The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-09-26
MEERSCHAUM NINE.
A MAN WHO THINKS HE HAS
FOUND ONE IN OREGON.
The Difference Between the Genuine
Article and Kaolin-Where All tho
Meerschaum Comes From-Consump-
ton in the United states.


Meerschaum Comes From-Consump-
ton in the United states
A subscriber in Oregon sends q sort of
Macedonian cry for help i'll the form of in
formation about meerschaum. He doesn't,
say why he wants it, but gentleman who Is
famous artist carver of ivory and meer-,
schaum, and who probably knows moro
about the latter article than anybody else in
The country, readily OWNED what started
Linn up.
''He has found bed of kaolin, or China
clay, and thinks he has struck meerschaum
mine. Persons have been doing that fire.
quently i'll different parts of the country, and.
In that way some of the finest and most valu-'
able laOlin deposits have been found. 1t is a
good thing to have people looking out for
anything of value, for even if they don't get
what they are after they are likely to catch
something else. But anybody can tell very
easily the difference between genuine meer-
srhaum and kaolin or any other clay. Wet u
piece of meerschaum with your tongue and
then cut shaving off it with sharp knife,
50. You see it curls up into a regular shay
ing. Now, try that with n lump of clay and
you Will see that all you cut OFF falls into.
dust. III you have a microscope you can APP
ply a still more conclusive test. Break n bit
Of meerscilaum, and under the microscope,
Its fracture Will show that il is entirely COM,
posed OF the most infinitely Aromatic cookie
shells conceivable, twisted and matted to-
gether into solid mass. Nothing else looks.
like it.
But | should not be ~ all surprised if
meerschaum were to be discovered some
where III this country some day. We have
pretty much everything that is found in any
other part of the world. Why, do You know,
finer amber is discovered in this country than
comes from the old world. l don't know
where it is found, but somewhere in Mexico. l
believe, and it is in large, clear, flaw less,
pieces very often. There are specimens of
amber i'll the Columbia college museum.
taken from coal formations i'll this country,
and have an idea that our aIlbcr is a solidi-
he'll ami petrificd petroleum You know that
nobody has ever rightly determined yet what
amber il, although il is supposed 10 he some
kind of a petr-ified gum. Well, it stands To
reason that if we have the amber we ought.
to have racerschaum also, or natures design
to supply us with the hest pipe material of
home production would be n failure But
until we lind it we have still To depend
upon the same source of supply that tho
world has had To rely upon since the days ok
fhny, who knew about much concerning
this foam of the sea- as we do to-day
ITO answer the questions of your Oregon
correspondent: All the meeiSchaum comes
from little place called Eskischia in Asia,
Minor, where it Is found at a depth of about
hfty feet unler ground; but how il is found
only the Turks who find it know. Those
Turks are very religious MohammclanS, and
an article of their faith seems to be the duty
OF killing any Christians who come about
there asking questions concerning the meer-
schaum. They have kept up that practice for
so many centuries that they have finally
really made it a habit. They don't even eli
courage their coreligionists in impcrtinent.
curiosity about it. Merchants who deal in it,
and live within five miles of where IT is pro
duced, have never visited the mines They
are phfosophic people, and prefer Iiv-
Ing rather than knowing. When the
stuff comes out of the ground it has much
foreign matter OF some sort clinging to it,
and minglng with parts of it. All that is
carefully cut away, leaving only the pure
white material, in the strangest, most irregu-
lar, and fantastic shapes conceivable AS it
is trimmed with n sharp knife the workman
rubs it with thick oily leaf that gives it a
handsome polish for the market 1t is not
sold by weight, but by quantity, its value
being determined by its lightncSs and the size
of the pieces i'll which it is. IL sells nv the
box, an arbitrary measure. The box is about
three feet long, twelve inches wide, and
twenty inches high The contents of one
box may be worth only $50, and of another
$500, The former will consist of perhaps 800
small pieces, while in the latter Will be only
sixty or seventy,
The consumption in the United States
amounts to about 600 boxes a year Six or
eight years ago it reached probably l 500, but
the demand has fallen off one-third in con-
sequence of the decline in pipe smoking-or
at least abandonment of the practice by SO
many of those who could afford to smoke
meerschaum pipes.
"The business in it has fallen off a great
deal, but there still is, and always will be,
sufficient demand for it to make it very well
worth any mans while to find an American
mine of it. That reminds me that the article
that came much nearer to the real Nicer
schaum than any other thing have ever seen
that was not meerschaum, was found up in
Vermont | fancy that II must be kind OF
partly petrified wood, 1t was very light,
white streaked with darker shades, and had
a fibrous grain, very different from nicer
schaum in that respect,
"Meerschaum carving Is not so good bust
ness now as it used to be. 4 good carver
earns from SIS to $40 week, ana in excep-
tionai cases ga. The payment is generally a
weekly salary, and not often by the piece. 1t
would be difficult to find any basis for pay
ment by the piece, as each bit of carving is a
job 10y itself. The artistic carver must be
able 10 see design in the strange, fantastic
shape OF each lump, and get it out SO as To
utilize all that is possible of the material
That lump, for instance. weuld give u large
handsome bowl from that end here would
como OUT t'."cc deer the buck, with branch
ing El!t!UIs, LANDING, one doe standing and
another lying down; foliage in the back
ground ON the bowl; grass under foot and
here a tree stump. All that the carver will
Tut out and finish handsomely in from two
and a half 10 three hours; the cost of his work
will be about 81, and the bowl viii sell for
s3Ji ut wholesale. What tho retail price will
be depends upon how much the customer
wants II, The finished bowls are dipped in
boiled wax 20 fill up the pores of the exterior,
60 rs TO arrest the evaporation Of the oil from
the tobacco and retain it near the surface,
where u acquires tho rich color for which
llecT2~ laH!a Is ramnus"-New York Sun.
The Grasshopper and the Ant.