The Diamond                      47
	up; when you Americans do anything you cer­tainly 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 mer­chandise 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-