T
PBE6I0US STONES.
Interesting Talk With a Diamond
Importer Diamond-Cutting.
"Most of the diamonds found in the
trade," said a member of one of the
largest diamond firms in this city, "come
. from the cape mines at the southern end
-of Africa. These mines number, four or
five, the largest being the Kimberley,
-covering eighteen acres. For the last
ten years they have yielded largely, many
large stones having been taken out,
though these, with the exception of the
Porter Rhodes stone, are not of propor
- tionately good quality. The Porter Rhodes
-diamond (named after its owner, an Eng
lishman) weighs about 150 carats in the
-rough, and is highly valued. It is said
' that the owner once refused an offer of
-30, 000 for the half interest in the stone.
Latterly, I understand, he has been offer
Zing it for 50,000. This is the diamond
whiqh Mrs. Mackey; of Paris, was said
'to have thought of buying last year, you
may remember. But most of the Cape
'diamonds of large size (and they get
.them as high as 300 carats) are only
worth cutting into smaller stones. The
-amount of trade there! . It Is esti
mated that each week's cargo of rough
-diamonds sent to London represents a
value of $50,000. As to other sources of
supply, India no longer enters into trade
consideration. A new mine was dis
covered last year in Brazil called Can
naireres, but its yield is small as yet.
The Brazilian diamonds. I may say here,
are usually found in the sandy beds of
livers, while the cape diamonds are dug
-out at a depth of from 300 to 500 feet.
They are usually found imbedded there
.in a kind of soft, soapy muck, called
'blue earth.' Some are almost round,
but most have eight sides. In weight
they run, in the average, from two to
ten carats, comparatively few stones
above ten carats being found. This is
in the rough, remember. Cutting re
duces them about one-half. The ten--carat
stones, thus reduced by cutting to
live, average about $750 each in value.
This carat weight that I speak of is one
peculiar to diamonds, rubies, opals and
.sapphires. It takes over seven carats to
make one pennyweight in Troy weight."
"Can you tell me something about
'diamond-cutting?" asked the reporter.
"Most of the stones sent to London
from the Cape are reshipped to Amster
dam and Antwerp, the great cutting
places. Cutting is done also in this
-country, though only within the last few
.years. I suppose there can't be over
three dozen cutters in the whole country,
jtnd of these we have one dozen, all for
eigners. On this point, it is to be noted,
however, that the demand here for fine
-cutting has about revolutionized the
style of cutting abroad. As to any prin
ciples in cutting, there is the general
rule that one-third of the stone should be
above the girdle and two-thirds below it.
This proportion .is sometimes sacrificed
in order to avoid imperfections in a stone
6uch as black spots and feathers (and
-at least one-half of the stones are more
or less imperfect). Again, the size and
shape of the stone in the rough will de
termine whether it shall have a single cut
or the full cut, or the rose cut. The
operation? You know the old saying,
about 'diamond cutting diamond?' It is
literally true with us. The workman
simply rubs one rough diamond against
the other. Polishing is necessary after
ward, and is done by holding the cut
stone down against a wheel revolving at
An extremely rapid rate. Of course, in
examining the wheel from time to time
we mst look out for flaws, or the dia
mond will be caught on some rough
point and be smashed in less than the
traditional jiffy. As to the time taken
to cut and polish, one cutter will do
work enough to keep a half dozen pol
ishers busy, and a good polisher will
polish about twenty carats a week."
"About the color of diamonds f" sug
gested the reporter.
"There is every imaginable tint, but
the principal trade colors are the stand
ard white, the bluish tint, the yellow
And the brown. The white, most valu
able, is not always the most brilliant.
The bluish tint is much sought after
now. Yellow is the most common of the
four. Apparently there is a growing
taste for fancy colors in diamonds a
dark brown, bright yellow, or canary, as
it is called, and other natural colors,
Yes, artificial coloring has been done by
the use of, aniline. A yellow stone dip
ped in this receives a bluish tint, but this
comes on by exposure to the air or bv
"use. There was great excitement about
the matter last year, you may recall, both
here and in .hurope. . I don t think it is
practised mueh now.
"Of the other colored stones," con
tinued the speaker, "rubies and pearls
Are now the most fashionable. The finest
rubies come from Ceylon and Siam
"They are more expensive than diamonds
of the same size, owing to
their scarcity. The standard color
for a ruby is pigeon-blood,
but there are very few perfect specimens.
Pearls are white, black, grav and bronze.
-A good many of the colored pearls come
from Panama. Black pearls are rare.
And after all are not jet black, but a sort
of smpky hue. The finest white pearls
come from Australia. "We have pink
pearls also. The best opals come from
liungary, but opals sell rather poorlv
now, though a trifle better in popular
' favor than a few years ago. The Em
press Eugenie in her time did much to
discourage the sale of the opal, as she
-subscribed to the superstiton that it is
the 'Mother of Sorrows.' The Central
American opal is affected by heat, so that
if it has a seam it will be likely to split,
As to the sapphire, more reasonable
prices prevail now, due to the discovery
of a new mine in Ceylon. The color of
"the stone found there is lighter than that
at Burmah, but it is more brilliant. "We
have very little call nowadays for erne
.raids. There are imitations, you know.
of sapphires and emeralds, and the
French imitate pearls also in a compos!-'
tion that almost defies detection by the
untrained eye." New York Tribune.
Largest Ranch in the World.
A Galveston (Texas) letter to the Chi
cago Inter- Ocean says : The largest ranch
in the world is that of Mr. Charles Good
night, who has 700,000 acres surrounded
by 250 miles of barbed wire fence, at the
head waters of the Red river in the Pan
handle. Mr.. Goodnight's cattle are as
finely bred as any in the State, as he has
graded them up by introducing the best
foreign breeds, and in the market these
bring fifteen to twenty per cent, more
than those from other ranches. His 700,-
000 acres of land were bought at 50 cents
and $1 an acre within the last three or
four years, but could be sold readily at
double that price to day. "When it is
considered that the State of Rhode Island
contains only 074,000 acres, it will be re
alized that Mr. Goodnight owns what the
ranchmen call "quite a spot of land."
Mr. Gooumght's experience has been
quite remarkable. He used to be a banker
at Pueblo, Col., and while there bought
a bunch of cattle a thousand or so and
gave them to his wife. It proved a very
wise investment and a wiser gift, for in
the financial depression that followed the
panic of 1873 he failed, and in 1S76 found
himself penniless, even the ranch on
which his wife's cattle were pastured
being surrendered to his creditors. After
settling his affairs his health was very
much impaired, and he drove the cattle
down into the Panhandle of Texas, where
they could find a free range and he could
rusticate a while. "While there he dis
covered what he then insisted, and other
people have since acknowledged, to be
the finest ranch in the world, and as lands
were worth next to nothing he prevailed
upon John Adair, an Irish millionaire, to
loan him the money to purchase the land
and more cattle. The result was a part
nership arrangement, by -which Adair fur
nished the funds and Goodnight had a
third interest in the property acquired.
Although It was only seven years ago
that he failed completely, Goodnight is
now worth more than a million dollars
and no money would buy him out. Adair
comes over from Ireland to visit the
ranch every year and finds, the $500,000
he loaned Goodnight has quadrupled
under the influence of Texas atmosphere.
The ranch will carry three times as many
cattle as are now pastured upon it some
60,000 and the herd is being increased
and improved in quality each year.
A New Danger to Dudes.
"Here, conductor, this young man's
fainted."
The words were uttered in a tone of
great excitement by a stout woman in a
Columbia avenue car, and as she spoke a
6lim youth who was seated beside her in
a corner of the car fell forward and
dropped in a heap upon the straw.
A doctor was hurriedly summoned, and
after a disappearance of about ten min
utes the young man and physician came
out of the room, which had' been kept
closed, arm in arm. The young man's
face was still pale, and he walked with a
very perciptible tremor. The doctor said :
" That is the fourth case this month I
have seen of the deadly effects of wearing
tight trousers, and had that young man
not been attended to promptly he might
have been in great danger."
' ' Tight trousers?" queried a bystander,
incredulously.
."Yes, 6ir; tight trousers 1 "Why, yov
cannot imagine - how often we doctor
have to treat cases of illness brought on
by no other cause. Take that young
man. for instance ; his trousers were at
least four sizes too small for him; not too
short, of course, but too tight, and for
hours and hours he had been walking
about with a pressure of at least 275
pounds to the square inch on his olexii
vivisectori arteries, which are situated in
the calves of the human leg. This tre
mendous pressure forces the blood into
channels not able to carry it without
undue straining, and although the vic
tim feels no pain, he is liable at any mo
ment to topple over in a swoon, and un
less relief is promptly given a long and
serious illness is likely to follow.. It is a
similar trouble to that experienced when
it was the fashion for ladies to wear very
tight sleeves, except that in the case of
tight trousers the material is heavier, the
arteries larger, and the result apt to be
more dangerous and difficult to relieve.
Philadelphia Record.
The Michigan Pineries.
"When a forest fire occurs in the
pineries of Michigan," said a lumber
operator from that State, "the pine trees
on the burned tracts must be cut within
a year if the owner wants to get
marketable lumber out of them. The
heat of a spent forest fire is not yet out
of the air before millions upon millions
of large, brownish-white moths appear.
One hour there may not be a moth any
where about ; the next hour the air will
be filled with them. They lay the egg
that produces a worm that bores into the
pine trees, honeycombing them with tun
nels that ruin them in a few weeks. I
have seen these millers covering an area
of 10,000 acres of burned woods.
"When the war broke out forest land
could be bought in Michigan for less
than $2 an acre. I purchased 5, 000 acres
in 1860 for $9,000. Last month I sold
the tract for $250,000. I think the big
gest pine tree in Michigan is on that
property. It is eleven feet through at
the butt, and must be 150 feet high. A
New York man once offered me $100 for
fifteen feet of the trunk from the ground
up. He wanted to exhibit it at the Cen
tennial exhibition in Philadelphia. I re
fused the.offer. Michigan now produces
one-quarter of the pine used in the coun
try. Over $160,000,000 a year is re
ceived by the operators for the product
of her forests. In ten years from now,
however, there will be very little, if any,
pine left in the State." New York Sun.
WORDS OF WISDOM.
To enjoy a good thing exclusively is
very often to exclude yourself from the
true enjoyment of it. ' .
Friendship is the only thing in the
world concerning the usefulness of which
all mankind are agreed.
We must, if we are wise, make some
calculations in our life, and say what we
shall keep for the future.
Mark this well, ye proud man of action I
Ye are, alter all, nothing but unconscious
instruments of the men of thought.
Coolness, and absence of heat and
naste, indicate fine qualities. A gentle
man makes no noise ; a lady is serene.
A wound from a tongue is worse than
a wound from a sword, for the latter af
fects only the body, the former the spirit
the soul.
Exploding many things under the
name of trifles is a very false proof either
of wisdom or magnanimity, and a great
check to virtuous actions with regard to
fame. v
We should manage our fortune as we
do pur health enjoy it when good,, be
patient when it is bad, and never apply
violent remedies except in an extreme
necessity.
The most censorious are generally the
least judicious, wTho, having nothing to
recommend themselves, will be finding
fault with others. No man envies the
merit of another who has enough of his
own.
There is no virtue that adds so noble a
charm to the finest traits of beauty as
that which exerts itself in watching over
the tranquility of an aged parent. There
are no tears that give so rich and sweet a
luster to the cheek of innocence as the
tears of filial sorrow.
Civilized Indians.
There are wide differences among the
Indians of the present. There are first
the so-called civilized Indians. These
are found in fragments scattered through
the older States. Such are the Oneidas,
of New York, and the Miamis, of Indiana.
To these, too, belong the copper-faced
individuals whom the summer tourists
find selling beads at Niagara Falls, or
dwelling in shanties at Petoskey, Mich.,
and along the shores of the lovely
Mackinac Island. Among all the civil
ized Indians, however, those of Indian
Territory are pre-eminent. There the
Creeks, Cherokees and other tribes have
dwelt for half a century under the direct
protection of the government from which
they draw abundant pensions.
Many of them are men of wealth and
intelligence. They live in a style supe
rior to that of the white -settlers by
whom they are surrounded. They are
dressed in fashionable clothing, and un
derstand, not merely the comforts, but
the luxuries of civilized life. Their sons
are sent East to be educated in the lead
ing colleges, and their daughters some
times show the results of the young ladies
finishing schools. A lady from Fort Scott
told the writer of a public banquet and
ball tendered by the citizens of the place
to an excursion of leading Creeks from
the Territory. The visitors wore full
dress, and danced with an ease and ele
gance which the young men of Fort
Scott hardly rivaled. They were cour
teous and accomplished, polished in
manners and easy in conversation. Their
dark skins and black hair and eyes gave
them the appearance of distinguished
foreigners, an illusion materially assisted
by their accent. Of the 40,000 Indian
children now living in this country, over
10,000 are being educated in government
schools.
Next to the civilized Indians come the
semi-civilized. Unlike the former, these
have not arrived at their present condi
tion through intercourse with the whites.
The Pueblos of New Mexico have con
siderable knowledge of the .mechanical
arts. They build houses, constructed
irrigating canals, dug cisterns, planted
trees, raised crops of grain, vegetables
and fruit, made pottery, wove cloth and
blankets long before the white invaders
began to trouble them.
Next to the Pueblos rank the Nava
jocs, followed at a still greater distance
by certain bands of Apaches, whose
home is in the mountains. Indeed, we
have already passed the line of semi
civilization, and find ourselves among the
genuine wild Indians, to whom belong
four-fifths of all living red men. Some
of these we have already met. There are
the Ojibwas in the North, around Lake
Superior, the Sioux, Arrapahoes and
Cheyennes, known generally as the
"Plains Indians;" the Commaches and
Kiowas of Texas, and the Digger Indians
of California and the Western coasts.
The latter are lowest of all the tribes.
The name is given promiscuously to the
Utes, Shoshones, and others who live on
snakes, lizards, grasshoppers, and such
roots as they candig, for -which purpose
the poor wretches carry sharpened
sticks.
The Finger Nails.
Most persons are familar with these
troublesome bits of skin which loosen at
the root of the finger nails ; it is caused
by their adhering to the skin along with
it, stretching it until one end gives away.
To prevent this, the skin should be
loosened from the nails once a week, not
with a knife or scissors, but with some
thing blunt, such as the end of an ivory
paper cutter. Thi3 is best done after
soaking the fingers in warm water, then
pushing the skin back gently and slowly.
The white specks on thcnails are made
by scraping the nail with a knife at a
point where it emerges from the skin.
The temperance reformer Booth has
persuaded 700,000 persons to sign the
pledge in Great Britain.
The revised version of the Old Testa
ment will be issued complete in September.
Notes On Home FIower-GrowIng,
Pot primroses do weli in shady win
dows. In sowing seeds cover to twice their
diameters. Pot plants bestow grace on
the plainest apartments.
Plants of the German or parlor ivy
sometimes flower freely. '
The orchid epidendum cilare smells
precisely like roasted apples.
Camellias should have their foliage
sprinkled or moistened daily.
Every flower looks the best when graced
by a setting of its own foliage.
In repotting plants, take care that they
stand no deeperln the new pot than.be
fore. Sow mignonette where the plants are
wanted, for transplanting them seldom
succeeds well.
The begonia welteminsis is one of the
easiest grown and freest flowering varie
ties of these excellent pot-plants for sum
mer decoration :
Sweet peas and morning-glories maybe
sown very early in the garden; the flowers
are the finer for having the roots form in
cool weather.
Water heated to one hundred and thirty
degrees is one of the best remedies for
plant-insects of all kinds. Submerge the
plants completely several times, a few
seconds at a time.
The sooner dahlias, richardia, caladium
and canna-roots, that have been kept
over winter, are started into growth, the
longer the summer show of these flowers.
Cinerarias, although they will not bear
the slightest degree of frost without
harm, are impatient of heat. About fifty
degrees is the best for them.
Good taste is against the mixture of
many different flowers in arranging
bouquets. A few kinds, and then differ
ent colors of these, produces the most
pleasing results.
Wild violets of the different colors,
blue, yellow and white, and the trilliums
or wake-robins, taken from open woods,
thrive in cultivation if planted in partly
shaded places.
Temperance and flower-gardening
easily go hand in hand. The experience
of those who build cottages to let, has
proved that the addition of a garden-plat
effects a most beneficial influence on the
social, moral and religious life of those
who occupy them.
If an increase of the hydrangea stock
is wanted, propagation may take place
within the next few weeks. Slips may
be made of young healthy shoots, having
half-a-dozen leaves, by removing the two
lower ones wholly, and one-half of each
of the next two.
A beautiful Jerusalem cheery-tree
(Solanum capsicastrum of the seed-catalogues),
loaded with red fruit, can be
grown by any child, for decorating the
window next winter. Procure a packet
of seeds and start them in a pot of light
earth. They germinate quickly, and in
a few weeks from the time of sowing, the
seedlings will be fit to pick
out into individual pots, as many as
you care to have plants of. About
June first set these out in the garden.
Let them grow there until September, by
which time they will be full of green
fruit, and then lift and pot them in six
inch pots, bringing them into the house
as soon after as frosts threaten.
House-plants thrive better in' the
kitchen than in any other rooms of the
house, because of the moist atmosphere
that prevails here, as a result of the
steam escaping from the stove or range
utensils. In greenhouses similar but
improved conditions exist also, which
accounts for the comparative ease found
in growing plants in these structures.
These facts point to the importance of
supplying some moisture to the atmos
phere wherever there are plants, if we
would have fine specimens. Watering as
freely as is admissible for their health,
sponging the leaves all over occasionally,
and sitting some vessels of water among
them, are some of the easy ways of ac
complishing this. A sufficiency of
moisture to suit the plants will be not in
the least injurious to the health of per
sons. The old and generally successful way
of rooting oleander and other slips of
hard wooded plants, by placing the ir
lower ends in a bottle of water, sus
pended in a light place, finds an improve
ment of much wider usefulness in the
saucer-plan of propagation. In this
system, any low vessel is filled nearly
full of sand, into which slips of every
kind of plants may be set, closely to
gether, for rooting Enough water is
then kept constantly in the saucer to
give the sand the consistency of mud,
and it is then given a light and warm
place. By this simple means any one
can root cuttings of all kinds quickly,
and almost without any loss. Youthf
Companion.
Ottoman Poetry.
One rule of Oriental poetry is that in
some poems "whatsoever word begins a
verse, the same word or a part thereof,
written reversely must terminate the
same verse." In an old copy of the Dub
lin University Magazine a specimen of this
kind of rhyming appears.
AJVICE.
Traverse not the globe for love ! the sternest
But the surest teacher is the heart.
Studying that and that alone, thou learnest
Best and soonest whence and what thou art
Time, not travel, tis which gives us ready
Speech, experience, prudence, test and wit.
Far more Light, the lamp that bideth steady,
Than the wandering lantern doth emit.
Moor, Chinese, Egyptian, Russian, Roman,
Tread one common downhill path of doom;
Everywhere the names are Man and Woman,
Everywhere the old sad sins find room.
Evil angels tempt us in all places,
What but sands or snows hath earth to give'!
Dream not, friend, of deserts and oases,
But look inward and begin to live
STRANGLED.
There Is a legend in some Spanish book
' About a noisy reveller who, at night,
Returning home with others, saw a light
Shine from a window, and climbed up to look
And saw within the room, hanged to a hook.
His own self -strangled self, grim, rigid
white, And who, struck sober by that livid sight,.
Feasting his eyes, in tongue-tied horror shook.
Has any man a fancy to peep in
And see, as through a window, in the Past,
His nobler self, self -choked with coils of sin,
Or sloth or folly t Round the throat whip
ped fast
The nooses give the face a stiffened grin,
Tis but thyself. Look welL Why be
aghast !
E. Lee Hamilton, in Academy.
PUNGENT PARAGRAPIISL
Sure to follow suit Costs
For rent A needle and thread.
The pleasures of pain The remunera
tion a dentist receives for his work.
Never kick a man when he is down.
It is cowardly. Never kick a man when
he is up. It is reckless.
The young lady from Vassar does not
speak of a clammy sweat, but of a bival
ular transpiration. Puck.
Little Jack "My mamma's new fan
is hand-painted." Little Dick" Pooh!
who cares. Our whole fence is."
Philadelphia Call. ,
"Kiss Me as I Fall Asleep," is the title
of a new song. It might work all right
with some men, but it would wake us
right up. Iliwkeye.
Heels over head : "I drop into poetrr
I occasionally," as the office boy remarked.
when he tumbled into the -waste basket.
Bcston Transcript.
This is the latest riddle : Whv docs
Mr. Gladstone advise the making of jam? -Because
there are so many "jars" in hi?
r 7 tt...j7.
IN A MEAT SHOP.
"Oh, take back the heart," the young woman
cried; '
"Oh, take back the heart," I pray you, she
said;
"Of course I will take it," the butcher replied,
"And send you a pound of fresh liver instead.'
Somerville Journal.
"No," said the schoolboy, "there hasn't
one of us boys been licked this term. Wo
kind of stood in on the matter, you 6ee,
and always calculate to have two or three:
mice round our desk somewhere, and the
minute the school-ma'am goes to lick a
fellow somebody lets one of them mice
loose, and then she gets up on her desk
and gathers up her skirts and squeals, and
by the time the mouse is killed and thing
is quieted down, the boy she was going
to lick has become a hero, protecting her
from the furious beast, and she hasn't the
heart to lay a hand on him." Boston
Post.
"PEANUTS has biz."
There's trouble in the circus,
The menagerie's in a row,
The camel's got his back up,
Sad is the sacred cow.
The elephant's in mourning,
Worn is the monkey's phiz,
For the fact is very certain
That "peanuts has riz."
The country maid is weeping,
The city bell in pain,
The little lads and lasses
' Sigh out their hearts in vein,
Neither the tariff question,
Nor yet the Mormon biz,
Can obviate the statement
That ' 'peanuts has riz. "
Boston Star.
The Cuius of Baalbec
Dr. H. M. Field, says in the Evangelist r
Everything is colossal. The area is
larger than that of the temple, at Jerusa
lem. We may begin with the walls,,
which are half a mile around, and of such
height and depth as are rarely attained
in the most tremendous fortress. When
from within I climbed to the top, it
made me giddy to look over the perilous
edge to the depth below; and when from
without the walls, I looked up at them,
they rose high in air. Some of the stones
seem as if they must have be n reared in
place, not by Titans, but by tho gcds.
There are nine stones thirty feet long and
ten feet thick, which is larger than the
foundation-stones of the temple at Jeru
salem, dating from the time of Solomon,
or any blocks in the great pyramid.
But even these are pigmies compared
with the three giants of the western wall
sixty-two, sixty-three and one-half and
sixty-four feet long.
These are said to be the largest stone
ever used in any construction. They
weigh hundreds of tons, and instead of
being merely hewn out of a quarry, which
might have been on the site, and left to
lie where they were before, they have
been lifted nineteen feet from the ground,
and there imbedded in the wall I Never
was there such Cyclopean architec
ture. How such enormous masses could
be moved is a problem with modern en
gineers. Sir Charles Wilson, whom I
met in Jerusalem, is at this moment in
Baalbec. Standing in the grounds of
the temple, he tells me that in the Brit
ish museum there is an ancient tablet
which reveals the way in which such
stones were moved. The mechanics were
very simple. Rollers were put under
them, and they were drawn up inclined
planes by sheer human muscle tho
united strength of great numbers of men.
In the rude design on the tablet tho
whole scene is pictured to the eye. There
are battalions of men, hundreds to a
single roller, with the taskmasters stand
ing over them, lash in hand, which was.
freely applied to make them pull to
gether, and the king sitting on high to
give the signal for this putting forth of
human strength en masse, as if an array
were moving to battle. A battle it was
in the waste of human life which ii
caused. These temples oi Baalbec must
have been a whole generation in builds
ing, and have consumed the population,
of a province and the, wealth of an eav