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ANTIQUITY OF THE PEARL
How
long the pearl has been used as a jewel is unknown. It is seen all
through the pages of history, from the long ago days when records were
inscribed on the leaves of plants, to the rapid-fire prints of to-day,
which unceasingly scatter to myriads the knowledge of things as they
occur.
Back
of history, pearls loom everywhere in the mists of tradition like
delicate but imperishable orbs of beauty set in the smoulder of burned
out days and passions. And wherever their tranquil light attracts the
eye of imagination, the ghosts of the great are seen, for pearls lie in
the hair of royalty and clasp the fair necks of Queens. Upon them shine
the eyes of turbanned princes who valued them above the blood and life
of thousands of subjects. Shades of imperious fingers, long since
fallen "to the elements, toy with them: they deck the spectral
gatherings of the mighty in all lands and ages, and there is no dream
of song or story
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