the various classes of readers above referred to, and will at the same time interest them and give them pleasure.
'
And here the author would lay strong emphasis on one point, namely,
that the average jewel merchant or salesman is badly handicapped in
his desire to inform himself regarding "gemology," by the lack of
reliable and easily accessible books concerned with matters of the
first interest to him. There are, to be sure, books, but they are most
of them either too technical or too costly. The jewelry trade has its
journals, and the best of these offer valuable special information
concerning the science and art of gems and jewelry; but, nevertheless,
the business man lacks authoritative books which can be understood by
readers not possessed of a scientific education. The desire for a
special, yet not too technical, literature often finds a voice in the
jewellers' trade journals. For instance, in The National Jeweller and Optician of
April, 1908, there is this complaint: "I know men in the hardware and
chemical and other lines who have shelves of interesting books about
their lines of commerce right at their hands. This is nowhere the case
in our downtown jewelry district. In fact, no trade is
