up; when you Americans do anything you cerÂtainly always do it on a large scale," replied the admiring Amsterdammer.
The
ways of marketing diamonds to the world are as peculiar in Amsterdam as
they are in London. After the diamonds are cut, and polished in the
factories by Amsterdam's ten thousand workmen, they are vended through
commissioners or through brokers. There is a general meeting ground, a
sort of exchange, and there buyers and brokers come together. The space
is inadequate and sometimes an overflow meeting of fifty or more men
are clamouring for admittance. When they view the merÂchandise and
learn the prices quoted, the buyer who sees something he wants makes an
offer; the broker encloses the parcel bid upon in a sealed envelope
with the offer made by the buyer written upon it and submits this to
owners or persons interested in selling the goods; it is optional for
the owner to accept or decline the offer, but if he does accept it, and
thereafter the bidder should announce that he had usurped the feminine
privilege of change-ing his mind, he will find that he must make good
his offer or suffer a legal penalty, which might be a term of
imprisonment. The dia-
