The Iola register., 1902-05-09
An Arkansas Industry.


ness takes him into the White river
region of Arkansas, Ark, in a re-
cent letter to an lola friend makes the
following interesting comment:
| "It has been known for several
years that there were pearls in the
White river, Arkansas, mussels 'and
notices of valuable finds have oc-
casionally appeared in the papers.
But it is only within the last year
that the business of hunting them has
assumed important proportions. The
most productive beds seem to lie in
the neighborhood of Newport, Ark,
and Jacksonport, and some fifteen or
twenty miles along the course of the
stream, and the people of that vicinity
have been gradually giving more at
tenton to the business until within
the past three or four months it has
become veritablecraze. Everybody
who can get to the river goes 'pearl
ing" OF course it is uncertain bust.
ness; one may work year and find
|
tune with very little labor.
Recently they have been very sue
cessful. Valuable pearls are brought
to the buyers at Newport every day
and "Slugs" or imperfect pearls are
in everybody's hands. OF course
every valuable find adds to the excite
ment and starts new pearlers into the
business.
"While | was there one day last
week an old negro woman, who had
thrown up her job as cook in u family
in town to hunt pearls, came in with a
beauty which Ishe sold for $1,000. A
negro man on the same day found one
worth two thousand dollars. 1t
weighed something over one hundred
grains. The day before white man,
an ex-section foreman found a pearl
valued at $500. These were excep-
tionally fine specimens; the ordinary,
or average, being worth anywhere
from ten dollars up to one or two hun
dred.
"The process of getting the mussels
oysters. Those who can afford it
have Hat boat with a hole through
the bottom through which they oper-
ate pair of tongs or grab hooks
which bring up about a peck of shells
at time. These are then dumped in
to "A vat of hot water kept on board
and as the shells open the flesh is
scraped out and the cleaned shell
thrown aside. The fisher then goes
through the meat carefully after his
pearl, and lastly the flesh is turned
over to the hogs.
"While there is no certainty of
finding the gems, the operator is sure
of a good days wages from the fact
that the empty shells find ready mark
ct at nine dollars per ton loaded in
the car and a thousand pounds of
shells is only fair days work.
"An idea of the proportions of the
/ business can be gathered from the
fact that since last July over three
hundred car loads of shells have been
shipped from Newport alone They
go to button factories IN several diff
ferent states, and many Iof them are
shipped to Germany and Austria
81 spoke of getting the shelsout by
means of boat: That is the aristo-
cratic way of doing it. Generally the
Pearler can afford only hand tools,
pitch fork or garden rake and with
these he wades in the water all day
raking out the shells, and saturating
his frame with malaria. Another de-
vice is to take a piece of gas pipe six
or eight feet long, run a lot of fine
wires through it and make brush of
them on one end. This he prods down
into the water and whenever a wire
happens to enter the open shell of a
mussel he closes on it with what is
literally his death grip and is brought
to the surface and scraped off into
the hot water bath.
The Pearl beds in White river seem
to be practically inexhaustible. The
banks along that part of the stream
are lined with Campers and the river
covered with boats of all descrip-
tions.
Second District Populists.
The Peoples party congressional
convention of the Second Kansas dis
trict c tn he held in Fort Scott Dos-