The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1896-11-07

yellow sandstone along the Baltic
shores. There are regularly operated
amber mines in east Prussia, at Pal
micken, and it is also picked from the
cliffs, much as placer miners find goldin
California pockets. Consequently am
Der is no longer more valuable than
gold, but on the contrary it is on the
market at from two to fifty dollars per
pound, according to it's quality. It is
no longer used for knives and forks, but
is most generally used for mouth pieces
on meerschaum and other pipes. It is
no longer n of the mysteries Of the
world, but one of the commodities. But
the specimens found in various places
in peculiar conditions, still find their
way into The cabinets of the collectors
of curios.
Here is something as wonderful as
the amber containing insects. Look At
this diminutive Chinese god. It is q
perfect pearl, and yet you must know
that no sculptor could ever have CHS
eled it and polished it SO perfectly.
Pearls are morbid symptoms ia oy
tiers. If a bullet is imbedded il humsn
flesh and not extracted, and the man
lives, the bullet becomes ~encysted.
ture forms a coating around IL.
is exactly what is done by nature ipk
the p~earl-bearing oysters. All along tha
Chinese coast this fact is taken adyan-
tage of. The cunning Cinnamon know
that if a grain of sand gets inside Of
the she'll of the oyster, nature wilrform
coating after coating Of pearly secre-
ton around the disturbing particle
thereby protecting the oyster from irri
tation.
"Some ingenious Chinaman fashioned
this little god, and then forced open the
shell of a large oyster, and put the god
inside. Nature proceeded to cover the
intruding object with numerous score
tions, until behold we have a perfect
pearl god; and it is indeed n Of the
wonders of my collection. The oyster
assaulted must have been a large one.
It is not unlikely that this experiment
may have been tried on a number of oys-
tiers before one was found strong and
healthy enough to live and cover the
idol with pearl.
"The Cinnamon make a regular bust
ness of raising pearls, and they intro
duce all sorts of little objects into the
oyster shells. 1t is a difficult thing to
pry open the oyster shell without break
ing it. The live oyster shuts his mouth
pretty tight. and it requires patience,
experience and skill to force open the
lips just far enough without killing
the mollusk. OF course, all pearls ara
not artificially produced; in fact only
a small proportion of them. But al
of the curiosities are the result Of Chi.
nese manipulation. The pearl divers
bring oysters to the surface for food
as well as for their pearls. They risk
their lives on all occasions, for the
ocean is full of sharks, and many a diver
has gone gayly at his work, never to b.
seen again on earth. He has becom'
food for some one of the monsters o
the deep. / have read some wonderful
stories of fights which pearl divers hav,
had with sharks, in which the diver
d have come out victorious by striking
the sharks behind the p~ectoral fin witt
long, keen knives. 1t is narrated Of on
diver that he made a fortune by kill
ing two sharks in one day, one 80 fee
long, and the other IS feet long. II
was called the bravest man on earth
d and was made captain of the bodyguarl
/ Of his king.
d "Now, with these few pointers abou
a. amber and pearls, if you win go to th
Iy Smithsonian institution and study I'll
j, immense collection there you viii I'm
u much to interest you and your reader:
IN You should also look at the CRYSTAL
to The word crystal comes from the Gree
Id word K~rystallos, which means ice. III
i. aEcients believed crystal to be ice i
u thoroughly CONCEALED that no amour
RS Of heat would melt it. That is one q
u the exploded fctions Of ancient sciencl
IS Nearly all of the jewels Of nature hav
their histories and their legends. Eve
r until this day some Of our ladies has
$ their theories concerning lucky stone
n unIucky stones, birth stones, and 4
a that sort Of thing. Anovelist once mad
q q fortune writing a novel about I'll
moonstone. Everybody read j. Ever.
= body loves the mysterious"
se SMITH Z. FRY.
n -Anastasius rarely spoke. II is b
d, lieved Tint he had some defect of n