The Evening Star SATURDAY, MAY 3, 1947. DIAMOND OF ILL-OMEN.

Evening Star, Issue 26091, 3 May 1947, Page 6

The Evening Star SATURDAY, MAY 3, 1947. DIAMOND OF ILL-OMEN.

The notorious Hope diamond earned a place in the news during the week when the death from pneumonia was reported of its Washington owner, Mrs Evalyn Walsh McLean. . This, the second 'death in the McLean family in eight months, once again has revived interest in the stone—-the largest and most perfect Indian blue diamond in the world—and the curse that is supposed to accompany it. _ Popular belief has made this curse operative for 300 years, and there is no doubt that strange, deaths have ended the careers of many of those into whose possession the diamond has fallen, giving the superstitious-minded ample grounds for fostering the legend of illomen. It is easy, of course, for those so inclined to contort facts to fit their arguments, and a typical instance lies in the Tutankhamen legend. On the opening of the tomb of the ancientEgyptian king in 1922 many considered that ill-luck would dog the footsteps of those Who participated iii the “violation.” When Lord Carnarvon, who promoted the expedition, died soon afterwards, tongues began to wag, and they wagged even more when in the ensuing years one by one those present at the opening of the tomb died in circumstances more or less attributable to natural causes. r

The story of the Hope diamond goes much further back,,but it has similar parallels. This 44J carat stone was not known as the Hope diamond until 1840, when it was acquired by Mr Thomas Henry Hope, but the curse was believed in, and it apparently acted long before. It all began back in 1647, when a French adventurer, Jean Baptiste Tavernier, stole the diamond from the forehead of an Indian god, Rama-Sita. For this act the god is supposed to have laid a curse' on the thief and on all who might subsequently own the diamond. Readers of popular literature will recognise the setting as the basis of many stories of the supernatural—Lord Dunsany is responsible for ah excellent interpretation in his suspenseful oneact play, ‘ A Night At An Inn.’ With Rama-Sita’s curse on his head Tavernier succeeded in getting back to France, where he sold the diamond to King Louis XIV. for the equivalent of £IOO,OOO. Soon afterwards Tavernier met a hideous death when he was eaten by jungle animals. The curse had begun to work! Death came rapidlv to several members of King Louis XlV.’s family, and he himself was not long in succumbing to illness. With the \ story of the diamond well known these events inevitably were linked with the curse. The diamond’s story is taken up man> years later when it came into the possession of Marie Antoinette, queen of Louis XVI. The fate of Louis and Marie Antoinette ■ is familiar, and legend goes so far as to declare that

had Marie Antoinette not repeatedly flaunted the diamond there would have been no French Revolution. The revolution had not long become history when the diamond, along with other French Crown jewels, was stolen. It turned up in Amsterdam, a .dealer being given the task of polishing it, but the dealer’s son stole the diamond and sold it to one Francois Beaulieu. The money he spent in riotous living, and then he committed suicide. Beaulieu decided to sell the stone in England, but he was so long in finding a purchaser that lie starved. Finally he found a man who was prepared to offer him £5,000, but before, the sale was completed Beaulieu died from hunger. In 1840 the stone passed into the hands of Thomas Henry Hope. He had it for fifty-three years, and no particular ill-lnck seems to have come his way. The curse, according to those who believe in it, was, however, merely lying dormant. On Hope’s death" he bequeathed the stone to his son. Lord Francis Hope, who. a few years afterwards, became penniless. The.diamond then had many owners in many lands, and in every instance violence" marked its passage; murder, suicide, and accident occurring with a regularity that, lent colour to the legend. In 1911 Mr Edward B. McLean, a Waslungton publisher, bought the Hope diamond for his wifeShe is reported to have had the stone blessed by a priest, but the curse evidently remained. Mr McLean was sharply reduced to penury, and he died in a mental hospital. Their eldest son, Vinson, was the victim of a motor car accident, and in September last- Mrs McLean’s only -daughter, Mrs Evalyn McLean Reynolds, wife of Senator R. Reynolds, died in unusual circumstances, her death being ascribed to “a possible overdose of sleeping pills.” '* Now Mrs McLean herself has died. So the story of the Hope diamond has come down through the years with an undisputed trail of tragedy in its wake. Since, however, in many instances the diamond fell into the hjmds of rogues, violence was perhaps not ah unexpected corollary, and the other tragedies do not seem to call for more than ordinary explanations. One -thing is certain, whatever stoyy attaches to the stone, ‘there will he many eager to acquire it and to risk any supernatural hazards for the thrill of .owning a diamond valued to-day at £500,000. The latest development suggests that the stolie is to remain in tlie McLean family, but will, under the terms of Mrs McLean’s will, go “ into retirement ” for twenty years. This is an interesting stipulation in view of Airs McLean’s belief that the stone had no dark symbolism attached to it.