The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-02-09
PEARLS OF MANY COLORS.
TALUABLE GEMS FOUND IN THE
GUILE OF CALIFORNIA.

rfed ON for Centuries-Some Fnmou
Fines-Prizes That Brought Small
wards-Hardships of the Pearl Di
ver's Ltfe-ArtthciaI Pearls.
Los Angeles Cal, Jan 21.-Frank H
Bourne, Of La Paz, Mexico, has come III
the coast for vacation. He has been E
pearl fisher for thirty, years, and has
handled more than sS,40O,000 worth oil
\ pearls. For sixteen years he has been
manager of the largest earl-fishing in
stitution in the world, the Lower Cali
fornia Pearl company.
ia Paz," said Mr.. Bourne, lis many
centuries old. When Fortune Ximines
lieutenant of Cortez, discovered the
town in 1886 there were some four OF
five hundred red-skinned people living
there, and Ximines believed the spot
had been inhabited for at least seven
hundred years before that.
There are no accurate records of the
pearls taken out by the enslaved fish
ers in and about La Paz for the Span
ish down to 1921, when Mexico won her
freedom from Spain, but there can be
little doubt that in the two hundred and
seventy years Of Spanish oppression
fully sixty million dollars worth of
pearls were sent from La Paz to Spain.
The magnificent pearls which ornament
the crown of Spain were found in oys-
ter shells in the Gulf of California.
They used to find pearl of soft deli
cate blush tinge in the waters of the
gulf about Hermosillo, Mexico, and
these are the rarest pearls ever known
There were few of these in the dia-
denis Of the kingdom of France, and the
royal jewels of Spain include a dozen.
The diver who found two or three of
these blush pearls, weighing forty or
more carats, nowadays would get bo-
nus of say ten thousand dollars from
our company, and we should make
fortune besides.
IA few years ago the value of pearls
taken in at La Paz caused rush to
the ground equalling that to the gold
fields. One pearl weighed seventy-fVe
carats and was sold for fourteen thou
sand dollars; another, perfect in shape
and finely tinted, weighing forty-seven
carats, brought five thousand dollars.
One of the largest pearls found here in
the last century brought fifty thousand
dollars One of the best years for
pearls in modern times was 1881, in
which a black pearl was found of TWEEN
ty-eight carats weight which brought
ten thousand dollars in Paris In 1882
two were found, weighing thirty-one
and forty-f1ve carats, which realized
eleven thousand dollars. In 1888 light
brown pearl was found which weighed
sixty-five carats and sold for eight
thousand dollars, while pear-shaped
spotted pearl brought seventy-five hun
dred dollars
ITO illustrate how the natives are
cheated even to-day, one man found in
Guatemala a pear-shaped white pearl
of great lustre which he sold for ten
dollars to a merchant, who in turn sold
1t in Paris for f1fty-five hundred dol
lars. Last June an ignorant Mexican
who had been diving on his own ac-
count brought two rough pearls to a
clerk in general merchandise store.
The clerk gave groceries and fabrics to
the value of sixteen dollars for the
pearls, and week later sold them to
our company for six hundred dollars
The gems are now in London, where
they are easily worth three thousand or
thirty-five hundred dollars
ION the other hand, in the spring Of
1896 a boy fifteen years old found an
oyster that concealed a jewel now Of
fered for sale in Paris for ten thousand
dollars He received four thousand dol
lars for it from negro Spectator
named Justina at Guaymas. The latter
took 1t to Panama and sold 1t to Felix
Ehrman, the banker, for considerable
advance on that price.
zone of the best pearls of late years
has been called Cleopatra. 1t was per-
feet, weighed thirty-six carats and sold
for ten thousand dollars. The pearls
are divided into eight or nine classes,
the lowest grade being imperfect and
rough pieces; the highest are large and
symmetrical and range in price from
three hundred and fifty to a thousand
dollars, and from pure white with rich
lustre to black and metallic hues and
pink.
ssFormelly we sent pearls to London |
and Germany, as well as to Paris, but |
now the demand seems to be greatest |
at Paris, and, altogether, we can do bet |
ter there than anywhere else. The I
strange thing to me is that Americans
place a higher value on the pearls after ,
they have been to Paris. They could
really buy them cheaper at home, if
they only chose to.
"a teacupful of pearls and about
thirty-fiv hundred tons Of shells is a ,
profitable year for us. The shells are ,
sold to buyers, who come from French,
Dutch and New England button facto-
ries. One firm at Brussels has stand
ing order with us for two thousand tons
of mollusk shells of certain variety each
wear. A teacupful Of pearls of the av-
erage size, color and shape is worth
from one hundred and forty
to one hundred and ninety thousand
dollars But in such quantity of
gems there will very likely be a dozen
or twenty pearls of extra fine color and
rare size, SO that the value of the sea-
sons work is enhanced twenty or thirty
thousand dollars
s"The colors of the pearls found in the
Gulf of California are white, blue, black
and green, and the best are worth from
pne to four thousand dollars each. The
finest pearl found is a black pearl of
seventeen carats weight. The green
and blue pearls are not found anywhere
nxcent along the Lower California