The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-02-02

!
began with the invention Of glass, an
the Egyptians, Carthaginians an
Phoenieians generally were skille
craftsmen at bead making. Thei
methods were much the same as ma,
be seen to-day In Venice, or any othe
chief seat of the art. Long rods o
colored glass are fused and twisted to
gether into the pattern required an,
pieces then pinched off the blended 70,
and pierced while semi-fuid. Choice
specimens. such as those which are t,
initiate jewels or have special patterns
must be more carefully prepared, bu
the process is simple and uniform TO
the larger portion of the beads used a
home in dress trimmings and for com
merce abroad.
with strings Of such. made fo
them, no doubt, in Italy, the Spanish
] conquerors under Cortez and Pizarr
brought up their gold and lands from
the color loving Caciques. With tons
and scores of tons of such prodigiou.
| trade is to-day conducted over Africf
and other parts of the globe, and Il
would astonish many new wearers o.
beads to learn how immense is theil
production and how wide their distri
button. Venice alone has long beer
accustomed to send forth every ter
years three hundred and twenty thou.
sand quintals of beads, worth sixty-t1ve
million lire, and in many other spots a
steady manufacture is always proceed
ing to supply the Unsuitable demands OF
| Zanzibar. But the trade has to be
| most carefully studied. To do good
business in any native town you must
have the right sort of bead with you.
A blue with white stripes will not serve
where scarlet with plack dropAis want
ed. In the go-downs Of Zanzibar, and
in offices which could be named in
Bevis Marks, they keep cards display
ing at least four hundred kinds of
beads for African traffic. Many Of
them are extremely pretty, many very
curious and grotesque, and most or all
of them bear distinguishing names.
Some of the native appelations are
highly significant: there are, for in
stance, 'cow's-eyes.' the snake tooth.
drop of honey swallows eggs blood
beads and milk beads while one i'm
portant kind is known in native mar
kets as the town breaker because peo-
pie will fight to any extent for it's pos
session. Aware of the taste of each To-
cality the traders 60 UP country. car
rying 'eundos' of assorted bead strings
with which they know how to buy any
thing any everything at fine profit.
Even a woman who had the luck to be
wearing a thread of town breakers at
the right time and spot in East Africa,
or a necklace of 'gri-gri' on the west
coast, might occasionally purchase a
big estate with her baubles.
'These black people in their passion
for beads show true artistic taste.
They are thousand times right to adj
mire the lovely decision of color which
in a simple glass bead makes itself pre-
cious against a sister bead or the soft
tints Of the human skin. They justly
regard the well made article as a piece
of true jewelry, solid and durable; but
you could not get them to buy the frail
false pearls which are equally manu-
featured in Venice and elsewhere by
blowing tiny spheres of milky glass;
and filling these up with bleak scales
dllu Wsth. L hS uGsNN DcIlG IlluSL nave
her ornaments substantial, since they
will pass through many rude proof in
cave and kraal. And your we'll made
Venetian bead will practically last for
ever, unchanged in beauty There
must be plenty of beads worn at this
day in Africa which were left there by
the traders of King Solomon, who traf-
licked to Ophir, or those more daring
mariners of Tyre and Sidon, who sailed
for trade to the land of Punt, and per-
haps even to the Zambesi river
another considerable employment
for the bead industry is derived from
the practice of carrying and using rosa
ries. 1t would amaze the public to
know how vast is the demand made by
the religious world in this direction.
Not only do countless members of The
Roman Catholic community tell their
beads in reciting the Ave Marys' and
Paternosters,' but other large churches
employ the rosary, and are constantly
asking for new supplies and patterns.
A Levantine merchant, not only when |
lie is at devotions, but in the market
place and at the cafe. loves to roll be-
Ween his brown fingers and thumb the !
oft, smooth globes of a well turned
IND delicately mounted rosary of ivory
n shell or amber or pink and White co.
al. 1t is to be feared that he very Of
en- reckons his bargains with it, using