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BEAUTY IN DISTRESS
Some
call it the most beautiful- diamond in the world. Others speak of it as
the last of the great diamonds of India, tot after its discovery, they
say, the products of what is termed Golconda diminished rapidly and the
mines of that distant country petered out. What has happened to it now
depends upon what happened after Paris in 1940 declared itseli an "open
city" and the Nazi hordes rushed in openfy to ransack it. Because of
the uncertainty and the ambiguity that has been cast over the world by
this new war, we must think of the Regent diamond not in terms of the
present but in the past tense, hoping that in another day someone else
will be writing and speaking of it in the present tense. In its rough
form, as it came out of the Partial mines on the Kistna River of India
about the year ijof, it
was the equivalent of 410 metric carats. It was found by a slave who,
dreaming of wealth, cut a hole in the calf of his leg and secreted the
stone among the bandages. He was able to escape and get to the brig of
an English sea captain. He had no money for transportation but he told
his story and showed his prize. The captain accepted the diamond in re'
turn tor guaranteeing sate passage to a free land and a share in the
profits from the sale of the stone. As this part of the story goes, and
it is unverified, the captain threw the slave overboard and, upon
reaching another Indian port, sold the stone to a man named Ramchund,
an Indian merchant, ior the equivalent of $5000. He got his $5000,
spent it in riotous living, and finally killed himself. The slave and
the captain are the only two persons believed to have been
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