Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-20
LITTLE MIAMI IPEARLS.
The Most Famous Fresh Water Pearl
Fishery of Modern Times.
A PECULIAR OHIO INDUSTRY.
Evidence That the Aborigines Fished fol
Pearls in Ohio Rivers.
SINGLE JEwELS FOUND WORTH $500
WRITTEN FOR THE p1sPATcH.1


luxury and magnifcence; of the olive skins
and tawny tresses of its women, against
which its irridescent hues CLEAN out as they
never can against the paler beauties of the
North.
Old Richard Allison wrote of
Orient pearl. double row
and Wilson told how
Morn advancing,
Strews the earth with orient pearl;
as if it were so entirely product of the East
that 1t was hardly to be thought of except
as an adjunct of oriental and barbaric
splendor.
Again, in the general mind, pearls are as
sociated with salt water, with deep seas and
hazardous adveuturing down where ocean
monsters, terrible and grim, make their
habitat.
In the old biographies, in use when we
who are now men were school boys, and
perhaps still used somewhere, was picture
OF pearl-diver, attired in a cofee-colored
cuticle, plunging down, down, down toward
the floor of old ocean, while various lepi-
dopus, petromyzon, histiophorus, chon-
dropterygians and other monsters of the
deep follow in hot pursuit.
How vividly our boyish Imagination pic
tured the horror and agony of the Hnlucky
diver when on the return trip he would
drift within reach of their awful jaws.
Such object lessons of the dangers that
were braved in the pursuit of pearls helped
to give an exaggerated idea of their rarity
and value.
Now that our latest knowledge of the
methods by which pearls are acquired has
in measure done away with this feeling of
awe and strangeness, it might be to the pc
cuniary advantage of the pearl merchant to
resurrect that ancient woodcut and give it
it wider circulation.
While no mere fact can dim the exquisite
luster of the pearl, or detract one iota from
its place as the peerless queen of Jewels, it
is no less true that in this as in all else,
ITALY lieth over the Alps"
THE PEARLS INCEPTION.
The grain of sand (if it is grain of sand)
covered over and added to by successive
layers of the nacre of the oyster, appeals
more to the romantic sense if it comes from
some far and unknown coast than If formed
and found in the shallow waters of some
native stream.
Nothing could be less strange to an
American than the place and methods OF the
most famous of fresh-water pearl fisheries of
modern times.
The Little Miami river is a small tribu-
tary of the Ohio, which traverses three or
four of the southwestern counties of the
State of Ohio, emptyilg into the larger river
at Cincinnati.
Through Warren county 1t is confined
within a narrow valley that is rich in in
terest to the geoiogist and the antiquarian.
The river is small and shallow. The country
~ -
sometimes hilly. but not rugged nor pre-
cipitous. Upon this stream, in the north
ern part of the county, stands the pleasant
little village of Waynesville, for 20 years
past the center of pearl industry of no
Insignificant proportions.
Tradition says that its advent was pre-
ceded by the appearance of a mysterious
Hebrew, who went knocking around the
rocks with his geological hammer, and found
evidences of such wonderful genealogical
formation that he suggested pearls to the
natives as being more than possibility in
their river. It is more probable, however.
that they were first met "by chance, the
usual way" although the footprints of time |
left upon the limestone formation of the lit |
tie valley are suggestive of almost every-
thing in the heavens, upon the earth and in |
the seas. |
But however the first pearl happened to
be found and recognized as a thing of value, |
ever since that time the industry has been |
pursued in a more or less desultorv way. and |
thousands of dollars worth of the little |
gems have found their way from that quiet |
hamlet to the markets of the world.
SEARCHING FOR JEWELS.
Those who engage principally in the |
search for pearls comprise that fotsam and !
jetsam of the population that all towns
have. Disciples of Isaac Walton, who are
endowed with the infinite gift of patience;
men who are constitutionally opposed to
steady labor; callow youths who fondlv
hope to meet fortune from the rivers
bosom; and the traditional small boy,
whose active hands and sharp eyes often
enable him to outstrip all competitors.
In the spring, as soon as the water is
warm enough to permit, the searchers NAV
be seen wandering barefooted and bare
legged in the river, collecting the mussels
or fresh water mollusks, in which the pearls
are contained. They drag little boats or
floats after them, and when they feel a she'll
under foot it is brought to the surface and
on the float When number are
collected they go ashore with their cargo
and open the shells in any convenient place
|
on the bank.
The pearls are usually found upon the lip
of the shell at the point farthest from the
hinge, and covered by the fine finn of the
mantle. 1t is usually loose or attached TO
the shell so slightly as to be easily removed.
however, it has become so incor-
porated with the latter as to require the
services OF an expert lapidary for its re-
moval.
1t is not on the whole, an industry that's
even fairly remunerative to its followers.
Upon an average more than 100 shells are
opened for each pearl found; and sometimes
the labor of successive days and weeks
brings no reward at all. When the search
is successful the 'fnds" run in value from
the merest trife to occasionally some hun
dreds of dollars. The largest sum ever re-
ceived by the finder for a single pearl was
S425. But there is authentic record of one
OF greater value, found many years since.
and first sold for 500, which has subse.
uuently changed hands at the augmented
prices of $500, $1,000, $1,000 and finally
81, 800.
The next in value to these, for which the
finder received $3.50, was fine gem found
by q lad in pile OF emptied shells, where
it had been overlooked as they were opened.
After these the scale declines rapidly, and
an ordinary "lucky find" is perhaps pearl
worth S25 at first hands, while those worth
S5O, $75 or S1OO are extremely rare.
A VALUABLE INDUSTRY.
The industry reached its highest some
ten years ago, at which time it was so
eagerly pursued that the river was nearly
of mussels, not enough being
left for breeding purposes to keep up the
supply. A less thorough warfare has re-