Amsterdam, the Richest City in Europe
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TTPICAb 8TRBKT GROUP IN AMSTBRUAM.
AMERICAN QICTCL.ES SOLD ON KAL.VER 8TRAAT.
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(CnpyrlKht. titoa. by Fmnh O. Carpenter.)
IM8TERDAM. Feb. !. (SpecUl
CorrespoodeDcfi of Tb Bc.)
Amsterdam la cue of th richest
t-tlfn of Europe. It has apvrral
multl-mlllionairca. aoorca of mll-
Ilonalnv and tbouRanda who have 1uiiir -loin
Incompa. It haa aorae of the chlof
bankltiK flrma of the world and Its stock in
vestment are almoal ax varlvd aa tboae
of Itndon. An enormous amount of Amrl
aa aiTiirltla arc bcld hrr, and our at Ht
ara bouRht and sold evrrjr day on the ex
chnft. I an told that the Amsterdam
hrokrra bare made somotblnn like $50,000,
0M in th paat few years In American
stork and that they conaider our securi
ties as good as any of the world. Not long
MO there was something like $5,000,000
worth of United State at eel stock held In
Amsterdam. Including 1.W10 sua res of tho
preferred and 1B8.000 shares of the common.
There la much Southern Pacific and Grand
Trunk, aome Chicago. Burlington & Qulney.
quite a lot of Denver 6. Rio Grande, some
Atchison, Topeka It Sauta Fe and In all
more or Ices of about 1C0 different Ameri
can stocks.
Among tho leading securities sold on tho
etotk exchange are those of Dutch rom
IMDlea doing business In Holland's Eaat
Indian colonlee. There are no end of com
panies hre which have been organised to
develop 8umatrs, Java, Borneo and tho
Celebes, and many of them are paying big
dividends. They give aome Idea aa to what
our capitalists may do In the Philippines
later on. Tako the matter of tobacco,
there are fourteen different companies
which have estates In Java or Sumatra,
and the stock of many of tbera Is far abovo
par.
Tho Dell Maatschappy ranues from 100
te $r00 for $100 shares and it pays divi
dends of from 10 to 28 per cent. Tbo Sen
embah Tobacco coiapany pays 28 per cent,
the Amsterdam Dell from 47 to S5 per cent,
and the Rotterdam Dell about 11 per cent.
The Padang Tobacco company rangea from
120 to 179. and the Serdang la over 200.
Some of the companies doing business la
Borneo are paying good dividends.
The Dutch petroleum enterprises are less
prosperous. The companies) here have oil
fields in Sumatra and Borneo, but so far
the oil Is much below that of the Vol tod
States In character and the output la not
large.
There are many big banks here, some
hieked by Jews and aome by Christiana.
The Jewish population la large, comprising
altogether some S4.000. Many of the Jewa
are tiaeendanta of thoae who came here
from Lisbon daring the middle ages and
esa-ed In lending money and In shipping
projects. Others came from Germany and
eastern Europe. The Dutch themselves are
among the sat est and heat bualneas men of
tho world and with the Jewa make a strong
eonblnaUon. They have never been afraid
to invest In ventures that promised well
and they have always pushed out for new
things.
Amsterdam laid the foundation of Its
wealth through Its spice trade with tb
Dutch East Indies. It had the monopoly
of thia trade when the Dutch East India
company was formed and It Is today on
ot the chief spice markets of the world.
It has bad to have plenty of money to
back Its enterprises and this has led to
the growth ot a large banking business.
One of the oldest banks Is that of the
Netherlands which Is quoted at 200 per
cent and upward. The French bank shares
are worth as high aa 800 and the German
Government bank shares sell at 165. Then
there is the Jsva hank, which doea a largo
trade in the East lndica. paying bctwon
T and 8 per vent; a Netherlands Bank and
Credit association for South Africa, tho
Amsterdam bank, the Rotterdam bank and
a number of others.
Within the past tew years quite a deal ot
speculation has been don In mining shares
of the Dutch colouiul companies, which are
explultlug mines of gold, coal aad tin. The
coinpaules operate In Borneo, Sumatra,
Banka, the Celebes and la Dutch Guiana ou
the north coast of South America. So far
the gold mines of the Eaat Iadlos have not
amounted to very much, but the shares of
Culana companies are quoted at ZOO or more
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THE AMERICAN CONSULATE IS SITUATED ON ONE OF THE BEST STREETS.
and appear to be doing welt. The tin mines
of tho Island of Bank are very profitable.
One tin company has recently doubled Its
dividend, and the Billlton mines are turn
ing out even more than In the past.
The Dutch steamship companies are mak
ing money. The Holland-American l.ne
pay a good dividends. The great company
that has the monopoly of the trade ot tbo
Malay archipelago is prosperous and there
are a number of other companies which pay
from 6 to 15 per cent right along.
The Dutch are making fortunes out ot
diamonds. They buy them In the rough and
cut and polish them for the markets. They
have been doing this for generations and
have made Amsterdam the chief diamond
cutting and polishing place of the world.
Tho work is moutly done by PortugueHe
Jews, who have been engaged in it from
father to sou for hundreds of years. There
are 12,000 such men here who do nothing
cltto, and they arc the most vkilled of their
kind In the world. They work for the capi
talists nt regular wages, some In little
shore and others In factories. There are
In all about sixty factories in the city, with
700 or 800 polluting stones. In which the
men rrk day In and day out upon dia
monds for export.
About $'..'0,000,000 worth of rough-atones
are bought every yesr and when polished
are aent to all parts ot the world. Within
the last few yeara of good times In the
United States aome ot the best stones have
come to us, and we are now taking about
$5,000,0M) worth every year. We have uow
the green Hope diamond, for which Pier
pout Morgan ia aaid to have offered a quar
ter of a million dollars, and several other
large atones are now being cut whii-U may
go Into tho hand of American millionaires.
In company with Mr. Frank D. Hill, our
American consul, I was shown over one of
the largeat and rlcheat of the Dutch dia
mond works this afternoon. It waa that ot
Mr. Koater, on Zwaaenburger straat, the
factory that cut the Kohinoor for Queen
Victoria, the one In which the Grand Mogul
was shaped aad the one where the Or toff
diamond wr.s polished up for the war of
Russia. It Is, I venture, the most Impor
tant diamond-cutting mill ot the world.
And still it is anything but Imposing. It
is a dirty three-story brick building In tho
Jewish quarter of Amsterdam, situated on a
narrow street and looking more like a ten
ement house than a mill which grinds orna
ments for millionaires and their heiresses.
The hall which we entered waa narrow and
the wooden stairs we climbed were no bet
ter than those of many a barn In Pennsyl
vania. The walls as high up as your shoul
der wore painted dead black and white
washed above. The steps were black and
everything was so colored that if any white
thing like a diamond fell upon it it could
be easily seen.
But from this you must not suppose that
the diamonds are carelessly handled or that
they lie around loose. They are counted
and weighed again and "again, and every
diamond atom brought in, even to the dust,
must be accouuted for.
But if you will come with me I will show
you how the precious stones are handled.
We llrst enter the room where the splitting
la done. It la the tame In which the great
Kohtnor diamond was polished. It Is of
the slzo of sn ordinary parlor, but tire floor
is as bare as that of a kitchen, and the two
men who are handling the stoues are work
ing at a table which a country carpenter
would knock up for 75 cents. The men
wear capa and rough suits, over which are
smocks made of blue Jeans. Their clothes
altogether would not sell for $5 to a second-hand
clothier; and the furniture of the
room all told, tools included, would not
bring more than $10. Still those men are
daily handling stone worth many thou
sand dollars. Tbey split single stones worth
fortune, and each has a fortune in his
little workbox.
But let ns see how they do It. One st
the men speaks English, and he shall give
you the process as he gave it to me.
"This," said he, aa he picked up what
looked like an Irregular piece of mica or
balf-transparent crystal as big as the end
of your little Anger, "Is a diamond In thu
rough. It Is Just as It was taken from the
mines, wlt'i all Its fit its and Imperfections.
All of these must bo split off before It can
go to the polishers, and It Is my business
to know how to do it. I have to split at
the flaws, and to do that must first cut a
notch, to hold my splitting wedge."
"Now, nothing but a diamond will rut a .
diamond." he went on, as be picked up a
little piece of white stone not bigger than
the head of a pin, "so I take a little dia
mond with a sharp edge like this, and fix It
lr. some cement at the end of this split
ting tool." and he thereupon stuck It In
some cement on the- "nd of a stick not un
like the handle of a shoemaker's awl. Hu
softened this cement In a gas flame and
cooled it after the stone was fixed by din
ping It in some water. As It became cokl
the cement hardened and the diamond was
firmly "held. He then fixed the rough dia
mond into a similar tool, and taking the first
diamond, which he called his diamond knife,
he scratched with it again and again upon
the flaw, making a noise as though sharp
ening a gritty slate pencil. It wan only a
moment until he had cut a little notch in
the diamond. He then stood the tool hold
ing the diamond In a hole In a lead plate
fastened to the table in front of him. He
picked up a blade of steel, an Inch wide
and about three inches long. He fitted the
blunt edge ot this into the flaw, and gave
the back of the blade a slight tap with a
little ateel bar about a foot long. A mo
ment later he took off the cement ami
showed that'the diamond was broken, point
ing out that one of the pieces was flat aad
the other almost round.
This flat stone," said he, "will be used
to make a rose diamond aad the other a
brilliant. AU diamonds aro cut as roso
diamonds or brilliants. The brilliants have
fifty-eight facets and tho roso diamond
twenty-four."
"But." said I, "aro the pieces always
large enough to make Individual stones?
"No," was the reply. "Many are too
coarse for even rose diamonds. Some are
very small, but we keep them all and nse
them In various ways. Even the dost Is
saved. We burn this cement and save
every atom, that comes from the diamonds.
The diamond dust Js employed In polishing
and grinding other diamonds and aome
of the small pieces are used for glass cut
ters." Leaving this room we go to see the
polishers. They are on the third floor in a
long hall filled with bolts and grinding
tools. The room is walled with windows
and the men stt with their backs to the
light before long benches over which move
flat wheels of soft iron at the rate of 2.000
revolutions per minute. Bach wheel Is as
big around as a dinner plate and It goes so
fast that you cannot tell It l moving at
all. Fastened to handles like those with
which I saw the diamonds split, four
diamonds rest on each plate. They are
set in a irarad so that they Just touch the
wheel. Each diamond Is covered with a
mixture of diamond dust and water and It
Is the fr'ctioa of this upon it as It moves
around the plate that grinds it Into the
many fares or facets which so much In
crease Its brilliancy. The most valuable
stones are rut in this way and It takes a
long time to transform a rough diamond
Into a brilliant.
During my tour I asked one of the ex
perts whether an imitation diamond had
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