The Diamond as Big as the Ritz

This is the adventure of John T. Unger from the Southern town of Hades who was sent to acquire his New England education at St Midas’ school. He is invited to spend a summer holiday with Percy Washington. The Washington family is very wealthy, which impresses Unger. Washington reveals that his father has “a diamond as big as the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.” In the dismal village of Fish, twelve men watch the Transcontinental Express deposit passengers, who then travel on from the bleak place by buggy. Washington and Unger are transferred from the train to a buggy, then a bejewelled car which is hoisted by cables to a private road. Washington explains that they have reached “the only five square miles of the country that have not been surveyed.” He reveals how his grandfather and father have worked to keep the location secret: the only threat to detection being from the air. Unger is disturbed at the lengths the Washington family have gone to – “a few deaths and a great many prisoners.” The elaborate house is “a sort of floating fairyland”. Unger is made drowsy by the “honeyed luxury” and is bathed while asleep. When he wakes, Washington tells him that the diamond is the mountain that the chateau rests on. Unger is bathed in a blue aquarium of rosewater, with a personal moving picture machine at his disposal, offered by the enslaved African American manservant. All is decadence and lavishness. Washington recounts the history of his family. They are descended from George Washington. His grandfather discovered the diamonds when he got lost while riding. He lied to the enslaved men who dug for him, telling them that the stones were rhinestones and that the South had won the Civil War. They never learned that slavery had been abolished, and so have remained enslaved by the Washingtons. The irony of the giant diamond was that by its revelation it would be hugely devalued. Washington senior travelled the world selling the smaller stones, many of which caused wars and