The pearl ; its story, its charm, and its value . e one bed is completely divested of shells,the clammer moves on to another and repeatsthe process, so that the supply of fresh-waterpearls is coming to depend on the constantdiscovery of new mussel-beds. Unless legis-lation regulates the industry the Americansupply will soon cease. The cheapest fresh-water pearls in the marketto-day are the finest. The pearlers along thestreams of the west and south will no longerpart with the pearls they find to the speculatorsat the old time prices. In fact they generallywant much more than they are
The pearl ; its story, its charm, and its value . e one bed is completely divested of shells,the clammer moves on to another and repeatsthe process, so that the supply of fresh-waterpearls is coming to depend on the constantdiscovery of new mussel-beds. Unless legis-lation regulates the industry the Americansupply will soon cease. The cheapest fresh-water pearls in the marketto-day are the finest. The pearlers along thestreams of the west and south will no longerpart with the pearls they find to the speculatorsat the old time prices. In fact they generallywant much more than they are worth andoften get more than the speculator can affordto pay to ensure a profit when he comes to sellthem in the business centres. But these fishers know little of the meritsand value of the finer qualities. They do notyet realize the great difference in value whichaccrues as the pearl exceeds the average ofluster, color, or perfection, consequently thespeculator can often buy a very fine pearl forlittle more than he would have to pay for an282. THE MARCHIONESS OF LONDONDERRY PRICE ordinary pearl and though he knows that thepiece is worth much more than he has paid, andtries to get as nearly what it is worth as he can,both his judgment and disposition to sell areaffected by the low price he has paid and thechances are that he too in turn will sell it atmuch less than its relative value as comparedwith the ordinary market price of poor ormedium quality goods. This condition will gradually change. As inthe past the fisher learned more and more of themarket value of ordinary pearls, so also he willlearn to know the price of exceptional pieces andto know them when he has them. Even now,speculators hold fine large pearls at high pricesbecause of the ready sale for them in Europe. It is difficult to compare the price of pearlsin ancient times with that of to-day. We makemuch finer and closer assortments and grada-tions of quality and the business now is on amore distinctly commercia
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