St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-11-25
ANGER FROM THE OCEAN.
IT rs THE HARDENED GUM OF AN
EXTINCT TREE.
STORY OF A GERMAN DEALER.

Very Little Genuine Amber Comes
to America-The Industry s.s-
tablished in Germany by Royal
Century-TaIks With Various
Travellers.
The register at the Ryan yesterday
bore the characteristic autograph OF "a
Becker, East Prussia, Germany" MIR.
Becker was seen at his room, and gave
out some very interesting information
Oh a subject of which but little is
known. He is a member of the firm of
Stantien d Becker, who own and oper-
ate the two greatest amber mines III Inc
world, the Anna" and the "Palmnlck-
en-" These mines are located on the
north coast of the Baltic sea, III what is
known, so Mr.. Becker said, as 1.-The
cold Samland.' These mines furnish
over 90 per cent Of The amber sold to the
markets of the world. The present
business was founded by Mr.. BecKer's
father, MoritZ Becker, some forty years
generally, said:
Our firm supplies over 80 per cent of
the amber and amberoid sold in the mar
kets of Europe, Great Britain, Asia,
Japan, China and America. Amberold
is the result of small pieces of amber
compressed into one solid mass by
hydraulic pressure. We employ in our
mines and manufacturing processes
about 1000 people, who prepare our
products for the market, ready for the
manufacturer. We make no manufact-
ured goods. Our output Is the crude
material. and amounts annually to about
S1.00O,OOO.' Mr.. Becker then exhibited
all elegant cigarette holder of whitisn
amber ornamented with gold. This
little holder" said he, exclusive OF its
mountings, is worth S." Continuing, he
said: Every little of the real amber Is
shipped to the United States. Most of
that which is called amber here Is only
amDeroid. Amber is the gum of a cunlfer,
or evergreen tree, but of what species,
no one knows. 1t belonged to the first
period of vegetation of the earth. No
one knows il what cline these trees
grew, and no fossil traces of them are
left for The ge0loglSt. 1t is not lmprob-
able that they produced amber and were
stately trees millions of years ago. We
have certain traces, however. that give
us ali excellent idea of the time the gum
left the parent tree, such as insects and
particles of vegetable matter, entomOed
in amber aud faithfully preserved to
this modern time. Our firm had an
amber exhibit at the worlds fair IN the
German mining department, where we
had samples from the amber museum at
KONG Sburg, Prussia, founded by my
father ten years ago. 1t may be of some
interest for ne to state that my father
holds the royal title of Secret Consul of
Commerce, conferred upon him by En-
perOr Wilhelm |.
by the way, it might be of GER
tam interest for Inc to give you briefly
the theory of DR.. r. KlebS, of Konigs-
berg, as to amber He is the highest
authority on this subject in the world.
lie says that there are 1000 different
varieties of insects found imprisoned in
amber. and this gives us a pretty cor
rect idea OF the fauna in the remote age
III which they lived. They give US be
SIDES evidences of that period of which
we have no other traces. 1t is very i'll
tereStlhg to compare these insects with
those OF our own day. Some are identi-
cal with those now existing, as the COM
mon fly, for example. Others again are
entirely different, showing extinct spe-
cleS. DR.. KlebS' theory is THAT the
amber was carried to East Prussia dur
ing the glacial epoch and embedded
IN the blue earth, where it is
found. This blue earth is very
heavy clay, and the strata vary in thick
ness from three to tWenty-Seven feet.
DR.. klebS considers that this imbedLing
process occurred i'll what biologists
term the tertiary period.
The right TO mine amber or to take
it from the sea dates back to the time
the first knights who coloniZed East
Prussia appeared-in the fifteenth cent
ury. They had the primary right to
mine. Subsequently the right merged
III the government, which granted the
privilege to private parties for an an
nual consideration. My firm pays to
the Prussian government every year
100000 marks for the right, which
equals about S250,000 in your money.
We mine and market between eighty
and ninety different sizes of am
Der for shipping. The largest
and most perfect specimens are
made into mOuthpieceS for pipes, ETC.,
and the smaller pieces are made into
the beautiful amber varnish, which is
largely used i'll the interiors of steam
loillptlu COuCilCS anu Oll HE
ture."
Mr.. Becker expects to remain in st.
Paul for day or SO, and will then go
west to Washington. where ne will in
dulge i'll hunting elk. After that he
will visit China and Japan before re-
turning 10 the fatherland.
~
Senator Hansbrough. of North Da-
kota, is at the Merchants, Ell route to
Washington for the regular session
Of congress. Mr.. Hansbrough, al
though a strong Republican, remains
rank siiverite. Asked concerning his
views on the national situation as af-
fected by the repeal of the Sherman
siiver-purchasing act, he gave vent to
the following sarcastic reply:
Il am surprised to read in Secretary