San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-12-06
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Big Rope of
Genuine
Matched
Pearls Within
the Reach
ofEvery
Working
Girl

kS TVERfBODf is wearing pearls now
- sdays. No movie queen deems her
toilet complete without ropes of
them, to rival those worn by the wives of
~omillionaires. Office girls and Happers con-
slider it matter of course to have at least
one or two pearl necklaces.
They are mostly product of Eastport,
Maine Glass beads are procurabe any
where in unlimited quantities, but the
stuff that converts them into pearls is
supplied by the sardine herrings which are
packed there annually in millions of cans
1t is obtained from the herring scales,
collected at the sardine canneries and
from the fishing boats, in the bottoms of
which they accumulate. The scales, for
merly waste product, now fetch ten to
fourteen cents pound.
II is not impossible that the whole sit
ustion as to pearls .ay be turned upside
down in the near future, and every work
ing girl in the United States may possess
- rope of real pearls-genuine and per-
~ feet pearls; not glass beads covered over
with herring scales.
The United States Fisheries Bureau
now has a scheme of its own for produc-
ing the finest natural pearls the world has
ever seen. There are no pearls more
beautiful than those yielded by the fresh
water mussels of the Ohio and Mississippi
Valley streams, many of them being pink,
sky-blUe, and of other fancy colors that
give them enhanced value. 1t was from
those streams that aboriginal chieftains in
pre-Columbian times obtained collections
of pearls, some of them as big as walnuts,
which far surpassed any possessed by Eu-
ropean monsrchs. They are found, liter
ally by quarts, in ancient mounds where
they were buried with their owners, but
are so decayed or cemented together by
infiltration of water as to be worthless.
es Unfortunately the best of pearly mus
81 sells in those streams have been mostly
- wiped out. They are of many varieties,
and it is still easily practicable to obtain
O superior kinds and plant them, as the
.s. Fisheries Bureau is now doing.
The Fisheries Bureau is interested
chiefly in preserving the pearly mussel
Il supply for the button industry, which. in
this country, relies upon it for the indis-
pensable mother-of- pearl. 1t has found
that the mussels, in their early "larval"
stage. depend upon fishes for survival. In
that stage they are provided with a pair
Of hooks, somewhat resembling icetongs
in shape, by which they grip the fins or
gills of passing fish. Carried by the
fish for about seventy days. they assume
the adult form and drop off, able to take
care Of themselves. But the larval rnussel
that fails 10 get hold Of a fish inevitably
dies.
The Fisheries Bureau is now making
business of coaching small fishes, such as
sunfishes and crappies, and "inoculating"
them with newly-hatched mussels by plac-
ing them for few minutes in pals or
tubs together with water that is full Of
mussel spawn. BY this means one little
iish can be made to carry thousands Of
lsrvsl mussels.
The pearly mussels vary in hue from
-- coppery TO salmon, pink, strawberry, glow
ing red and silvery white. Pearls pro-
duced by them are of corresponding col
ors Choice varieties are being planted
IN ponds at Fsirport, Iowa, and the pearls
that some of them cannot fail to yield
will be of unusual beauty
Furthermore. they will all be large ones.
For when il has been ascertained that a
mussel contains pearl, the latter VIII not
be removed, but will be allowed to grow.
b.. By means of the X-ray--that is TO say, by
brief examination with the fluoroscope-
il is a simple matter to determine whether
a mussel has pearl or not.
The properly managed mussel farm Of
boz the near future, conducted for pearl pro
duction, will yield only big pearls and
those of the most beautiful colors.
At present, of course, it is only the ex-
ceptional mussel that produces a pearl.
But, Just az science is now able 10 insure
the Wholesale breeding Of mussels without
the hsphszsrd, wssteful methods Of ma
ture, so il is regarded as quite certain that