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HOW IT BEGAN.
Gems in their appeal are like the stars. They enchant the eye,
they stir the imagination. Then, as with cats and clocks, they are
"company."
A valuable stone is the one thing that endures. Lace is soon
a rag, velvet impossible, flowers dead; but a jewel, if treated kindly,
lives forever. It is indeed almost as indestructible as truth or a
mighty love.
The very word evokes a picture. Is there a richer syllable
than "gem"? With the jeweler it means the finest of its kind.
But the scholars say a gem, whether of emerald or quartz, is not
a gem unless engraved.
Other times, other manners. These days the art of gem engraving
scarcely exists, while precious stones are everywhere. Before
a fine specimen, "gem" leaps to the lips involuntarily. It is suggested
that the business classification be known as gemology in
distinction from the mineralogy of science.
Treatises on gems, comparatively few, difficult of access, generally
reference books, are often tough reading. The scientist may be
great and useful, but for the neophyte he has scant regard. It
seemed as if a small volume, depicting in simple words the salient
features of precious stones, garnering from the huge harvest of re-
search the easily assimilable, might not come amiss. If we cannot
know all, let us at least grasp something from that vast world of interesting
facts to which so many women who wear jewels and men
who buy and sell them seem indifferent. Gems have many sides, and
even laymen may attain a few.
Nothing is more bewildering to the beginner
than the manner in
which the various mineral families masquerade in one another's
clothing. It would be no trick at all were the garnet always red, the
sapphire always blue, the topaz always yellow, as at first we suppose.
Nature seems positively to enjoy playing pranks which turn all preconceived
notions topsy-turvy. Increasing experience confers that
sixth sense which gradually distinguishes one family from another.
Yet even experts, to be absolutely sure, must sometimes resort to
scientific tests. These are the triumphs of modern times over the
simple file of the ancients. Now, hardness, specific gravity, refraction,
dispersion, dichroicism, by means of delicate and often inexpensive
instruments, can precisely be determined.
To own a few good stones is an education. Like pictures, their
qualities come out only in close association. A judiciously purchased
collection may prove a good investment. Money put into them is
wasted no more than in travel, perhaps the best of all investments,
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