Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-01-19


! egg that he dropped it into the water
anu it was never recovered.
1.-The famed Queen Mary pearl was
| found by q Mississippi pearler, who
| named the gem for his wife and then
sold it to II. Dealliu. a Chicago col
| leet5r. for 81 500 and the latter later
| on sold it at an advance.
The sky blue pearl found in Caney
| Foril-made famous by Opie Read
! Tennessee, in the early 'Sos, weighed
| 90 grains Because it was blue II
seems to have been valuable as a
| freak. hut its market value was i'm
| paired by the same fact. II was first
sold for $3.50 and subsequently brought
| $4,000 in London.
| In 1895 NJ. c. Rowe of Russell, in
| st. Lawrence county, this state, open
| ed a mussel taken out of Frost brook.
n tributary of Grass river, and found
a pink pearl as large as pea. Dur
| ire the excitement which followed
S~~t31-s e ~ !. e. sstf 49,
| found.
/ ON 1898 n fisherman searched the
| healwaters of the Mystic river, IN
| Connecticut. and. after a few weeks
| work. gathered number Of pearls.
| one OF which he sold for $50 and two
for $500 each.
During the pearling excitement
along Black and White rivers, in Ar
kansas, from 1900 to 1903. pearls val
ned AT over $4,000. 5000 We're found.
Alfred Hastings, a 16-year-old boy,
| found a button-shaped gem weighing
1ss grains. He sold it for S2l6S 10 a
local buyer, who peeled off the out
| 10 ar here
for $4,000.
I'm 1907 there was offered for sale
Inv gem dealer of this city per
fleet pearl. white and rounded, WeiSh-
ling IS grains, which he valued at
ISIS. GOO. This pearl was found during
1.-THE summer of that year near the
WISCONSIN bank of the MISSISSIPPI
river and was sold by the finder FOR
LIS cents. Another pearl found about
1.-THE same time was offered for sale to
Jewellers of this city. for $4,000 The
latter was pink pear-shaped peari
land weighed 80 grains.
"In 1909 pearler of Davenport, Ia,
who bore the nickname of Unlueky
Jim, because he had a wife and nine
Ichiidren and had never made good
find. discovered a flesh colored pearl
of fine lustre and without speck, be
ling also an almost perfect sphere. near
II.ansing. for which he received the
lsum of $4,000 from local buyers,
In July, 1910, a pearler working in
1.-The Ohio river, near Jeffersonville, ILL.,.
found an almost perfect pearl which
weighed So grains, and which he SOLD
Ito Louisville jewelers. for several
Thousand dollars. A few months be-
Ifere the same firm bought a large
ipearl found in the Ohio for 5000 and
lsold It to n New York firm for $4,000.
"A pearl weighing Al grains, and
isaid to be one of the largest of It's
1 shape found in the United States, was
Hound by a negro pearl hunter last
lsummer in Lake Bioteneau, Louisiana,
land was sold to a jeweler in New
!. Orleans for $685. the latter later on
idisposing of it for $500.
4 During the excitement induced by
these finds of gems many people with
la little ready money but without
much knowledge of pearls engaged in
1.-THE business Of buying pearls. Dur
ling the Black and White river eX-
lcitement a New Yorker sharper of
plausible address called on several
buyers in different but nearby towns,
land introducing himself as a New
York gem buyer, said that he wished
Ito appoint these men as his agents
land asked them to purchase pearls of
"a color and quality similar ia samples
he left with them and agreed to come
Iaround every 80 days and buy from
Them for high prices all they secured.
After leaving the buyers the sharp
I nos n
lsell to these buyers in small lots
tquantity of imitation pearls similar
Ito the limitations he had left with the
buyers as samples. About the time
1.-The buyers began to inquire as 10 the
Whereabouts of the New York buyer
the latter and his accomplice disap-
tpeared. leaving the local buyers with
$4,000 to $4,000 worth of imitation
ipearls in their possession.
.Mussels are brought from the river
bed by forks or by dredging with a
fork to the back of which is attached
La small net into which the mussels
fall as they are forked out Of the bot
tom. Many fishermen get their mus
Isels in the shallow waters by wading
in and digging them out with their
hands but this is slow and laborious.
lQuite successful is the method of
lining for them
"A line is stretched across the river
iron bank to bank like trot-line.
Every few feet shorter lines are at
tached, which drop into the water.
Instead of a fishing hook on these
lsmal lines there is a bit of flannel
lcloth. When lying in the water the
.nnan she'll of the musSel faces I'M
Istream. In this manner it receives its
food, which is washed down against
lit and into the partly open shell.
when the bit of flannel comes
washing down against the mussel it