Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1892-01-02
PIERRE JACQUIN'S PEARL.
THE STORY OF POOR ARTISANS sTRUG-
GLE WITH POVERTY.

Artificial pearls were first made by Joaquin.
rosary maker Of Paris, in 1880. .-Encyclo-
pedia Britannica.
Two hundred years ago the Rue st
Louis was one the longest and finest of
the streets of Paris; yet, even then, there
were many dark alleys leading Off from
it - back into darkness and poverty.
Among the darkest and dirtiest of all was
the Rue de Pauvrete.
Further down, near where it joined
the Rue Blanc, the alley was a miserable
bonds. But near its head the people were
simple, quiet, ignorant folk.
1t was here. amid these quiet surround
ings that Pierre Joaquin lived, and here
that he worked in his shop-a little, low
rooted building almost lost among its
loftier neighbors.
Though the money he received for his
few strings of beads was very little, for
many years it was enough to make him
happy with his blue eyed wife and bright
faced baby at home. But a time came
when the few francs a week was not
enough.
The change came one morning in the
autumn Of 1879. The sun seldom came
to the Rue de Pauvrete, but now the
beams danced through the doorway of
Jacquin's little house and played lightly
on the floor. The mothers singing could
be heard as she went about her work, and
back and forth over the floor battered the
baby's feet. He was learning to walk,
and took great delight in it,
Suddenly the childish laughter ceased,
and the mother glanced up from her
work just in time to see her darlAng fall
through the open door onto the stone
pavement without.
For days death seemed very near, and
then the anxious parents were told that
the fresh, breezy air of the country
would restore the life so slowly and surely
ebbing away in the crowded streets.
But the money! 1t seemed to him
great fortune-more than he could ever
hope to earn in his shop. His rosaries
them only to the poorest of his neigh
bors II he only had pearls instead of
the cheap materials which he used he
might sell them to the grand people whom
he had seen on the Rue st. Louis and
had never envied till now-now, when he
would almost have died for the money
his child needed so much.
So day after day passed and there was
no hope. and all the time his child was
| dying and he could not save him. Some
times when he held in his the little hand
| once so plump and rosy, and looked into
the bright little face, so wasted now, he
was tempted TO steal. The money he
wanted, he said to himself, would never
be missed by those from whom he would
take IT, Could 1t be wrong1 Yet when
he reached forth his hand to take what
was not his he seemed to see his child's
| face always before him, and the great
blue eyes, though sad and wistful, seemed
to beg him to stop, and the little lips to
say: "Don't father; don'tl'
The leaden footed days OF autumn
and the winter SHOWS were falling. 1t
was Christmas morning, and, though
| Christmas bells were ringing and all the
shops but his were closed, Pierre Joaquin
still sat at his work on the wooden bench
in the far corner of the dark little work
room.
Before him lay alarge, handsome pearl,
which he had borrowed, and he was
working with something in his hands--a
little, hollow glass globe, much the size
and shape OF the pearl which lay before
him. The wind had blown the door oper
and the drifting snow held it ajar Tho
fire had died out in the CRATE and the frost
was gathering on the thin walls, but still
he worked on, though his fingers were
numb and weary and his eyes dull and
heavy. He had not slept through all the
night before. AT last he had hope
dim and fiickering. yet a hope-that
would not let him rest.
So impelled, he worked through all the
gloomy winter. Often in the early morn
ing he came to begin his days work, and
often when the street was dark, silent.
and deserted at night light shons
from Jacquin's shop.
He was trying to do something that
lad never been done before-to make q
pearl. Why could not pearls be made
pearls so much like real ones that no
one would suspect that they were
falses II he could only succeed. If he
could make one-onIy one-its price
would buy life for his boy.
AT the thought his heart beat quicker
and he nerved himself to his task Their
conscience awoke, for the man was By
nature simple and honest Even if-he
made pearl. could he palm the false