Worldte Pea irite Jrom
T. bodies of four pearl hunt
ers were found swinging to a
tree limb recently In a west
Kentucky county. They had
been robbed by the riffraff that
follows In the trail of the pearl fisher
who strikes Into a new country of
rich finds. Pearls have recently been
found In large numbers In the rivers
that wander through the flat lands of
the west Kentucky counties. The
pearl fleets are moving Into the river
bottoms In both Kentucky and Ten
nessee. The Mississippi valley Is now sup
plying the bulk of these pale gems
that encircle the white throats of the
world's famous beauties. American
helresits, princesses of the old reign
ing houses of Europe, Indian rajahs
and the Jewel fanciers of all the world
buy and wear the mussel-born parls
that are scooped from the boiled flesh
of the fresh-water bivalve.
Thousands of men and women are
engaged In the work of pearl fishing
among the rivers of the great central
valley. It has become one of the ac
cepted ways of making an easy living,
and In some cases the fortunate fish
erman becomes wealthy through a
Tew lucky finds. Many fishermen have
thrown away their nets and tackle
and rigged their flat-bottomed boats
for the work of gathering up the denl
reus of the mussel beds.
Their fleets of dingy boats move
lazily up and down the streams that
are tributary to the Mississippi. They
lift tons of shells from the mussel
beds In the oozy bottoms of muddy
rivers. The working up of the shells
Into pearl buttons has become an In
dustry of great Importance to many
of the valley communities. Millions
of these grimy shells are taken from
the rivers each month. Great heaps
of them He along the rivers, memo
rials of the first years of the pearling
craze In the west
There are big fleets o the pearl
fishermen's boat on the Illinois. Hun
dreds of them patrol the waters of
the Wabash and . the Little Wabash.
The Arkansas, the Red, the Des
Future of Moving Pictures
Edison, Tells of the Possibilities In
This Field That Soon May
Be Developed.
An Interview with Thomas A. Edi
son In the New York Dramatic Mirror
quotes the great inventor as saying
that the future of the motion picture
Is almost unlimited. He calls atten
tion to the obvious educational value
of pictures In connection with work
In the elementary schools such as the
teaching of history, geography and
literature. He Is sure that the future
of the motion pictures In the amuse
meat world Is a great one and he con
cludes the subject with the follow
ing comment upon the development
of moving pictures In regard to the
work of the great actors:
"That will be only another develop
ment of the art At the present time
the works of the greatest singers are
Indelibly recorded In phonograph and
talking machine records and will be
capable of reproduction for centuries
to com These records make It cos
Moines, the Rock and scores of other
streams have numerous camps of
pearl fishermen. Many of the rivers
have been practically scraped clean
of the mussels and the fishermen
have moved on to other and less
worked areas. Beardstawn, 111.; Mus
catine, Iowa; Vlncennes, Ind., and
numerous villages In Arkansas have
long been the haunt of the foreign
and the American pearl buyer.
World's Finest Pearls.
The big finds of late In Kentucky
and Tennessee have stirred the inter
est of the professional and amateur
hunter. For years many of the world's
finest pearls have been coming out
of the lower valley. Buy a pearl In
the United States and there are nine
chances In ten that the lustrous gem
came originally from the grimy hand
of some pearl hunter along the Wa
bash or the Illinois.
Visit the Jewel shops of Paris, Vien
na or London, select a pearl of the
first quality, and five times out of
ten it is a Jewel that was picked out
of a mussel shell somewhere In the
new world.
Half the pearls sold In the markets
of the old world as sea pearls are
known by experts to be the products
of the big and little streams that are
the haunt of the American pearl fish
erman. It Is now the source of sup
ply from which the markets of the
world draw their pale and hiBtrous
gems.
, For some mysterious reason the
pearl fisheries of the far east are de
clining In Importance. The sun-
browned expert divers of the Per
sian gulf are still dipping Into the
hot seas and gulfs of Asia, but tjhelr
finds become less valuable every
year. The pearl buyers of Europe
long since turned to America for the
gems that are loved of women.
Pearl fishing Is enough of a gamble
to appeal to the reckless tastes of the
man who likes to make It all on a
single throw of the dice. A pearl
fisherman may find a prize In the first
shell that he opens, or he may spend
a year opening shells without any
slble for all maslo lovers to enjoy
good music. They will undoubtedly
cultivate a higher musical taste In
this country. The same thing la true
of the motion picture, and especially
when It Is effectively combined with
the phonograph. The great actors
and actresses are able In their short
lives to reach only a fraction of the
public. If their gestures and words
are recorded by moving pictures and
the phonograph, they can be seen,
heard and appreciated by every man,
woman and child In the country, not
only now, but for 100 years to come."
Nothing to Work On.
Gen. Horatio C. King, secretary of
the Society of the Army of the Poto
mac, was narrating his memories of
the Civil war. "We suffered many
hardships on both sides," said Gen
eral King, "but the Confederates suf
fered more. I remember a grizzled
old negro who at the outbreak of the
Spanish war applied for a place as an
army cook. 'What experience have
particular results. It can be made
bard work, this business of dragging
the river bottoms with myriad hooks
that grapple with the slimy shells of
the pearl-bearing mussel. Up and
down the streams the little flat-bottomed
craft drift and pull, and If the
owner Is lucky and careful there may
be a pearl worth anywhere fijom $5
to $1,500 somewhere In the day's
catch. It Is all chance, but the hard
er you work the more chance you
have.
Every Shell Examined.
With a large' load of shells the
hunter comes ashore and bolls the
mussels In deen vata that ha half
buries in the ground. This is usually
done at a half-permanent camp. The
women and the children of the pearl
ing camps aid In this part of the
work, as every separate shell must
be looked over carefully, that no lus
trous pearl may be thrown away as
useless.
Buyers from the ereat tewelrv flrm
of London, Vienna, St Petersburg
and Paris spend the year In the mid
dle of the pearling districts of the
vaiiey. Frenchmen, Belgians, "Rus
sians, representative!! of tha tpwel.
lovlng races of the earth, keep an eye
on an tee Dig . nnds that are made
In various parts of the valley. They
must compete with the special buyers
sent out by New York and other East
ern cities.
Many experts profess to believe that
the pearl BUDDly of the central states
Is rapidly becoming exhausted.
There are others who claim that
the supply Is practically Inexhaustible,
as long as the number of fishermen
and boats In the business Is not great
ly Increased. They believe that th pre
are many streams that would repay
woraing mat nave thus far never
been dredged or dragged by the pearl
fleets. It Is these rivers that they
look to for the supply of the future,
when the present beds are mora near-
ly exhausted. Miles and miles of the
Illinois river have been scraped clean
of the mussels. The Des Moines riv
er, home of the pearl-button Indus
try In America, Is giving up less of
pearls and shells than It did In the
earUe days, when pearling was new
In the middle west
Near Mt Carmel. 111., a mtu
more than a year ago, a lucky fisher
man picked UD a Dearl that attr.
ward sold for $1,800. Farmers' sons
ana town lads out for a days fishing
on the river have stumbled unon nnu
worth anywhere from $100 to $500.
as soon aa news of this sort becomes
known In the neighborhood there Is
usually a rush of the amateur and
the professional pearler to that sec
tion of the stream. It Is something
like a stampede to a new gold dig
gings, dui on a miniature scale.
Found a $1,200 Pearl.
One summer afternoon a party of
fishermen on the Wabash river were
fishing In an unfrequented part of
the river. Their luck was anything
but good, and one or two of the party
began to playfully open a few mus
sels that the low stage of the river
had bared. One of the party was
tearing open the shells in a listless
sort of way. He felt something round
and hard Is the tissues of the half
dead mussel. He squeezed it through
the clammy flesh and a beautiful
pear-shaped pearl dropped through
his fingers. Two more pearls smalP
er, but still valuable enough to bring
$100 each were found in the same
stranded group of mussels. The pear
shaped pearl sold for $1,200 by the
time half a dozen frenzied buyers
were through bidding upon It
Queer Cure for Consumption.
Some of the English nancra an.
rnounce the accidental discovery of
what appeared to be a cure for con
sumption by means of the ammonlated
gases generated In the production of
maggots for flsh bait In an establish
ment near Bradford. The . United
States consul at Bradford, In a report
to Washington, says: "While engaged
In this work. It la said certain per
sons known to be suffering from tuber
culosls have regained their health."
you had?' the old fellow was asked.
'I was cook, sah, fo' ' a Confederate
regiment In slxty-fo',' be answered.
That Is, sah, I had the Job of cook,
but, to tell the truth, 1 didn't work
at it' 'Why notT' 'There wasn't
nothing to cook, sah."
Protected Against Bores.
To save himself from loss of time
caused by callers who are a long
while In coming to the point, a Paris
functionary has put on his office table
a card bearing the words: ., "Be so
good as to abstain from speaking of
my health or the weather or of the
Bourse quotations, three subjects
with which I am perfectly well ac
quainted. Start at once on the matter
that brings you here."
Forehanded and Intelligent
Storekeeper Well, my little man,
what can I do for you?
The Kid Say, when I comes In here
this afternoon with a lady and asks
you for a dollar's worth of your best
chocolates, Just pass me out a penny's
worth of them little things In the cor
ner, will you? Puck.
RABBIT STEW, FRENCH STYLE'IDEAL CHINA DISPLAY
New Recipe Recommended to House
wife Who Would Make a
Hit With the Folks.
Cut up rabbit, wash and put In Jar;
now put on the following spices: Salt
and pepper, a pinch of cayenne, two
wljole chill peppers, eight or ten whole
peppers, the same amount of cloves
and allspice, three or four laurel
leaves; then a finely cut onion; three
or four cloves of garlic cut line and
about two or three slices of lemon.
Then cover with good claret wine. Set
away In cool place for two daya. Half
an hour before cooking take out all
the pieces; put In a strainer and let
strain. Now put on a frying pan In
which you have placed a good sized
piece of butter or half butter and half
lard; let get smoking hot then put In
your rabbit and let fry on both aides.
Then throw all in a stew pan and keep
on frying until all Is fried. Take your
frying pan and put In more butter and
lard, then take a heaping wooden la
dle of flour and brown It nicely; put
In a fine cut onion; when pretty nearly
brown, cook ' a few minutes longer.
Then take the wine and spices, with
the onions and garlic the rabbit was
soaked In, and make the gravy; use
all that has drained from the strainer;
if not enough add a little water; then
pour over the rabbit In the stew pan,
and let stand an hour and a half, or
until tender. When done, pour on a hot
platter. Be liberal with grease, as It
Is required to make stew good.
HOW TO COOK MUSHROOMS
Variety of Combinations Can Be
Served With This Edible Fungus
as Chief Ingredient.
A Philadelphia hostess noted for
her delicious dinners, and especially
for various combinations that have
mushrooms as the chief Ingredient,
says that the reason none of her
guests Is ever 111 after a mushroom
supper Is that she always has fresh
mushrooms, never the panned or
bottled sort, and always has them
cooked for ten minutes or so before
adding the various tid bits that go to
make up the delectable whole. Mush
rooms require more cooking than
most persons think, and should be
thoroughly done before they are
served, no matter how much the Im
patient ones may say, "Oh, they are
cooked enough; they will not harm
me," as every chafing dish cook has
heard them say at tlmr-s. An Italian
dish which this hostess has discov
ered consists of oysters scalloped
with macaroni and served with a
mushroom sauce. Cheese Is omitted
and paprika takes the place of cay
enne to make the flavor more deli
cate, otherwise the oysters and maca
roni alternate and are flecked with
butter, as In other ways of scalloping,
and the dish Is one for the gods.
Chocolate Creams.
Beat the whites of two pee to a
atiff froth. Gradually beat Into this
two cups of confectioners' sugar.
Flavor with one-half teaspoon of va
nilla and work well. Roll Into little
balls and dron on silently buttered
platter. Let the balls stand for an
nour. bnave nve ounces of chocolate,
put In small bowl, which you place on
the fire In saucepan of boiling water.
When the chocolate Is melted, remove
from fire and drop creams Into It, one
at a time. Take out with fork, and
drop gently on buttered dish. It will
taae one-nail hour to harden choco
late. To Mend a Leaking Ice Pan.
Melt paraffin and while it is hot pour
a coating over the bottom of the leak
ing pan, having flrBt set It on a
newspaper; some of the parafhu will
run through the holes in the pan,
but it can be scraped off and Is Just
as good to use again. Of course, this
pan can never be used on the stove,
but serves very effectually for the Ice
water pan beneath the refrigerator.
Ham Scallop.
Two cupfuls of cold boiled ham
ground fine, six hard boiled eggs.
When cold separate whites from yolks
and chop fine. Make thick cream
sauce of two tablespoonfuls butter
and two of flour. Cook until smooth,
then add one pint milk. When thick,
season with salt and pepper. Butter
baking dish. Put In layer of sauce
first, then add in succession bam,
yolks and whites of eggs, and top lay
er of sauce dusted with fine cracker
crumbs and small pieces of butter.
Bake till brown. Delicious for lunch.
Maple Sugar Spring Biscuit.
These dainties are served with the
sweet course at dinner or luncheons,
and are equally acceptable at 6
o'clock tea. Make a rich baking pow
der biscuit dough, roll it to one
quarter Inch In thickness and spread
half of it with melted butter, then
sprinkle butter with maple sugar
forced through the food chopper; put
on the other half of the dough, cut
Into cakes with a small biscuit cutter,
and brush over the top with beaten
Kg. Bake In a moderate oven and
CORNER CUPBOARD IS M08T SAT
ISFACTORY REPOSITORY. ,
:ombines Perfect Safety With Ef
fective Background and Dignified
Frame or Sitting for Delicate -Treasures.
By far the most beautiful and satis
factory repository for china Is the old
corner cupboard or buffet, which la
(ound in all well built houses belong
ing to the latter half of the Eighteenth
century. These cupboards were some
times open, but more often had glass
doors, frequently of great beauty.
Here was every requisite for the Ideal
display of china. They combined per
feet' safety with an effective back
ground and a dignified frame or set
ting for these delicate treasures. The
arrangement massed their colora In a
decorative panel, at the same time
that it placed them low enough for
leisurely enjoyment and accurate ob
servation. Happily for us, this good
Did fashion Is being revived In our
modern houses and will soon become
deservedly popular. ,
Cupboards built Into the wall space'
upon each side of the chimney afford
occasion, for a display of china which
is architecturally delightful. Somor
times a built-in sideboard Is used, or
a less formal arrangement of shelves
In a chimney recess, or lnglenook.
Again we find a carved wall cabinet,
or a combination of plate shelves with
I corner seat all of which are modi
fications of what we may well call
the panel arrangement
As to the border arrangement the
best Instance of this Is the plate rail
it the top of a rather high wainscot
ing. It Is an Ideal location for pat
terns highly decorated In beautiful
and delicate designs. Their position
Is low enough to be within range of
close observation and of leisurely en
joyment yet high enough to make
them quite safe from danger of acci
dent A similar arrangement higher
np In the room, even over doors and
windows, is allowable for plates whose
border Is a simple band of some solid
color, or for larger pieces which are
slightly imperfect
Besides these permanent arrange
Dents for china, there are Infinite
possibilities in the line of temporary
provisions. The china cabinet which
originated In the daya of Sheraton,
Is familiar to us all. Many good ones
are to be bought, and they make pos
sible the artistic massing of china.
Another well-known piece of furni
ture Is the dresser, whose vogue
waned almost to the vanishing point
but is now being revived by crafts
men of the present day. It Is now
being developed In forms so simple
and so charming that they bid fair
to become most desirable aids In the
artistic arrangement of well selected
china in any dining room.
Another revival of an old-time ad
junct Is shown by the interest taken
In the wall plate racks which have
been so long In use among the Tyro
lean peasantry. From these crude
and simple suggestions have been
evolved designs of Infinite variety,
and many of them rich In decorative
carving.
All such wall fixtures as racks,
shelves, or cabinet form delightfully
decorative spots of color above the
sideboard or the serving table. There
Is Infinite scope for originality along
these lines; and when they are well
constructed, much beauty of arrange
ment can be obtained at a compara
tively slight expense. The craftsman
needs only a proper sense of propor
tion, a logical sease of fitness, and
a practical knowledge of his craft
To these he can add an unlimited va
riety In decorative finish. Certainly
nothing adds more to the charm and
attractiveness of a dining room than
quaint and pretty china, arranged in
artistic fashion.
Cherry Batter Pudding.
To make it beat to a cream, a halt
cupful butter and three tablespoonfuls
of sugar. Then add little by little,
stirring constantly, four beaten eggs,
a quart of flour that has been sifted
with three teaspoonfuls baking powder
and a half teaspoonful of salt Add a
pint of milk, and lastly a quart of
pitted cherries. "Boll two hours In a
buttered mold not allowing the water
to stop a moment from its boiling.
Serve with hard sauce or cherry
sauce.
Ham Rabbit.
Mix well together one-half cup of
deviled ham, ono cup of grated
cheese, four beaten eggs, one cup of
cream nd salt and paprika to taste.
Cook over boiling water until thick,
stirring constantly and 'serve at once
on crackers or toasted bread.
Onion Toast.
Toast bread and butter It, cook on
ions until tender and crush them, add
milk, salt and pepper to taste; heat
and pour' over the buttered tu-'
I