In the early days of pearl hunting in American streams, the fishermen had little idea of their value, and sold choice gems for insignificant sums. In 1887, a fisherman on Rock River, Illinois, found a 40–grain pearl which he carried in his pocket for several months. Showing it one day in Davenport, he was offered $20 for it. He quickly accepted the offer, and on his return home told his friends about “the sucker who gave $20 for the shell slug.” At present this “shell slug” is worth more than one hundred times that amount. Numerous instances of a similar nature occurred until the average fisherman lost all confidence in his judgment as to the values, and extravagant ideas prevailed regarding even almost worthless nacreous concretions. Thus, when a choice pearl is found, an exorbitant price is set upon it and the seller feels for the market value by repeated dickerings with several buyers. And unless one is an expert, he is quite likely to pay two or three times as much for a pearl at the river bank as in a metropolitan market. Some of the fishermen collect everything in the shape of nacreous concretions, and very often pearl buyers in New York and elsewhere receive packages which are not worth the postage; in many other packages nine tenths of the lot is worthless; and the practical joker and the swindler have solicited bids on bright marbles, rounded pieces of pearl shell, and even sugar-coated pills.
While many pearls of fine luster and beautiful and regular form have been derived from these fisheries, it occasionally happens, in the case of pearls consigned to the city pearl dealer, that cracks, breaks or marks, which might detract from their value, are closed or removed, either by means of water or oil, the pearls having been kept in one or the other until a few moments before they were shown to the merchant. Pearls worth hundreds of dollars have sometimes shown breaks, and in one instance a pearl valued at $7000 showed these cracks even a very short time after the sale.
THE EVOLUTION OF BUTTONS, MADE FROM MISSISSIPPI SHELLS
In many of the pearling regions of the Mississippi Valley, inquiry of almost any fisherman will result in his bringing forth from an inside pocket a small box padded with raw cotton and containing an assortment of pearls and slugs. Most of the slugs he will sell at prices ranging from fifty cents to $5 per ounce, for several of the small pearls he will likely ask from $2 to $20 each, and one or two of the largest he may value at $50 or more. At very rare intervals, a choice pearl will be found, for which he may expect anywhere from $200 to $5000.
While the highest prices are not received by the fishermen, there are many who have been so fortunate as to obtain $1000 or more for a single pearl, and several have received double that amount. Probably the highest figure obtained by the original finder was $3800, notwithstanding exaggerated stories of enormous five-figure prices. Recently the press credited a lad sixteen years of age with securing $20,000 for a pearl he had found.
A particularly striking yarn relative to a so-called “Queen Mary” pearl went the rounds of the press some time ago. According to the newspaper report, this pearl was found by the wife of a fisherman who was a cripple or something equally pathetic, and, fortunately, when the family resources were at the lowest. With tears of joy, the fisherman embraced his wife and told her it was her very own and she should wear it. However, by means of a check for $17,500, he was induced to part with it, but only on condition that it be named Queen Mary in honor of the hard-working wife. The report continues that the original buyer sold it for $25,000, and at last accounts it was held by a Chicago dealer who had “refused $40,000 and probably would not accept $50,000 for it.” The facts seem to be that this pearl, which was found near Prairie du Chien in 1901 and weighed 103 grains, was originally sold for $250, and the local buyer sold it in Chicago for $550, where for many months it was offered at $1000.
All sorts of stories of valuable finds are told in the pearling regions: stories of mortgages that have been released, of homes bought, of college educations secured from the proceeds of a single gem; but these tales are offset by the untold stories of the undermining of fine, strong character in awaiting the turn of fortune which never comes. The public is quickly apprised of the valuable finds, but it does not hear of the time and labor lost by the hundreds who are unsuccessful. Pearling excitement has many of the features of a mining craze. While a few are benefited, hundreds are made poorer, and in many instances 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.