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A DEAL III DIAMONDS
The True Story of an Ingenious
Swindle In London.
A CLEVERLY WORKED GAME.
It Netted an Impecunious Russian No¬
bleman a Thousand Pounds Sterling.
The Easy Manner In Which Count
Sacha Got Something For Nothing.
Count Sacha Roubletsky was on his
beam endsjn London. To the world
he •was still a dashing young noble¬
man, son of an immensely wealthy
Russian prince, but in poiut of fact
he was financially at his last gasp.
He wanted a thousand or so for
nothing. That was the problem he de¬
bated as he sat in his lodging smoking
cigarette after cigarette. At last he
rose with a satisfied smile. Next morn¬
ing Count Sacha called on Messrs.
Sparkle & Shine, the well known Bond
street jewelers. He explained who he
was and that he had come to select
some jewelry for his sweetheart.
From the glittering tray he selected
a beautiful stone, price £500. He then
explained that, his remittances being
delayed, he was not In a position to
complete the purchase at the moment,
and, in any case, he wished first to
submit the stone to his sweetheart's
approval.
He added suavely that as he was un¬
known to Messrs. Sparkle & Shine he
could not expect them to part with the
gem without making inquiries, but
they were at liberty to apply to the
Russian embassy for any information
they desired concerning him. He
would return the following day and,
everything being satisfactory, take the
diamond.
To this the jewelers agreed and, in¬
quiring at the Russian embassy, were
informed that Count Sacha was un¬
questionably the son of a wealthy
prince and that they would probably
be safe in giving him credit for even
more than the amount mentioned.
They did not know at the embassy
that Sacha had been disowned by his
father, and they were agreeable to the
count’s own suggestion that a member
of the embassy should attend at the
Jeweler’s next day to identify him.
This was done, and Count Sacha re¬
ceived the diamond. The same day
he called at a big pawnbroker’s and,
mentioning airily that he was In tem¬
porary difficulties, pledged the diamond
for the small sum of £50.
The next day found Count Sacha
again at Messrs. Sparkle & Shine’s.
His sweetheart, he said, was enchant¬
ed with the diamond, but nothing
would satisfy her now but that she
should have another diamond abso¬
lutely matching the first.
The jewelers explained that to match
such a stone would be a matter of
great difficulty and the price of the
second gem would be enormously in¬
creased—in short, for such a pair of
twin diamonds they would have to
charge £3,000. Count Sacha shrugged
his shoulders. The price was stiff, but
he could deny his sweetheart nothing.
Would Messrs. Sparkle & Shine please
at once set about procuring the second
diamond?
The jewelers, being unable to match
the diamond themselves, wrote to the
leading dealers and pawnbrokers de¬
scribing the stone they wanted and
Intimating that they were Drepared to
F Dr. A. S. HOPKINS, Dentist
►
► If* Nitrous Oxide Gas Administered.
Have installed a Jameson casting machine for casting
gold inlays. These inlays and enamel fillings are especially <4
indicated in frail teeth where crowns are not wanted and ■w
discoloration is objectionable. <4
All kinds of dental work done in a painstaking and very 4
► careful manner.
Night calls answered from residence near Georgia depot,
second house on left toward Oxford.
►
Office 8 and 10 Star Bldg. Covington, Ga.
► Office Phone 216 Residence Pnone 200-L.
I NEW GOODS Suits. ARRIVING j
$ Ladies Tailor Made I
| A fine line o{ ladies tailor made suits that beauties, ♦
are I
♦ Ladies Hats ♦ ♦
j | p ♦ Ready rveaay to ro wear wear in in the tne latest latest styl< styles, shapes shapes and and colors. colors. ! j
Ladies T T Shoes 0.1 I i
| A shoes complete for the line ladies. of the latest things in fall and winter J i
g Q
j Ladies Furs and Muffs ♦ 4
* Something new for the cold weather. Every lady should I
| have of these. ♦
a set I
I Ladies Skirts and Shirt Waists. ♦
1 ! My line here is very full and snappy with everything new j
and up to date. •
iN. KAPLANi I
go as rar as £2,000 for a perrect speci¬
men. Among those they wrote to was
the pawnbroker with whom Count Sa¬
cha had pledged the original diamond,
which was just what that ingenious
rascal expected.
A few days later Count Sacha called
at the pawnbroker’s to redeem his dia¬
mond. The pawnbroker had had
Messrs. Sparkle & Shine’s letter, and,
remembering the beautiful diamond
pledged with him a day or two before,
be had examined it and found that it
met all of Sparkle & Shine's require¬
ments.
The count redeemed the stone, and
then the pawnbroker inquired whether
by any chance he w r ould care to sell it.
Oh, no! It was a family heirloom.
His customer would not dream of part¬
ing with it.
That was a pity, said the pawnbro¬
ker. He had chanced to show the dia¬
mond to his wife, and she had taken a
violent fancy to it—so much so that
he was prepared to give a fancy price.
He offered £800.
Count Sacha laughed and shook his
head. One thousand pounds? Oh, no!
He really did not want to sell it. An
offer of £1,300, however, made him hes¬
itate. At last, after prolonged chaffer¬
ing, Count Sacha passed back the dia¬
mond to the pawnbroker and received
£1,500 in exchange. Once outside he
jumped into a cab and drove as fast
as he could to Messrs. Sparkle &
Shine's.
Arrived there, he explained, with
many regrets, that his sweetheart had
changed her mind. She ho longer
wanted the second diamond. Had the
Jewelers yet found it? No? Ah, that
was well I Still, he feared he had put
them to much trouble. However, he
was glad to say his remittances had
arrived and he had now much pleas¬
ure in handing over £500 in payment
for the original diamond, which his
sweetheart had decided to keep.
One thousand pounds to the good,
Count Sacha left the shop, having
“brought off’’ a most Ingenious swin¬
dle. Yet can any one say where he
came within reach of the law?—Pear¬
son’s Weekly.
Descendants of David.
The history of the Sassoons is one
of the most dramatic in the very dra¬
matic story of the Hebrew race. The
original Sassoon was a Bombay mer¬
chant, but the family is descended
from a group known as I bn Shoshan,
who at one time held the position, of
nossi of Toledo. The name Shoshan,
which signifies “lily” in Hebrew, was
gradually transformed into Sassoon,
signifying “gladness.” The family
claim Davidic descent, and Abraham
Sassoon, who flourished in the seven¬
teenth century, stated that he was a
direct descendant of Shephatiah, the
fifth son of David. Not only are there
many references to the name in He¬
brew mediaeval literature, but men¬
tion of it is made in the Talmud.—Lon¬
don M. A. P.
Thra* Tightwads.
Speaking of tightwads, a Texas pa¬
per says: It is reported that three of
the stingiest men in the state were in
town yesterday. One of them will not
drink as much water as he wants un¬
less it is from another man’s well. The
second forbids any of his family from
writing anything but a small hand, as
it is a waste of ink to make large let¬
ters. The third stops his clock at
night in order to save wear and tear
on the machinery. All of them decline
to take their county paper on the
ground that it is a terrible strain on
their spectacles to read newspapers
eveD in the daytime.
THE COVINGTON NEWS
COWED BY MOSQUITOES.
A Clergyman’s Experience on a British
Columbia Trip.
In 1860 the Rev. John Sheepshanks,
later on the bishop of Norwich, was
traveling through British Columbia.
His book, “A Bishop In the Rough,”
relates his experiences on the Douglas
trail, where the greatest discomfort
was caused by the swarms of ferocious
mosquitoes. He met with Indians cov¬
ered with paint, carrying branches of
trees in their hands, which they were
sweeping around them as they walked.
They were evacuating their country,
being temporarily driven out by these
pests. If by chance a traveler arrived
at a clearing or an open space where
there appeared to be an immunity
from them, ere long they would ap¬
pear.
“Quite early In the morning after
meeting those Indians I Issued from
my tent and found an open space on
the river’s side where I could get my
bath. But no sooner had I emerged
from the water than I found swarms
of mosquitoes assailing me, and, do
what I would, slaughter them by doz¬
ens, I suffered severely.
“It was on that same day, dining at
a wayside house, that I took part in a
scene which I can never forget. There
were twenty-five men going up to the
mines. Food was on the table. There
was a ceaseless hum in the apartment,
for it was literally brown with thou¬
sands of mosquitoes.
"It was swelteringly hot, yet every
man had made himself as impervious
as he could. Each man wore his coat
buttoned up, strings were fastened
round his cuffs, and trousers also if he
bad not on top boots. They had gaunt¬
lets on their hands, their hats were on,
and veils hanging down covered face
and neck. A man would stick his fork
Into a piece of meat and pop in under
the veil as quickly as possible. When
drinking their coffee the men would
hold the cup underneath the veil, first
clearing out the bodies of the mosqui¬
toes which possibly had been feeding
upon the hairy miner close at hand.
"Not a word was uttered during that
brief meal, for we were beaten down
and cowed by the insects. The first
words spoken were by a miner in push¬
ing away his chair from the table, *Oh,
this God forsaken country!*”
ABSENTMINDED.
The Dinner to Which Wills, the Artist,
Invited a Friend.
Mr. Wills, the artist, was renowned
for his absentmindedness, and the fol¬
lowing story, says Henrietta Oockran
In her book, “Celebrities and I,” was
told of him by a friend: “Wills invited
me to dinner one afternoon when 1
met him In the Strand. I accepted,
reminding him that as he was absent
minded he had better make a note of
the evening. As he had no paper in
his pocket, he wrote the date on his
shirt cuff.
“When the appointed evening arriv¬
ed I went to his studio. The door was
opened by Wills, and I could see that
he had forgotten all about the appoint¬
ment
“ ‘Ah, old fellow,’ he exclaimed, ‘do
not be too hard on me. The cuff went
to the wash and the date with it. But
there is a fowl in the pot boiling here,’
continued Mr. Wills. “Just come in
aDd wait a few minutes.’
“I had my misgivings, but walked
inside and sat upon the only chair dot
crowded with paint brushes and pal¬
ettes.
“After waiting for about twenty
minutes, feeling deucedly hungry, I
groaned. This bad its effect.
“He exclaimed in a dreamy voice,
‘The fowl must be boiled by this time,’
and, coming forward, he lifted the lid
of the pot and peered inside. ’It is
very odd,’ he remarked, ’but 1 cannot
see the fowl. Extraordinary! No one
has been here, so the bird cannot have
been stolen.’
“Well, the long and short of It is
that a week or two later I called again
at the studio, noticed a peculiar odor
and discovered the fowl wrapped up in
a piece of paper.
“ ’Ah!’ said Wills. ’Now I know how
It all happened. When the fowl was
brought In there came a smart visitor—
Lady G.—about sitting for her por¬
trait. I must have thrown the fowl
behind a canvas and forgotten about
It”’
Kissing the Book.
In England and all the English
speaking countries the kissing of the
book before the oath comes from the
practice of touching a “halidame,” or
sacred object, as the old Roman touched
the altar or Harold the casket of relics.
The form “So help me God” is In¬
herited from ancient Teutonic-Scan
dinavian law, under which the old
northmen, touching the blood daubed
ring on the altar, swore, “So help me
Frey and Nlordh and the Almighty
God’’—that Is, Thor. The first and last
of these are the two old English gods,
whose names we keep up in Friday
and Thursday.—New York American.
Why Women’s Minds Are Cleaner.
“Of course women should vote,” he
said. "Women deserve the suffrage
as much as men—more, because their
minds are purer and cleaner.”
“Cleaner?” cried the sweet young
thing he had taken In to dinner. “Of
course they are, ever and ever so much
cleaner! But how do you knew that?”
“Because they change them so much
oftener,” said he solemnly.—Exchange.
In Doubt.
Mrs. Meadow (at Paris hotel)—Ooo!
There’s a fly in this soup!
Mr. Meadow (who has traveled a lit¬
tle)— Hush, Miranda; don’t speak so
loud! No use exposin’ our Ignorance.
This bill of fare is all in French, and
mebby we ordered fly soup.—London
Tit-Bits.
The Greatest Discovery That Was Made
It Took Many Centuries To
Discover the North Pole
But^the wide-a-wake people of New¬
ton county have discovered that M.
Levin’s is the cheapest place in Cov¬
ington to buy their Dry Goods, Cloth¬
ing, Furnishings, Shoes and Millinery
Our Prices Are Right.
Our entire stock was purchased
when prices were low and before the
advance. We are going to give our
customers and friends the advantage
of the low prices.
Give us a call, we are ready to show
and give you low prices.
Mrs. Harper invites all the ladies to
her millinery parlors where she will
have on display during the entire sea¬
son the very latest fashions in Ladies
Headgear—prices right, too.
M. LEVIN
Covington, - - Georgia.
(f
FREE--Write For Our New Catalog Today.
We Are The Only Factory in the South Selling
Direct to Yov at Wholesale Prices.
We guarantee to save you $20.00 on your buggy. Or¬
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We build but one grade—THE VERY BEST. The
best grade work built in the South.
Repairing and Rubber Tiring Done By Us.
Covington Buggy
Covington, 6a.
• A#*#-;.-#'.•.
W. J. Higgins
DENTIST
Over Cohen’s Store.'
Your Patronage Solicited.
Covington - - Georgia
Seed Oats For Sale.
Seed Oats and Seed Wheat. Appier Oats, the Old 8
Rust Proof and Texas Red Rust Proof Oats raised in Georgia
price 7 5 cts. and $ 1.00 pushel, depending on ^' n< ^
is per j
quantity, delivered in Covington. All seed caretully f jnne< ^
are
recleaned.
L. W. JARMAN, Porterdale, Ga.