The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-02-26
CLAIMING ON MISSISSIPPI
ron THE PEARL SHE'LL NOUN DIS
FROM WHICH BUTTONS
And Other Fancy Articles are Made,
and Which Now and Then AleIu
Gem for the Jeweler.

pursuit into a science. The blValVe:
| takef UP resemble the saltwater artl-
Gle as much as a hrinoceros resembles
an elephant. They are not MT 10 eat
they look raw, even when some adven-
turous tenderfoot boils them, and they
have a taste Weirdly compounded OF
catfish and musk They are in reality
mussels, and they are wanted not for
their meat, but for the beautiful moth
er-of-pearl Innings of the shells, from
which buttons and hundreds of fancy
articles are made. A thousand men
are engaged in this new industry, most
of them working on their own hook, and
they make from forty to one hundred
and twenty-five dollars a month, ac-
| cording to their facilities and applica-
| ton.
| The shells when dried are sold by the
ton to the local concerns that are known
as button factories, though they do not
often make buttons. They are in reali-
| ty polishing shops, and are fitted up
with vast number of steam-driven
wheels and brushes, emery circles, ETC.,
for smoothing the interiors of the shells
and grinding off the rough outer cover
ing. This material is shipped east to
factories where buttons arc made. as
well as hundreds of other useful and, in
many cases, beautiful articles. Clam
shells from the upper reaches Of the
| Mississippi river are turned into shirt
| buttons, the big buttons, sometimes as
| big as silver dollar, that are used on
women's cloaks, cuff buttons mother
of-pearl arabesques with which brushes
and combs are to be inlaid, backs of
pocket-knives, shirt studs, cheap scarf
pins, buckles, earrings, bracelets and
even finger rings. 1t required close ex-
animation by jan expert to tell this
mother-of- pearl from the genuine
South Sea article, and there is practi-
cally nc difference in structure or APP
pearance. Some of it is dull, and re-
fuses to show the opaline tints, no mat
ter what the amount Of preparatory
process to which it may be subjected,
but much of 1t is exceedingly handsome
and primarily as useful as any other
form of mother of-pearl. Opportunity
to work in material of this sort has de-
veloped a good deal of art among the
jewellers on the rivers banks and some
of the household ornaments fashioned
from the interiors of clam shells by
western men and women would not be
out of place in drawing rooms There is
in the house of Norwegian CATTLE
raiser near Viroqua, Wis, black wal
nut table inlaid with these clam bits,
and it is a marvel of taste and delicate,
painstakiug workmanship. 1t was done
by a cobbler of Lynxville, crooks shout
dpyad falJnu por,b5 JTolu11i noy,,I,,or,J1r
called Fuzzy and ita owner would not
take five hundred dollars for it. The
man put in the odd hours of one year
inserting the tiny bits, and got seventy
five dollars from his patron.
The most picturesque feature of the
industry is the constant looking for
pearls. Thousands upon thousands of
CLAIMS are opened ard examined careful
ly for every fair pearl that is discov-
cred, yet find of almost any sort is
apt to pay the searcher for his trouble
The pearls are common enough, but
generally they are not larger than a
mustard seed, and are valueess. Not
infrequently one is found that will fetch
in its raw state from four to ten dollars,
and instances are many of even greater
treasure troves Almost every man
who works at the business has pearl
of some sort carefully wrapped in cot
ton batting and slowed away, and he
will pull this out when stranger is
around and make believe to polish it on
his handkerchief and blow on it and put
1t away with an air of mystery. He
will be found willing to sell it, if prop
erly approached, but it is not often that