Evening journal., 1914-12-15
National Geographic Sociefy's Mar Primer
No.. 80.

WASHINGTON, d. c., Dec. 15.-l
The National Geographic Society to-
day gave out the following statement
concerning the amber-b bearing district
and the lake district of East Prussia,
which affords a picture of conditions
in one of the most important parts
Of the eastern theatre of the European
war:
"Samland is an unsung strip Of
cheerless plain from which the whole
known world has purchased for cen
turtles. Ii is the heart of ancient am
berland. and it has remained un-
known to the ultimate consumers of
its product from early Phoenician
times down to the present day. 1t
still supplies the bulk of the worlds
amber, and the pipe-stem or cigar
holder or jewel that is of this frag-
rant, translucent substance was like
ly gathered in its manufactured
state on the beaches, in the sand
mines or from low water around this
peninsula. Samland is an oblOng arm
of East Prussia, eighteen miles in
breadth, and reaching out forty-three
miles toward the Baltic Sea. II lies
some 100 miles from the Russian
frontier, and the soldiers OF Russia
who recently crossed its fiat south
ernmost stretches first drew attention
toward it
"Konigsberg. the capital of East
Prussia and the central amber mar
ket. is situated at the southwestern
corner OF the amber producing terri
tory upon the Pregel river. Much of
| the amber produced is worked in
/ Konigsberg, and quantities are sent
/ to Vienna, where it is manufactured
! into all sorts of smoking appliances.
Amber beads form an especially large
item in the KOnigsberg trade, and
are chiefly sold to the Poles. Rus
slams and people of the East There
is a superstition among the folk OF
Russia and Poland that amber beads
worn by an infant make teething cas-
ier and that amber beads worn by
the baby's nurse draw all contagious
diseases to them and away from their
charges, thus guarding the baby's
health So It is that one hardly ever
sees a Polish or west-Russian nurse
without heavy chains of these Orna-
ments.
ITO its uncanny, or at least mys-
terious virtues. the value of amber
has been largely owing According
to ancient lore, it was the substance
of the tears of the sisters of the in
competent sun-charioteer, Phaethon
who, after their brothers death. were
changed to poplars. The old Greeks
and Romans set an immense value
upon it. and in the days when Scythia
and the Alps marked the ends of the
earth. Greece and Etruria traded with
Samland's amber fishermen.
even today amber is sold because
of its mystic qualities. The people oil
the East value il as a stun OF proper
potency for amulets. and amber
charms against death, disease and
the devil are made in practical Prus-
sian Samland for the Eastern mar
kets Thales of Miletus. an ancient
Greek philosopher, first of the ply
sicists. established the mystic pow
ers Of amber, and incidently dabbled
in electricity, when he found that II
would attract things after a little
Euhbing. From history's dawn TO tho
present day. many people have hat
faith in amber's curative properties
As a medicine, it has been worr
around the neck and taken dissolved
in alcohol II is needless to say tha
modern medicine takes little note o