The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-17
PEARL HUNTING.
Fortune Seekers Dot the Banks of the
 Mississinpi

Mississippi
 When Marion H. Kish, of Diamond Bluff, the veteran pearl hunter, al- nounced last Thursday that he had To- cated the largest and richest clam bed ever discovered in the Mississippi he involuntarily inaugurated Klondike rush among the pearl hunters Of the great river
 The bed is said to be over a mile i'll length, seven or eight rods wide and IS estimated to be from three to i've feet in thickness. It is few miles north or Langdon, Minn., and about fifteen miles from St. Paul.
 Marion Kish is a noted pearl hunter. He discovered most of the principal clam beds on the lower Mississippi, and so when he said that he had taken some fine pearls from the new deposit his word went as gospel among the mo- madic fraternity.
 Coming through Langdon this morn ing on the Pioneer Limited, of the It. Paul railroad, l could see the broad eX- panse of the Father of Waters" dotted with boats while the shores on both sides were sprinkled with dingy gray tents, the camps of the fortune seekers. Here at Red Wing the information was furnished that "clammers" from as far down as Prairie du Chien are coming up to prospect the discovery
 It is curious but interesting fact that the Mckinley tariff is responsible for the revival of this pearl hunting industry. When triumphant democra- cy matched the Wilson tariff bill it oJ1t Of h1IttOn f1ptO- ries all over the east, and opened the doors to the French, German and Swiss product. The Mckinley tariff reversed this. and as result has put hundreds of thousands of dollars into the pock- cts Of eastern workers and western pearl hunters because there is no profit < in hunting pearls unless the shells can be disposed of These Mississippi clans, the home of the fresh water pearl, are utilized in the manufacture { of the so- called pearl buttons of com merce. The finding of pearls is the velvet of the business
 Muscatine and Prairie du Chien are the centers Of the shell trade There the blanks from which the buttons are made are punched or sawed out ana shipped by millions every year to New York, Philadelphia and New England points, where tl:e finished button IS turned out The chips or refuse, re- { maining after the blanks are cut from a shell are pulverized and sold to be used in poultry preparations
 Romance has clothed the pearl with something more than it's own beautiful lustre. It is suggestive of tropic seas, coral atols, waving palms, spice laden breezes, 1.-the, dusky figures in loin- cloth and copper anklet. with marked predilection for water and sub- aqueous prowlng among oyster beds All these are the dreamy suggestiveness of a string of pearls around the throat or beauty.
 Reality out here along the mud banks of the Mississippi despoils romance or it's charm. Thelightlcanoeo or catamaran has no counterpart in the aWkWara plank scow of the Occidental inland pearl hunter. The crystalline waters Of the tropics give place to the broWmsh sediment of a sluggish river current. ne 1.-the diver in picturesque nudlty IS the antithesis of the individual in over alls and gum boots, who has no predl- lection for water save as "chasef TOT something red, liquid and hot, and whose vocabulary of descriptive and awkward profanity would make a heather vince.
 Of course, all Mississippi pearl hunt CTS are not of this class. There are some thrifty, shrewd men among them. But the life of a pearl hunter is hard one and not conductive to comfort or religion. Of the thrifty class take Albert Frederickson, for instance, of Red Wing, Frederickson has averaged hVe | tons of shells per week. He found a pearl that netted him $1675o, and in six weeks from starting had tucked away $35O clear money in the bank.
 Pearl hunters make pretty fair wages. Two men will average five or six tons of shells per week. Early in the sea- son the factory price was $6.5O per ton son the shore It has been rising grad lually till S8.50 is the ruling figure now. Every pearl found is clear profit. About once in two weeks a steamboat with couple of barges in tow comes along and takes the shell catch down to the lower river factories.
 The Mississippi clam lies on the bot tom of the river, with it's shells half open As the hooks attached to a pole, ten feet in length, pass over and touch the shells they close on the disturbing metal with a vise-like grip, which does not relax for hours. When he thinks his hooks are full the "clammer" raises the pole. hangs it on the uprights on his scow, then, turning his craft, drops another pole into the water, and while keeping the scow broadside to the cur n1o Inncn hooks and losses them into the bottom.
 The shore outfit comprises tent shelter and usually sheet iron oblong affair twenty inches by six feet. The clans are boiled in this until the shells open and then the process of picking | over the meats" begins This is sim ply running the finger through the clam