276 THE BOOK OF THE PEARL
reduced
to absolute want. Persons have given up their established business to
devote their time to pearling, staking all on the aleatory profits, and
have squandered days and months in the hope that one great, immense,
all-rewarding find will be made. The monotony of continued
disappointment is occasionally brightened by the news that some
one—possibly a near neighbor—has made a lucky find, and then the work
is continued with renewed enthusiasm. A spirit akin to that which
dominates the gambler takes possession of the fisherman, and the days go on
and the seasons go by while the gem that is to bring the fortune still
eludes him. In many localities the pursuit yields far less profit than
pleasure, and many a man who spends a summer in pearling is in a fair
way to spend the winter at the expense of some one else.
The
pearls are collected for the trade by" a score or more of buyers, who
visit the fisheries at intervals and purchase of the individual
fishermen by personal dickering and bargaining. The buyers endeavor to
keep informed of all choice pearls discovered, and when an especially
valuable find is reported each one endeavors to have the first chance
to secure it. The principal local centers of the pearling industry and
marketing are Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin ; McGregor, Clinton, and
Muscatine, Iowa; Newport, Black Rock, and Bald Knob, Arkansas; Clinton,
Carthage, and Smithville, Tennessee ; St. Francisville, Illinois ; and
Vincennes and Leavenworth, Indiana.
However,
a large number of the pearls from American rivers are consigned by the
finders to well-known gem dealers, the owners depending for fair
treatment on the integrity and high standing of these experts. An
interesting story is told of the pearl and the accompanying shell in
which it was found, which was sent to a New York dealer by a poor
woman. The price she received pleased her immensely ; and in writing
her appreciation, she added that she was especially gratified at
receiving so good a price because it enabled her to send her boy to
school. The dealer sent another check as a gift, and a few days before
the next Thanksgiving Day a thirty-five-pound turkey was received by
the four-score-year-old jeweler as an evidence of the mother's
gratitude.
The
outbreak of pearl hunting in various parts of the country is frequently
chronicled by the newspapers. These despatches are much alike, usually
telling how some fisherman discovered a beautiful pearl which he sold
to some responsible jeweler for an amount varying from $100 to $2000.
The despatches generally state further that the effect of the find has
been remarkable; the whole region is seized with the fever, and into
the rivers and creeks swarm the hunters of both sexes, of all ages, and
from all classes of the community. Factory-men
