The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 26, 1902, Page 10

10 2 Where the hespi- %2ble women of SclUthern Cali- formia will ¢t as hostesses for the sTxth bBignnial convention of the General Fed- eration of We- men’s Qluks. OS ANGELES is a city of women's clubs and clubbouses. When the sixth biennial conven- tion of the General Federation of Women's Clubs meets there in the spring Los Angeles women can act the bostesses in well appointed club homes all their own, and not be dependent upon churches and rented halis except in a sup- plementary way.- The pride of club women of the south- ern city is the Woman's Club house, a spacious bullding situated on Figueroa street, one of the most fashionable streets in the city. It is buflt in mission style with a patio on the north, and portales extending the entire length of two sides. The patio lled with palms, bamboo and the bril- color of cannas and poinsettias. arred windows, a roof of Spanish terra :otta and wrought iron flower balconies romplete the charming and picturesque “flect. The interior is equally artistic A broad hallway leads to the assembly om, and to the right and left are re- ception rooms, library and offices. The wood finish is weathered oak, which is eXective in the heavily beamed ceilings and massive Tuscan columns and broad The windows are wide and with deep seats luxuriously club nce room has a seating capa- 3 red. Here, too, the ceil- fng is timbered, and the lighting is from windows quite under the roof. Upon the ipper floor are banquet room, kitchens and dressing rooms, ample for all )ses of entertainment of this beautiful club- keeping with the structure. rugs carpet the polished floors, paint antique tables, couches and chairs ines which are the style, and the sand- y tinted and hung engravings and etch- ings es, 014 brasses, bronze vases, b -reliefs and many other objets d’arf have been donated to the club and serve to give the apartments of culture and elegance. ubh pur- 1se are in sintings use was built especially for Morr lub, the most influ- women’s clubs in An- he Woman's Clubhouse Asso- The b ing is free from debt, aside from the lease of the Friday ing CI a considerable income is lubhouse for re- nd entertainments of va- The eighty stockholders of assoclation count on a 5 per cent divi- Los kinds rious d on their investment after paying xes and insurance. All are members of the Friday Morning Club, The Ebell Club h though much smaller and less pretentious, has the dis- tinction of being the first woman's club- house in Southern California, if mot on the Pacific Coast. It s built especially for the Ebell Club in 1397 by Mrs. Clara M. Baker, now Mre. Robert J. Burdette, who was at that time president of the club. The building is in the form of a Greek temple, with an audience-room PHOTOS BY WerRasNDHLL & \\co. \ \ | PASKROENS which will seat 350, three section-rooms, & tearoom and Kitchen. Throughout the rooms are handsomely furnished and so arranged as to admit of effective decora- tion. A library is being collected, while many fine engravipgs, etchings and pleces of statuary are already the property of the club. The Ebell Club is perhaps the most pro- gressive of the Los Angeles clubs and puts to good use these cozy quarters. Still another clubhouse is now in course of construction in Los Angeles, which is expected to be finished in time for the biennial. This will be known as the Shakespeare Club and is being built by Mrs. Addle Murphy Grigg on Figueroa street, within a few blocks of the Wo- man’s Club house. The upper floor will be used by the Cumnock School of Ex- pression, of which Mrs. Grigg is principal, but the rooms below will be adanted for club purposes. Here the Ebell Club will find a new home, as the rise in property values makes it impracticable to hold the Greek temple permanently. The Shakes- peare Club has also leased the clubrooms. The buflding will in Elizabethan style, heavily crossbeamed, with spaces filled with plaster, wide gable windows and latticed panes and a tiled roof. The plans show wide fireplaces, low cellings, with uncovered beams and low window seats; all in quaint old English style. An old-fashioned Eng] garden will be made a feature of the place. Nor is Pasadena wanting in club faclii- The Stickney Memorial Hall was be ties. erccted in 1508 for the Pasadena Shakes- peare Club by Miss A. H. Stickney, in memory of her sister. It was fashioned after Shakespeare’s home and Anne Hath- away’s cottage. The building stands on a triangular plot of ground which is hedged with box and lald out in a flower garden that completes the picture of an Elizabethan country place. Over the doorway are drooping rese vines, while the walls are half bidden with tvy. The interior is in harmony with the ex- terior. The cellings are low, the case- ments small and the walls are paneled and wainscoted. At one end of the room Is a great fireplace of rough blue brick, with an inglenook. The chimney piece Tuns to the celling and is ornamented with quotations from Shakespeare In old Eng- lish text. Under the windows are high- backed settees and around the room are book shelves and desks let into the walls and inclosed with glass doors having lead- ed panes. A colonial clock and split-bot- tomed hickory chairs are among the fur- nishings. THE SUNDAY CALL, 1U]>‘§’ ]flflbflujfb? s In one part of the bullding is an art room, in which are shown many beautiful pletyres, TR, Such club homes as these make possible all sorts of charming hospitality. The distingulshed guest from abroad may be met socially, may be dined and enter- tained without the necessity for those changes In household arrangements which follow social attentions where the estab- lishment is small and good servants rare. Impromptu luncheons, afternoon teas, in- formal receptions, as well as more elab- RECEPTION HA:LL ™M A CLUB MO SHOU" mLun o Agsfigu EEe < LU"BL FHOUSE -orate functions, ate all easily arranged Wwith little trouble and but moderate ex- pense. To the suburban woman the club- house is a boon, a resting spot from shop- ping expeditions, a central place from which to make engagements and a charm- ing rendezvous for meeting club friends who are particularly congenial, Los Angeles club women have s, right to feel proud of their club homes and it will be interesting to note to what extent their example will be followed by those other club women who are soon to enjoy thelr hospitality—how many of them will ge and do likewlse, 10S- AHNGELES CAL] - e STICKME: MEMORL g Hroorn. e PERSADERA, B il PECULIAR ART OF CUTTING AND POLISHING DIAMONDS EW YORK now leads the world In the art of cutting and polish- ing dlamonds. In the twenty dia- mond cutting concerns in this city 20,000 karats of rough diamonds are polished each year, rather more than the annual output of the Brazilian mines. About 200 skilled workmen are employ 1 in the trade, ‘and the bosses say that the diamond cutters of New York now excel those of London or Amsterdam. The business has practically grown up within the last twenty years, and nearly all the apprentices are now native born. A clever lad beginning the trade at 15 may become a skilled workman in five or six years. The best diamond cutters under favorable conditions earn from $40 to 390 a week. These are better wages than those earned by even the most famous foreign dlamond cutters. Workmen here are more intelli- gent and trustworthy than those of Hel- land, France or England, the chief dia- mend cutting countries of Europe. Theft 18 common abroad, but is unusual here. Proverbial American extravagance 1s the secret of New York's lead in diamond cutting. Foreign dlamond cutters are not permitted to lose more than 50 per cent on each stone. Here the loss is seldom less than 60 per cent, and often greater. The diamond is almost indestructible. It loses nothing by long wearing and acids cannot injure it. The prevalent idea that soap and water dim the luster of the dla- mond is a mistake. This Is the dull sea- son, and the diamond dealers of London are holding back rough diamonds with the hope of an improvement in prices. Ordinarily, however, rough diamonds may be bnufht in this market at about $20 per karat for small stones, say up to three karats. Above that tae price rises by great leaps. The method of getting at the price is to multiply the rate per karat by the square of the number of karats. A ten-karat dlamond often brings $2000. A diamond weighing three karats in the Tough, and worth here $60, will, when pol- ished, welgh something over one karat and sell, unset, at a jeweler's at from $30 to $100. ‘It is difficult, however, to speak with_certainty of these things, because the dlamond trade is full of tricks. No one knows how often dutles are evaded; no one can guess what commissions brok- ers receive. Diamond cutters seldom deal directly with the jewelers. A skilled brok- er acts as a go-between. He goes about town with perhaps $100,000, worth of dia- monds in his pocket. On credit sales his commission is 1 per cent, but on cash sales it may be almost anything. In looking about a diamond cutting es- tablishment one would hardly suspect the recious eharacter of the materfal in use. he floors are bare, the windows are open, and any one may enter by the door un- challenged. ‘When a dlamond cutter recelves an in- volce of storfes he carefully studies each one and takes note of its color, size, welght and shape. The whiter ones I like bits of clear alum, the darker like clouded quartz. The rarest and costliest stones are of sky-blue, pink and black. When the boss cutter has made accurate record of his rough diamonds he divides them into groups of four and five and gives a group to each workman. From that time forth the man to whom they are’ entrusted is responsible for the stones. He returns them each night to the boss and the progress of the work is carefully noted. In this way it s made extremely difficult for fraud to be prac- ticed. A cutter is seldom permitted to polish a stone belonging to any one but the boss. Doubtless the workman would be careful to prevent confusion, but mis- takes might arise. Now and then a clever substitution is managed, and once in & long while outright theft ts committed. The first work done upon the rough dia- mond Is cleaving. The stone is placed in a peculiar cement that softens easily and hardens quickly. A little notch on the line of cleavage is made with another dfamond, the edge of an old ragor is placed in this notch, and with a smart blow of the hammer the diamond fs split, Of course when a diamond can be worked whole it i3 not split. After cleaving comes cutting. The diamond is placed in a little mass of cement on the end of a stick and scraped with another diamond similarly embedded, The cutter has six points pre- sented to him, and he begins with the one that seems most promising. His choice decides which shall be the upper surfacs of the dlamond, for in the “brilliant” cut- ting, which is the most difficult and the, one most generally practiced here, the exposed surface is slightly flattened, while the under side runs to the apex of a pyramid. In this way eight or ten facets are made. From the cutter the stone goes to the grinder, or polisher, who patiently turns it and turns it until the swiftly whirling wheel has cut upon the surface fifty-eight tiny facets. These fifty-eight facets appear upon every dla- mond cut as a brilliant, whether it be a ten-karat stone as broad as a man's thumb nall or a tiny spark not bi, v than two pin heads. The wheel on which the stones are polished IS a soft fron disk, lined with Innumerable curved rays running from center to eclrcumference. This is sprinkled with dlamond dust and sweet ofl. The moment a scratch ap- pears on the wheel the diamond must be femoved o some other part of the sur- ace. The finished stone comes from the wheel covered with ofl, but a ten minutes' bath in sulphuric acid leaves the surface clear end brilliant. There is absolutely no waste. Boort, which Is the name given to diamond chip- pings that cannot be polished, is placed in a steel mortar, exactly like an old-fash- ioned churn, and brayed into powder for the polisher. Not a single karat is lost, for the mortar is dust-proof and the pestle fits so close that the particles can- Dot rise. from the bottom.—New York Evening Post.