The sun., 1903-12-06


IN front and he gray Of the great Australian |
assert il behind and the we'll ordered cities |
\, civilization are so far away as to be only |
memory, the pearl fishing feet which |
srnnlIes half the treasures OF Maiden lane |
srd Ha,ton Garden is assembling from
million islands to wait till the bad season
has passed and. with the coming OF March, |
the seas shall be safe again.
# brings in a load OF treasure and mixed |
horde Of reckless, thirsty men; and In all |
the commonwealth Of Australia, from early
necember to late in March, there is no
community SO wild and lawless as Broome
A. other times the town, such as 1t Is, lan'
euishes. waiting till the sail OF the first
ill.,mellng ugger breaks the line Of horizon
signalling the return Of the pearling feet.
You will have hard Job finding Brooms
on the map. The Gazetteer takes no cog
rizance Of it, and some even OF the latest |
aliases know it not at all.
BIZ, away up in Dampier Land. in the
northern part of Western Australia q thous- |
and miles above the thriving city OF Perth
and,he ighboring penal settlement Fre-
mantle, you will see that the sandy coast
line rises little and then bends inward
into fine bay. And there In tiny har-
hor, lost in the reduced perspective Of the
man which ia kes In all Australia. Is Broome,
the headquarters OF the pearl fishing in
dustry Of the Far Eastern seas.
treede was wicked and Tombstone was
hyless and hundred other mining camps
in our own West were bad in the days when
the West was wild and woolly. But life
was held dear In Tombstone and Creede,
and their degrees Of badness were mild
IN comparison with the sordid wickedness
Of this community on the edge OF civiliza-
tion into which the wealth OF the Indian
Ocean is now being poured. Any AUS
tralian will tell you that
There was one turned up in Frisco week
or so ago, and he was fresh from Broome
and full OF stories about it and the pearl
fishing Of the Far East He was hardly
more than a boy, big and loose jointed,
with face and arms Drowned to the hue
Of brick ear tips almost blaokened by
long exposure to severe heat, and massive,
powerful hands caloused with hard work.
He had come by way OF Melbourne. and
he was seeking his folks, who he had heard
had moved from homo Chome" to an Aus
traan is England) to the United States.
He was lonely, and had been away from
his own kind with yellow men and brown
men and had come back to the world sue
ce-siul, and wanted every body to know it.
So all the way across the Pacific he talked
with the rest In the smoking room OF the
wind life and the fortunes made IN IT where
he had come from.
Pm not myself just now" be told the
group In the smoking room. I've been
down with fever and I've not yet got oyer
wondering at my still being alive But
fayer. erN one ~ worth % 600 and the other worth
more than half that and left my chum
~, nJ Broome to look after things and I m going
70 Gnd my folks, and then | go back to
llbourne 70 have the time Of my life,
YIN au oyster shell gatherer. the best
paying business on earth, and come from
the jumping Of place. way up in Dampier
Land
There's the place; Tho boats will DO
noon and night, till they sail again In March.
Your head needs to be hard up, In Broome,
DRINK There isn't q word to tell It,
You won't see so much champagne ior
rs in Broome. Men just float in liquor
And Broome's no Sunday school when the
shell fishers are in.
Everybody is rich then and everybody
drinks. Let twenty men meet IN par ana
each man must have twenty drinks before
they part.
You can't refuse to drink with man
without offending him, and you don't onend
II your gun isn't handy up in broome., And
You don't wait for oorksorews., Knock
the tops of the bottles and pour down the
izz
The pearls are the tit-bts. The oyster
shells alone pay. But bit of luck will
make you rich. It's all luck
Il was lucky and made the fnd OF the
year. But l know man who went for
SIX years without finding stone Then
he struck one worth 5000.
Your divers steal them il you don't
keep your eyes open. There's Malay
in Broome to-day who has a st one worth
thousands There's no other such pearl
in the world but no one can get at It for he
20, il on the cross and is afraid TO show
or sell il.
Il tried to do business with him. The
beggar's fond of liquor and i made up
to HIM and became his best friend
shouted unlimited tizz, and after a day or
two | got him in Il condition where he was
to bring me the stone the next day and sell
II 10 me for $5OO.
But bv the next day he'd vanished and
! was ont SIS for champagne, The niger
came out on top in that deal
Somebody in the smoking room limited
a. the consequences OF dealing in stolen
goods
,p-haw." said the pearl fisher. Were
talking of Broome."
He was asked about the treasure mines
in tho sea and told about them The pearls
are really a side iss,Ie. The oyster shells
from which pearl ornaments are maze
are he staple,
One ortwo large firms Of London jewellers
own most of the fishing boats, which are
llggers manned by half dozen men
usually, one white man and four or fve
natives, one firm has twenty boats. Al
together there are about 400. The rest
are individual ventures.
1T takes about 81, 900 to equip you, said
the pearl fisher "I've known men TO start
with less. but you need that much. For
that Won buy your lugger. stock her with
wears provisions, pay your diver his
$50 advance money-they all demand
ina' hecaise It's risky work-hre three
Sialays from the agent and start.
Some of the divers are Malays and some
are laps Give me the little Jap all the
time
Tn" divers the important man. for you
remaln above water while he's down below
gathering in your harvest. Besides his
advance money you pay him 500 on every
'oh Of shells he brings up.
The Divers life il short at best. Some
un.s he first plunge ends him.
lie has TO work at great depths and the
water pressure may Kill him at any time.
knew a man whose diver was done the
hrst time he went below-burst a blood
vessel in his head under the pressure. The
llgg"r had to go back empty and the owner