Bmore atc Bellefonte, Pa., November 20, 1908. eee Checkered Career of the Brilliant Stone After the Death of Charles the Timid. Some Facts About the Invention of Diamond Cutting. Louis de Berquem, says tradition, was a poor jeweler's workman, but he fell in love with the daughter of a weelthy jeweler. This avaricious fa- ther would not give his daughter in marriage to any man not possessed of gold. Louis, having neither “expecta- tions” from relatives nor favor at court, sought to make his fortune. He had often heard the father of his be- loved remark that the man who discov- ered a method of cutting diamonds would become very wealthy, for up to that time they knew nothing more than to scrape off the gravel," and the diamond was left in its native state. Nelher lime, fire nor the mill could af- fect the diamond. After many investigations and deep thought Louis bethought himself that fron is fashioned with steel, which is only hardened Iron, and it occurred to him that perhaps the diamond would yield to the diamond. He made an experiment, which was at once crown- ed with success. A few days later he presented him- self before the rich jeweler with two diamonds cut into facets. He obtained the hand he sought and amassed a great fortune by his secret, which he divulged only after he had become wealthy. King Charles the Timid was the principal customer of Louis de Ber- quem. The fastidious enemy of Louis XI. then possessed a large diamond, since become celebrated, accounted among the finest of precious stones. But this diamond was ill shapen, and the fires which it held burned in vain. Louis de Berquem cut and polished this stone, and nothing could equal the joy of Charles the Timid when the jeweler brought him the great dla- mond, so glittering with light that it lit up the darkness, and this to such an extent that the prince said, “It will serve me as a night lamp.” Berquem received 3,000 ducats for his work. As for the diamond, this is the one which was found in January, 1477, on the body of Charles the Timid after the battle of Nancy. A soldier picked it up, sold it for one gold plece to a priest, who In turn sold it for three pleces of gold to a merchant, who took it to the Duke of Flcrence. From the hands of this prince fit passed into the possession of the king of Portugal. He sold it for 70.000 francs to one of the companions of Henri III, Nicholas de Harlay, baron «of Sancy. Since this time the first Jarge diamond to be cut is known as “the Sancy.” This legend leads to other considera- tions of the cutting of diamonds as- eribed to Louis de Berquem at Brus- sels in 1460. Hardly any one will assert boldly that no diamonds were cut before that date, but it is reasonable to suppose that Louis de Berquem regulated cut- ting by arranging the facets. Long before the birth of Louis de Berquem cutting was known in India. Even in Europe we find among the treasures of the churches thick dia. monds cut into table and culet, the upper sides beaten into sections. In 1360, according to the inventory of the jewels of Louis, duke of Anjou, is found an entire series of cut diamonds. There is mention of a flat diamond with six sides, of a heart shaped dia: mond, of a diamond with eight sides. of a lozenge shaped dlamond, of a dia- mond pointed on four sides and of 2 reliquary in which was set a diamond cut in the shape of a shield. History informs us that 150 years before the first work of Louls de Ber: quem there were at Paris, at the cor- ner of the Corroyerie, several diamond cutters. The Duke of Burgundy, after a fas- tidious repast given at the Louvre to the king and the French court in 1403. offered to his noble guests eleven dia- monds estimated to be worth 786 pleces of gold, the money of the pe riod. It is hardly possible to suppose that these were uncut diamonds; all of which goes to prove, notwithstanding some opinions, that Louis de Berquem did not invent the process of diamond cutting. It is no less interesting to follow the* fortunes of the Sancy a little further. It remained in the Sancy family some time, and Henri III. took it from them. It was destined to serve as a pledge for the raising of a body of Swiss soldiers, but the servant intrust- ed with bringing this diamond to the king was attacked, put to death, and the diamond was thought to be lost Finally it was discovered that the servant had been assassinated in the forest of Dole and through the care of the priest had been buried in the village cemetery. Then the Baron de Sancy resolved that the diamond must uot be lost. In fact, they found it in the stomach of the hapless, faithful servant, who swallowed It at the mo- ment that he fell. According to the inventory of 1791 the Sancy weighed 33% carats. It disappeared in 1792 to reappear io Russia, Tis value Is estimated at ¢ million francs. Before the revolution '* was among the French crown jew sls.—New York World. Never bear more than one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds—all they have had, all they DYNAMITE IN THE MAKING. Workmen Who Are Encircled by Death in Gallons and Tons. So thoroughly deceptive is dynamite in the making that you are apt to be disappointed on viewing the surface of things. You could more readily fancy thunderbolts leaping and crash. ing from tender blue skies than that the most fearful forces in creation are hidden under such a peaceful exterior. Nitroglycerin, a cupfui of which wouid distribute you over square miles of landscape, is diligently mixing around you in hundreds and thousands of gal- lons. It is making itself in big iron retorts, cascading down leaden gutters and merrily tumbling in minute Niagaras into immense vats, where the deli- quescent yellow peril pursues its jour- ney powderward. Out of one recep- tacle it fares furiously through special lead coils, driven only by cooling blasts of air, and is drawn off like draft ale and piped on to the next perfecting stage. Gaze with the nitroglycerin ex- pert into one of those big caldrons. The interior is brilliantly illuminated by electricity, the only illuminating agency permitted In or about the dan- ger houses. Around you are other houses at uni- form distances apart and connected by a series of narrow gauge tracks wherein workmen are railroading ni- troglycerin from here and pulp cotton from there to be compounded into dy- namite and blasting gelatin. Greates: care is taken in rolling the product from house to house. As soon as a loaded cart is ready to pass out of the nitroglycerin house, for instance, a semaphore signals from an adjoining station, to which the consignment is carefully hurried. Around you are long storehouses packed with pulp in tons of innccent whiteness. Presently this pulp will as- sume a tan color under the nitrating process, and then, suddenly becoming carbonite, red cross, hercules, judson and giant powder, forcite or what you order, it develops the quasi virtues of dynamite—dynamite or blasting gela- tin in which more natural forces are condensed to the cubic inch than exist anywhere else in creation. Death, curbed and sleeping, encircles you in gallons and tons. Annihilation threat. ens at every turn in the form of poten tial pulverizing forces. But the man and the mercury are there also, alert, responsive, reliable.—Leslle's Weekly. LIBRARY SLOW POKES. Time Killing Methods of Officials In Continental Europe. “Americans who grumble about hav- ing to wait a long time for books when applying to a public library,” said a Boston literary woman, “should try to work or study in a foreign library, par- ticularly in Germany. “The typical contizental librarian takes no account of time. The reader, worker or student must turn in his or her application for books at least a day in advance. The men who search for the books applied for are aged, totter ing creatures who have been shuffling around the dusty piles of books for years, and the word hurry is not in their vocabulary. “The most priceless books and man- uscripts are kept in places which are perfect fire traps, and disorder pre- dominates in every department. When you speak about the impossible meth. ods employed the librarians tell you that they are too poor to introduce any modern indexes or catalogues. This is to some extent so, but as a matter of fact they would not change if they had all the money in the world at their disposal. " “They do not wish 16 encourage the common people to use books. The learned are among the aristocracy, and the spread of the knowledge which is hidden in those wonderful literary mu- seums is far from the purpose of the men at the head of Europe's libraries. “There may be some delay in our li braries, but our people in the lower walks of life are certainly ahead of the common people of the old world In the matter of getting books when they want them, and generally free of charge.”—New York Telegram. The Town to Be Born In. In the German town of Klingenberg. near Aschaffenberg, Bavaria, in addi tion to haviag no rates to pay for the upkeep of the town, those actually born in the parish receive from the municipality a sum of £12 15s. a year. This sum, if invested regularly at, say, 3 per cent, would entitle the owner to receive about £1,500 at the age of sixty —a very handsome old age pension. Were it not necessary that the inhab- itants should prove birth in the parish before becoming entitled to this pay- ment the popularity of Klingenberg as a place of residence would doubtless be enormous.—Westminster Gazette. For Bargain Day. “She's no lady!” “Why, I always thought her most re: fined.“ “On the surface, yes. But what do you think of a woman who wears her little boy's football shoes to the bar- gain sales and spikes every one who gets In her way?'—Cincinnati En quirer. After Him. “It's hard to lose your friends,” re- marked the man who was down and out, “Hard 7?" snorted the man who was on the high tide of prosperity. “It's {mpossible.”"—Philadelphia Record. The Prompter. “1 suppose that inspiration prompts many of your jokes.” “A few,” admitted the press humor fst. “Desperation, however, prompts have now and all they expect to have. the most.”--Loulsville Courier-Journal. IT HAS A STORMY HISTURY. This Picturesque Burial Place Has Served as a Battleground as well as a Graveyard—Its Monuments, Lovers and Disconsolate Widows. Pere Lachaise is the largest and quite the most interesting of the Paris cemeteries and named after the Jesuit confessor of Louis XIV. whose coun- try seat occupied the site of the present chapel until the ground was made a cemetery in 1804. It covers 110 acres of ground, is picturesque, but quite un- lovely. Hare wrote about the tombs that “weight was their chief peculiar- ity and that all the monuments looked as if each family had tried to pile as much marble as possible on to their deceased relatives.” Pere Lachaise has a stormy history. In 1814 the Russians fought the French there and gave them a beating. Dur- ing the commune the Versaillais and Communards fought several pitched battles among the tombstones and did considerable damage. But it is not so much with the history of the ceme- tery as with the people buried in it that we have to deal. A volume might be filled with the mere list of all the celebrated men and women buried in it, for, as Victor Hugo wrote, “being buried in Pere Lachaise is like having mahogany furniture—a sign of ele- gance.” In Pere Lachaise the monument which attracts most visitors is that of Abelard and Heloise, the two most fa- mous lovers in the world. The monu- ment was first erected 637 years after their death and brought to Pere La- chaise in 1817 from the museum where it had been during the revolution. An- other famous lover, Alfred de Musset, lies buried not far from the two wil- lows over the graves of Heloise and Abelard. David, the painter; Rachel, the actress; Balzac, Scribe, Michelet and many other well known folk lie near at hand. Admiral Sir Sydney Smith, Lord Seymour and other well known Englishmen are to be found in other portions of the cemetery, while literature is represented not only by great authors, but by Lesurques, the victim of Dubosc in the famous legal Lyons Mail imbroglio. But Pere Lachaise has more romance than in its tombstones. Chatting one day with one of the old soldiers who are the keepers of this grim park, I learned some curious facts about it. “We never have a dull moment,” the man said. “You may think that our time here is monotonous, but you are quite wrong if you do so. To begin with, there are the burglars. The cemetery is overrun with them. There are three kinds of burglars. There are the connoisseurs who often get away with valuable prizes, for you will be surprised at the works of art of small size which people put in their chapels. The window is broken, a ‘gtick slipped through the hole, and all sorts of things worth having are fished out; then the bronze stealers, who take away as much as they can carry in their special pockets and make from 15 to 20 francs a day at the game until we catch them, “A little while ago a bust weighing forty pounds was taken out of the cemetery over one of the walls. But the most curious form of robbery is, perhaps, that of the peari wreaths. Women are the principal offenders. They select the new ones, which are not weather stained, flatten them with their backs against the tombstone, slip them under their dresses, and when they have got away with them (we have no right to search even .sus- picious looking customers) sell them to dealers, to whom they tell the well worn story of a poor workwoman who has need of food. “You would hardly believe it, but Pere Lachaise,” said the keeper, “is a favorite meeting place for lovers. We get lovers of all ages, and perhaps more schoolboys and schoolgirls than anything else. But the three most curious things we see here in the ceme- tery are the forlorn widows, the letter boxes and the cafe.” “The cafe?’ I asked. “Yes. There are hundreds of people in Paris who refuse to believe that thelr dead do not enjoy after death the good things they used to like when they were alive. Mothers bring apples and sweets and leave them on the tombstones of their children. Peo- ple bring wine and glasses, and there is one old gentleman who leaves a potato salad on his son's tombstone regularly every Sunday. Of course the children soon find out these things, and we have never been able. to con- vince the people who bring them of the absurdity of doing so. It is a very harmless superstition, after all.” “And the letter boxes?’ 1 asked. “Lovers' letter boxes?" sald the guard- fan, “There are dozens of them in all parts of Pere Lachaise. Sometimes they are holes in the trunks of trees; sometimes they are little hollows un- der stones. “I'he inconsolable widow is a fre quent visitor. She is a pretty woman, and black suits her. She kneels down by a tombstone, rarely the same one, and when a likely looking mourner of the other sex appears bursts into tears. He consoles her pretty soon, and the two leave the cemetery arm in arm. One of these widows Invited me to her wedding six months ago, and iast month I was called to give evidence about her meetings with her victim, for she had seven other husbands liv. ing."—8t. James’ Gazette. The Whale's Blow. Porpoise—What Is the whale blowing about? Dogfish—Oh, he got so many notices for his feat In swallowing Jo nah he's been blowing ever since.—Fx change. Progress Is the real cure for an over. estimate of ourselves.—Macdonald. THE STORAGE WAREHOUSE. it Sheds Some Side Lights Upon Life and Morals. For a few dazzling side lights upon life and morals apply to the storage warehouse. You can find almost any- thing there from baby alligators to blocks of ice cream and from Teddy bears to sauerkraut. So you won't be amazed at what the institution has most recently divulged. Here you have the story: Mrs. Q. repaired to the storage ware- house to extract her soup spoons, though it may have been aunts or un- cles or popcorn or guinea pigs. At any rate, her property declined to come out. It had been tucked in by Mr. Q. Only Mr. Q. might tempt it forth. Mrs, Q. protested. She wanted her catnip or theology or safety razor, or whatever it was, and made representations with great emphasis. She moved upon the management. She stormed and wept. After long wrangling the warehouse decided it would yield up the college fce—or was It the piano?—if Mrs. Q. would swear she was still married to Mr. Q. and would send him a written statement (he was in Quebec, and 1 lost track of him owing to bewilder- ment produced by merely thinking of a storage warehouse) and make him re- turn the statement, countersigned, to the management. This, then, is how Mrs. G. regained possession of her golf links or prayer book or sugar tongs. Well, say it was sugar tongs, though golf links would be likeller, Pressed for an explanation, the ware- house remarked: “Have to be careful, you know-—divorces, separations, af- finities, you know. Minute such things start up there's a race to the storage place. Game is for each to snatch out everything first. Becomes embarrass- ing!" —Boston Transcript. MIXED THE SIGNS. Sarasate and the Sandwich Men In Edinburgh. To advertise Sarasate’s performances in Edinburgh eight sandwich men were sent out, each of whom bore in front and behind him one letter of the great musician's name. They started all right, but after a time removed the boards from their shoulders to have a rest. On resuming their labors each man shouldered the board nearest him and fell in behind the man who had for- merly marched before him. When the leader, who bore the initial “8,” turned around to see if his men were ready, what he saw was “Sata- resa.” He knew enough to realize that something was wrong, but how to right it was more than he could tell. After changing a man here and there he got it “Starasea.” But still it didn’t seem correct. By this time the poor fellow was in a terrible state. If any of their em- ployers' people were on the outlook and could see them, their day's wage would be stopped! He tried again and yet again, but it was no use. And a moment later a man bearing the letter “8S” before and behind was seen running toward the music hall to copy down the name from one of the posters there. And along the right side of Princeton street there walked toward the appointed rendezvous at the Mound three men who bore the strange device “A A E,” while opposite them there paced along the left side gutter four others, who, if to advertise means to attract attention, succeeded’ wel], for every one who passed looked around in wondering amazement as to what “Rats” meant.—Edinburgh Dis- patch. Too Much For the Ferret. An old buck rabbit is not to be light- ly tackled by weasel, stoat or even ferret. On the sanded floor of a small public house a ferret of long experi ence was matched with an old lop eared buck, the property of the land- lord. The ferret made straight for the rabbit's throat, but the latter was in the air before master ferret could reach him and, leaping clean over the ferret’s head, let out with those power- ful hind legs of his a kick which hurled the ferret bodily against the wainscot. Twice the ferret returned to the attack, and twice he missed his grip and went hurtling through the air. The third repulse was enough for him. He knew he was beaten and could not be persuaded to stand up for a fourth round.—Pearson's Weekly. Brilliant Fish Hues. Like birds, many fishes assume their brightest hue when they wish to at- tract the opposite sex of their species. The colors of the male common pike become exceedingly intense, brilliant and iridescent in the breeding season. The eel also puts on an intense silvery hue at the breeding time which is very noticeable and at one time caused nat- uralists to distinguish it as a distinct species. The males of the tench, roach and perch also show a marked inerease in brilliancy in the breeding season. Mental Arithmetic. “Two years ago I asked Aunt Jane to visit us for a fortnight, and she has not gone home yet.” “It's a blessing.” “What's a blessing?” “That you didn’t invite her for a month.”"—Harper's Weekly. Uncovered. Horace—I can't understand you girls. Now, you hate Mabel, and yet you just kissed her, Hetty—I know, but just see how the freckles show where I kissed the powder off.—London Tatler, Domestic Politics. “Whom did you support during the last campaign?” “A wife, two children and a mothep. in-law and kept up my life insarance at the same time."—Puck. Lyon & Co. Lyon & Co. Lyon &. Company. WE HAVE BEGUN A GREAT REDUCTION SALE OF COAT SUITS FOR LADIES and Winter Coats for Ladies’, Misses, and Chil- dren. The continued warm weather drives us in- to this early sale. The comments on our Coats and Suits have been that we are selling the finest Suits and Coats in the town this season. 00 A handsome Herringbone Weave Coat Suit, the new browns and blue, also black, all made in the new long Coats, new sleeves handsomely lined and well made. This Suit we sold for $20.00, reduced price $17.00. A better quality in the new stripe handsome Suitings in the new blue, green and black, new cut skirt and new style coat and new sleeves, the best quality in workmanship, a fine suit at $28.00, reduced price $22.00. All our Coats for Ladies’ in black kersey and black Broadcloth handsomely lined and well made, ranging in price, 10, 12, $15, now sell at 7, ¢ and fz. Misses and Childrens Coats at a big reduction. All onr Dress Goods in broadcloths must be sold at a big reduction, A handsome Chiffon broadcloth in the new colors and black that sold at $2.00 now $1.50. A cheaper quality of Chiffon broadcloth, black and new colors that sold at $2, now $1.50. A cheap- er quality of Chiffon broadcloth, black and new colors that sold for $1.35 now gr.co. All other new dress weaves of this seasons styles at reduced prices. Give usa call if you want these fine goods at the reduced prices. Our Furs are all of this seasons. A handsome line of new furs just in, see them and get our re. duced prices. LYON & COMPANY, 47-12 Allegheny St., Bellefonte, Pa. Bellefonte Shoe Emporium. EE $1.98 ‘Men's First Quality Snag Proof Rolled Soled Laced Lumberman Gums $1.98 a Pair Every pair guaranteed to give satisfaction. YEAGER’S SHOE STORE, successor to Yeager & Davis. Bush Arcade Building, BELLEFONTE, PA.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers