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Ch. 14: Pearls - Facts & Fancies

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	THE PEARL

	A question often raised, and which by its periodical revival seems to be a favorite with newspapers and magazines, as well as, to the general public, is, "Do pearls live and die?" It originated probably in observations of certain changes that occasionally take place in pearls which could be readily construed by a speculative or imaginative mind to mean death. Sometimes with pearls the brilliancy of youth fades and passes and the clear skin of early days takes on the hue of age. If now a ready pen waited on fancy to state the facts it would establish an imaginative theory for centuries, for like gossip, a thing once printed in a book will long pass on unquestioned and be quoted or re-stated many times. There are pearls which for certain qualities invite as a descriptive term the word live. There are others which by comparison appear, and are described, as dead. Then there are others that lose by untoward circumstances the live qualities they once possessed and without dying become dead pearls. The calcite carbonate crystals of which they are formed dissolve in acids and are affected to a certain 316

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Catelle. The Pearl.

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1 Page 298 FACTS AND FANCIES In ancient days there was a b
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2 Page 299 pearls to the reception of raindrops from heaven by the oyst
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3 Page 304 extent by the acidity of the excretions of the human skin, s
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4 Page 307 previous to her husband's assassination by Ravaillac. The co
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5 Page 308 have swallowed it like a pill or, as Sir Thomas Gresham did
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6 Page 309 of the jewel, and sometimes even that is exceeded. The buy
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7 Page 300 ing to distinguish the male from the female. This fable also
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8 Page 302 centuries to disprove them, they received credence for more
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9 Page 303 A question often raised, and which by its periodical revival
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10 Page 305 the wonderment of the reader and perpetuate the impression t
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11 Page 306 The pearl is generally considered to be the emblem of innoce
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12 Page 310 black head-lines, and the morning papers of the following da
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13 Page 301 A year later these would be larger. It is also said that whe
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14 Page 311 limitations, we find big and little, fine and ordinary
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15 Page 312 of pearls to reiterated records of a few great pearls which
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16 Page 313 reasons are chary of information, nor will they make such pi
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17 Page 317 eighteen to fifty-two and three-quarter grains each, the lat
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18 Page 314 swallowed. He placed the value of that at $375,000. As the S
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19 Page 315 large as hen's eggs in the possession of the Rajah of Borneo
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20 Page 316 attention. They pass therefore among those considered unwort
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21 Page 318 weighed 93 grains and was sold to the Empress Eugenie.
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