Los Angeles herald., 1909-07-22
I'm CEYLON'S SPICY ISLE
IV-THE JEWELS OF OPHIR
By Frederic j. HaSkin

West Ridgeway was from Missouri"
He believed that the pearl oyster could
be made to work for the Brlton SIX OF
seven days In the week every year IL
properly treated. With corps OF ma
rine biologists he set to work to learn
something about the habits of the crus-
tacean, and why he sometimes talled
to appear and deliver himself gem
laden, to John Bull. One result was
work in five volumes discussing the
oyster. Another was the organization
of q company which offered to lease
the pearl banks and attempt pearl Gull
ture for a period of twenty years
This was in conformity with the
theory of the marine biologists that the
oysters need something to hold TO IN
order that they may not be driven
away by rough weather or strong cur
rents. Masses of rubble are now being
planted as footholds for the pearl oys-
ters which have cable-like tentacie
for anchoring TO the ocean bed.
Whether there is anything valuable TO
practical pearl fishers in the five vol
umes reposing in the British Royal So
ciety's library Is question which time
alone may answer. In the meantime
there is much discussion in Colombo
and London as to whether the snare
holders in the Ceylon company OF Pearl
Fishers, limited, will come out ahead.
Two fat years were followed by two
lean years, the last of which was 1909.
The shrewdest of the Dutch governors
of Ceylon suggested century ana
half ago the leasing of the pearl BANKS
but nobody came forward to venture
upon such a speculative unoertaAiils'
If the corporation succeeds a pic
turesque feature of the pearl fishing
will be eliminated. Formerly pearling
was a lottery in which all sorts and
conditions of Ceylonese participated
and in which all amounts from cents
which bought one oyster on the sea-
shore. to thousands of rupees were ven
tured' In the halcyon days, first at
Silavaturai and then at Marichchlk-
kaddi which became the pearl me-
ropolis of the world because IT was
nearer the Cheval and other producing
"paars," a Monte Carlo existed when
the northeast monsoon blew across the
Gulf of Mannar. When the press or
India and Ceylon announced pearl
fishery all roads from the Malabar
coast, from Alden, from Tuticorin, from
Madras and Kilakari, led to the scene
of the looting of the ocean floor. Black
men, brown men and yellow men or
various races and countries came down
to Ceylon to dive for pearls. Strange
looking craft from many ports put IN
at MarlchchikkaddI with divers to
swell the army of nude deep sea ath-
letes whose capacity for good work
depended upon their ability to go down
with enough air in their lungs to OUT
last rivals of inferior physique.
There we're rich pearl merchants from
Asian cities, with lakhs of rupees
wherewlth TO purchase pearls worth
fortunes. many OF them holding COM
missions from Oriental princes.
Equipped with a safe. pair of scales
red cloth called an oppakku, and an
expert knowledge of pearls, these men
sat in the open street in front OF their
quarters and drove bargains OF such
magnitude that the nonchalance or
purchaser and vendor mught have Civ
en- a stock broker thrills OF admiration.
Spectators who were in the market
for oysters by the thousands rubbed
shoulders with the needy adventures
who hoped to invest a rupee in the
lottery, draw a pearl-bearing oyster
and become independent for life. The
regular price for single oysters was the
equivalent of two cents In American
money, and the "pikers" at the pearl
city were as numerous, as optimistic
and as poor as the students of the
dope" who used to follow the races In
the United States with the hope or
running a shoestring up to a tan
yard" Now that corporation has
taken over Ine uSnefleS the BdtuDllnS
feature upon the beach is eliminated,
but many conservatives in Colombo
business circles insist that ere long it
will be proved that the scene of the
speculation has merely been trans
ferred from the beach to the stock
exchange.
Less creditable to Ceylon than her
famous pearl fisheries is the merchan-
disng in precious stones that is fol-
lowed in the lobbies of Colombo hotels.
Here native merchants carry dazzling
stocks of many colored gems in bits Of
cloth. They confldentially whisper to
the "tenderfoot" tourist of unprece-
dented bargains. Real bargains are
sometimes found, but all that glitters
is not blue sapphire and all that
CLEANS is not cats eye, ruby, red gar
net, amethyst or tourmaline. Though
the Singalese gem merchant is guile
less looking, for ways that are dark
and tricks that are vain he is the peer
of Bret Harte's heather Chinese. Yet
despite the speculative feature of her
pearl fisheries and the frauds perpe-
trated In Colombo, Ceylon today, with
her two hundred gem mines, is still
Ophir, 1.-The isle OF jewels"
Tomorrow-In CeylOn's Spicy Islo-v: The
Great Tea Trade.