The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1913-12-30


this judgment, or who has discovered
any other use for nee schaum? For
pipe making it is the ideal raw mate
rial. Here is a stone. which is easily
moulded when wet and when dry be
comes hard and resists ire.
At FIRST meerscaaum was used only
by certain Viennese and Bavalan
firms. To them it vas merely goo3
raw material, whose merit was in the
ease of manufacture for the fancy
pipes to which Germans have always
been addicted, rather tnan in any in
trinsic superiority Of the manufactured
article. In time men began to enjoy
the fun of coloring a meerschaum
bowl, and tourists spread this report
among the elite of all nations. After
it's introduction to American smokers
the meerschaum rapidly became the
aristocrat of pipes. Prices went up
accordingly, and the mining and ex-
port of meerschaum became boom
for Eski Schier,
In the early days Of meerschaum
mining Sultan Selim III. gave an i'm
perial frman to the inhabitants of
Eski Schier and its neighboring vii
lagos, granting to them of mining the
exclusive privilege Of minig t2e min
eraI. Ever since then a large potion of
the population has been engaged in
the meerschaum industry. The mines
fifteen miles from the city, have al
ways been WORKED Turkish tas&ioa,
without any system whatever.
There is no possibility Of trust
or even of the introduction of modern
methods of mining. Each man is 70.
himself. None has any capital. The
prospecting and mining go on over an
increasingly large area and an told
that about 5000 shafts have been sunk,
most of them branching out into innu-
merable horizontal galleries at DIFF
ferent levels. The snoring is so crude
that I did not care to risk going down.
That f. ON the collapsing Of galleries
and the frenquency of poisonous and
explosive gases, mee2schaum min
/ ing exacts every year its toll of human
life Safety lamps are unknown.
Meerschaum is found in Jumps Of
rather small size, ranging from a
mans fist to four time a mans fist.
(That is how they measure it, for
centimeters and inches, plain, square
or cubic, are unknown to the miners.)
There is still much dirt clinging to the
Jumps when they are brought to town
on donkey back.
The miners sell to local merchants,
vino are mostly the third or fourth
generation in the business. The mer-
chant must estimate the value in it's
rough form, and, in spite of inherited
skill and knowledge, he finds his buy
ing somewhat a lottery. For there are
twelve distinct qualities of meer-
schaum and the lowest is worth only
one-sixth the price of the highest.
The quality is determined by specific
gravity, color, and, to more limited
extent than with precious stones, by
it's size. The rough outer surface is
scraped of with a knife. Then the
meerschaum, still damp and safe, is
set out to dry. When it becomes hard
lit receives a second scraping and is
rounded off. The finishing operation
is to polish it with wax. The better
grades are snow white and take a
very high polish. The poorer grades,
even when dry, are so soft tnat they
can easily be indented with the finger
nails.
Thus prepared for market, the
Jumps are separated into bins accord
ing to quality. Once a year they are
packed for shipping, with cotton, in
boxes which look like orange crates.
On first sight one would think he
was looking at ostrich eggs. The
whole output of Eski Schier is shipped
to Trieste, and the merchants go to
Vienna to sell their goods. This is
the sole market
The Turkish government gets no
revenue from the mines, but charges
a fixed export duty per case. The
duty used to be on the ad valorem
basis until the Turkish authorities
discovered the suspicious fact that
while the higher grades seemed
never to be exported, they we're al
ways plentiful on the Austrian market.
The total annual sales in Vienna
amount in 1912, to about 100000 Of
which more than half was purchased