpectedly I was asked to sing
a solo in church, and consented. I was
astonished at the effect my singing had
ti turum ..I.., ... ... ' ' V's-f- 1
turned and looked at me as I sang, and it
set me thinking that if the public would
stare like that in a church they would pay
to hear me sing on the stage.
My stage aspirations I nursed in secret
until ona day Mrs. John Drew, then one of
the most celebrated of actresses, came ts
our house to order some new gowns from
mother. While she waited in the drawing
room until mother disposed of another call
er I gathered courage to "speak to her. 1
told her I wanted to go on the stage, that
X wanted to sing, and that Iwas sure I
would succeed if only I could get a chance.
Mrs. Drew was very kind and much in
terested. I went to the piano and, playing
popular songs of the day. Mrs. Drew told
-me sucto songs as that would never do if 1
were to obtain serious consideration of my
voice. She told me to learn something bet
ter; a dramatic poem, which would also
display my interpretative ability, and then
come to her again.
I was quick at study and very impatient
I soon had a new "piece" by heart, an1
time In her own hotel suite.
. When I had finished she said, "Quite nice,
child." Then, putting her hand on my
shoulder, she remarked: "If you work hard,
I, don't eee why you shouldn't win on the
stage: but . remember, it is - work.
work I If you're afraid of hard labor, keep
away from the footlights." r I told her I
was willing to work, and aho t?e me lev
ters of Introduction to two big New York
theatrical managers Mr. : Augustln Daly
end Mr. A. M. Palmer.
Armed with these letters, mother and I
feOTit ntf tit NfiV Tnrlr frmn nnr fenm .
Philadelphia, r
My gracious! IH never as long as 1
live forget my first trial. I had to recite
to Mr. Palmer in his theatre. The place
was empty, -except that mother and Mr.
Palmer were in the gallery. The theatre
was cold and dreary, for It was a Win
ter evening; everything looket dim, miser
able and uncanny to me. There was no
scenery, no big audience, no music, no
lights; the place smelt very badly of stale
cigars, apd I felt very wretched ; my heart
was down In my boots and I was sick; but
I went- through my piece and felt I hai
failed dismally, and was astonished when
Mr. Palmer said, "Not so bad, little girlfc
not so bad! I'll engage you." .
(To be Continued Next Sunday),
is