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| Aleksey Stepanov's 1903 portrait of Princess Zinaida Yusupova wearing her pearls (Wikimedia Commons) |
"Buys $50,000 Necklace for $20"
(originally appeared in the Oregon Sunday Journal, 26 Apr 1908)
PARIS, March 14 -- The joy of a woman who, through the blunder of a clerk in a jewelry store, is able to buy a $50,000 pearl necklace for $20 must be intense. But it is only a circumstance to the sorrow of the employer of the clerk whose innocence made the mistake possible. Luckily for the jeweler (and the clerk) the woman who purchased the string of precious stones was honest when put to the severe test and returned them when she discovered that a most amazing mistake had been made.
A story like this deserves to take its place side by side with the one that tells of the buying of Manhattan island for a paltry $14. It is more incredible to present day readers. Yet it is just as true, for this comedy, which came very near being a tragedy, involving as it did the possible ruin of the jeweler, has just been enacted here.
