Moscow's Thrill

An inexperienced Manhattan news photographer boarded the Berengaria at Quarantine last week and trotted about the boat deck looking for members of the D'Oyly Carte operatic stock company, making their first visit to the U. S. in many a year. He found a spectacular looking lady, now blonde, clutching a small Belgian griffon and practically studded with sparkling stones.

"Excuse me, lady," said the cameraman, "are you from the Gilbert and Sullivan operas?"

It was Mrs. Evelyn Walsh McLean, the same Mrs. McLean who has supplied nearly three decades of Washington society with conversation, who has owned the great Hope diamond for 25 years, whose onetime husband once owned the Washington Post, whose collection of jewels is world-famed, who was swindled out of $100,000 by the notorious Gaston B. Means in an effort to recover the Lindbergh baby.

When other newsmen arrived, Mrs. McLean was graciously willing to talk. Yes, she had the Hope diamond with her. In fact she was at that very moment wearing it around her neck. She was also wearing four diamond bracelets on her right wrist, four more on her left, a handful of solitaire rings, and she carried a diamond-chained handbag and a diamond-studded cigaret case. She had just been to Russia, she said, to give Moscow a thrill.

"I went to Moscow to do daring things. I have a passion for jewelry. Everyone knows it. I make no defense of it. I wore the Hope diamond in Moscow because it once belonged to Catherine the Great. This was the first time it had been to Russia since it escaped her possession. That in itself was irritating, yet I wanted to see what would be the reaction of present-day Russians.

"In Moscow a Soviet courier begged me not to wear my jewels. I told him not only would I wear them, but Soviet Russia would accept my wearing them. He shrugged his shoulders and was disconsolate.

"One night I arrayed myself in all my jewels and made a tour of the Moscow night clubs. I was watched constantly by two Soviet detectives and a very nice young man from the United States Consulate. It was a bit bloodcurdling, but I went bravely through with it. There was no envy of the gems I wore in the eyes of those who observed them in Moscow that night. There was only hate. It seemed to revive the memory of old Russia in them and often that night I could almost feel the guillotine at my throat. They hated me, yet they were fascinated. I stood for all that women who wear jewels represent. Frankly I think I am the only person in ten years who has given poor dismal Russia a thrill. I taught them a lesson. Hereafter when a girl visits Russia she can wear her jewels. There can be no surprise after me."

The Hope diamond weighs 44 carats, is valued at over $250,000.

"About the bad luck of the Hope diamond?" rattled on Mrs. McLean. "Well, it has never brought me bad luck. I think my life is charmed in that respect. But I had a friend on the Carinthia, the ship in which I made the North Cape cruise, and he held the diamond in his pocket for two hours and now I understand he's lying at death's door."

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