The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1911-07-27

Pearl fishing is enough Of a gamble
to appeal to the reckless tastes of the
man who likes to make it all on a
single throw of the dice. A pearl
fisherman may find a prize in the first
shell that he opens, or he may spend
a year opening shells without any
particular results. 1t can be made
hard work, this business of dragging
the river bottoms with myriad hooks
that grapple with the Shiny shells Of
the ~pearl-bearing mussel. Up and
down the streams the little f1at-bot,
toned craft drift and pull, and if the
owner is lucky and careful there may
be a pearl worth anywhere from S.
to $500 somewhere in the days
catch. 1t is all chance, but the hard
er you work the more chance you
have.
Every Shell Examined.
With a large load of shells .he
hunter comes ashore and boils the
mussels in deep watts that he half
buries in the ground. This is usually
done at a half-permanent camp. The
women and the children of the pearl-
ing camps aid in this part of the
work, as every separate shell must
be looked over carefully, that no lus-
trous pearl may be thrown away as
useless.
Buyers from the great jewelry firms
of London, Vienna, St. Petersburg
and Paris spend the year in the mid,
die of the pearling districts of the
valley. Frenchmen, Belgians, Rus.
slams, representatives of the jewel,
loving races of the earth, keep an eye
on all the big finds that are made
In various parts of the valley. They
must compete with the special buyers
sent O by New York and other East
ern cities.
Many experts profess to believe mat
the pearl supply of the central states
is rapidly becoming exhausted.
There are others who claim that
the supply is practically inexhaustibIe,
as long as the number of fishermen
and boats in the business is not great.
ly increased. They believe thai there
are many streams that would repay
working that have thus far never
been dredged or dragged by the pearl
meets. 1t is these rivers that they
DOL TO for the supply of the future.
when the present beds are more near
ly exhausted. Miles and miles of the
Illinois river have been scraped clean
OF The mussels. The Des Moines riv-
er, home OF the pearl-button indus.
try In America, is giving up less of
pearls and shells han it did in the
earlier days, when pearling was new
in the middle west.
Near Mt. Carmel, ILL.,, a little
more than a year ago, a lucky fisher.
man picked up a pearl that was after
ward sold for $500. Farmers sons
and town lads out for a days fishing
on the river have stumbled upou finds
worth anywhere from 500 to $500,
AS soon as news Of this sort becomes
known in the neighborhood there is
usually a rush of the amateur and
the professional pearler to that Sec
ton of the stream. 1t is something
like a stampede to a new gold dig
gings, but on a miniature scale.
Found a $1,000 Pearl.
One summer afternoon a party Of
fishermen on the Wabash river were
fishing in an u~nfrequented part Of
the river. Their luck was anything
but good, and N or two of the party
began to playfully open a few mus
sells that the low stage of the river
had barred. One of the party was
tearing open the shells in a ~listless
sort of way. He felt something round
and hard in the tissues Of the half.
dead mussel. He squeezed it through
the clammy flesh and a beautiful
pear-shaped pearl dropped through
his fingers. Two more pearls-small.
er, but stiH valuable enough to bring
800 each--were found in the same
stranded group of mussels. The pear.
shaped pearl sold for $1,000 by the
time half q dozen frenzied buyers
were through bidding upon 1t.