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THE PEARL
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the
wonderment of the reader and perpetuate the impression that this
beloved gem is some sort of a living creature subject to human
vicissitudes. Lately a story appeared in current publications which
told how the pearls of a lady's necklace sickened and lost their
beauty. Much distressed she carried them to the expert dealer of whom
she bought them who gravely advised her to let her maid wear them
whereupon, they recovered from the illness and their lustrous beauty
was restored.
Twentieth
century versions of fables older than this era are common; shrewd
traders and writers use them, nor are they always careful to attach the
fable to the particular gem to which, by right of ancient usage, it
belongs. The magical loss of color in the presence of impending danger
to its wearer is the ruby's prerogative, but, though pearls may lose
their charms by exposure to heat, gas and rough usage, the wily
orientals of remote or later ages provided no traditional recovery more
wonderful than the prosaic method of feeding them to fowls and cutting
them out of the gizzard an hour or two later.
318
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