Plainfield High School - Milestone Yearbook (Plainfield, NJ)

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THE ORACLE 145 oyster. During these years the oyster and the pearl had both grown until they were of regal size. The pearling fleet, of some thirty fishing luggers, was busily engaged in its operations during the summer of 1880. The beautiful dawn of a promising fishing day sent the fleet scattering over the oyster patch in St. Bernardino Strait. This patch was some two miles in extent, so that each boat got its fair allotment of fishing ground. One little boat dropped close inshore and made ready to send its diver, a sandy- haired Scotchman, overboard. Necessity has made the use of modern diving gear absolutely impera- tive in pearl fishing. In past years native divers dove overboard and tore what shells they could away from the bottom and in the course of two minutes rose to the surface and made ready for another dive. This method of fishing was successful in water not much deeper than thirty feet, but when pearls began to give out in shallow water, modern, element-defying armor was called into play, so now all pearl fishing is done by helmeted divers. As native divers proved deficient in the use of these diving suits, white men have superseded the brown Filipinos. When the small boat, before mentioned, dropped anchor in about sixty feet of water, the Scotchman stepped into his heavy rubber suit; his large one eyed helmet was screwed on; the pump was started by two brawny Filipinos; and with a splash and a rush of bubbles to the surface, the diver dropped overboard. After a minute of the crushing sensation felt by divers after dropping overboard, the diver got his sea legs on and commenced work. But my goodness, what a place to work in! It was a sea garden such as could not be equaled by all the work that time and money could command. Sea anemones, coral clusters of every shade of pink and white, enormous barnacles, sea plants that would put the most delicate lace to shame, sway- ing in the gentle ocean movement and surrounded by many sun-colored fish, were everywhere. It is in such places as this that pearl divers in tropical seas work. Our diver, having reached the bottom and adjusted the air valves in his helmet, strode about in search of large and ancient oysters in which perhaps lay his fortune. Whenever he laid aside his knife and oyster bag and stopped to rest, many inquisitive fish gathered round him, but his slight- est motion sent all of them scattering pell mell for shelter. Going from clus- ter to cluster of oysters, he soon filled his bag with the largest of them, but noticing an oyster of great size near by, he started to tear it from its abode of many years. It was so wedged in by smaller oysters that his first at-

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144 THE ORACLE that good building sand was scarce at Manila, they were transporting it there. The particular grain of sand with which this history is concerned was very small, rough and white. It was presently much whiter, for a little puff of wind, aided by the roll of the waves, started it rolling off the deck of the lugger. It reached the water in company with several other grains of sand, but it soon separated from their company and continued alone its zigzag- course to the bottom. Down on the bottom, with about sixty feet of water over its head, an oyster was lazily lying, open mouthed, waiting for a chance to bring it its dinner. It was not a dainty little oyster, such as is swallowed by some of us with questionable pleasure and a little lemon juice, but it was a large oyster with a shell ten inches across. In truth it must have been the grand- father of the cluster of smaller oysters which surrounded it. To-day chance was mischievous and instead of bringing the oyster some nice, rich, live, sea mud, it piloted to the open shell a small white piece of sand, much whiter now from the effect of its journey through the water. Now oysters .do not live on grains of sand, and to make matters worse the grain of sand had not slid down the immobile mouth of the oyster but had lodged be- tween the oyster and its shell. We all know how a grain of sand lodged in the eye feels and how we have to take pains to remove it. This grain of sand affected the oyster in much the same way. Working deeper and deeper into the shell, it irritated more and more, but the oyster, not being blessed with fingers, was forced to acquiesce to its tenantage. Nature, the enemy of chance, which had caused all the trouble, foreseeing just such predicaments, has provided oysters with a substance called nacre. So when a little piece of sand causes trouble, the oyster covers it with nacre, which is hard but smooth so that it allays irritation. The more troublesome the sand, the more nacre the oyster uses. This piece of sand must have been especially troublesome as it received a coating of nacre which would have made a Maiden Lane jeweler shrug his shoulders with covetousness. But what have jewelers in common with sand? Well, to make a short story, this sand in combination with nacre is a pearl and its home is a pearl oyster. I say that the nacre and grain of sand make the pearl, because one could not be a pearl without the other. The sand is the cause, the nacre is the result, and without the cause there would be no result. So when you look at a pearl, remember that in the center of that pearl there is a grain of sand or some similar substance. Several years had now passed since the sand’s advent into the

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146 THE ORACLE tempts were of no avail. At this the Scotchman flew into a rage’and stamped about until all the small fry, which were hovering near, fled in dire con- fusion. This reckless loss of self-control was not a characteristic of the Scotchman, for when on board the boat he had a most equable temper, but it was the effect of being under water. Strange to say all pearl divers are affected in much the same way. Most peaceful men when on board, they very often fly into a temper when: under water because of a wrong air sup- ply or some other trivial matter, and signal to be pulled up. As they near the surface, just like a child, they forget their anger and when hauled on deck do not know what they have come up for. With a powerful pry of his knife the Scotchman loosed the oyster and signaled to be drawn to the surface. A little more air was pumped into his suit. Being thus made lighter he easily rose to the surface and clambered aboard. After a week’s more fishing the little ship made sail for home. After the cargo of several tons of oysters was unloaded they were dumped into sand pits. Here they remained under a broiling East Indian sun until they were thoroughly decayed. The oysters were now easily opened and were washed in a sieve. The pearls, which are mostly quite small, were separated into different sizes, but out of one large oyster a pure oriental pearl was washed. This pearl had the distinction of being put in a strong tin box all by itself. As the completion of one of its series of many adventures, “the 80 pearl,” as it was known, finally found its way into the hands of afamous New York jeweler. There, on account of its regality, it remains to this day. Nat- ure, when allowed, always does her work perfectly ; and as a grain of sand in an oyster is transformed into a pearl of great price, so a little grit in the Nature of a man, if carefully nurtured and allowed to grow, will in time prove a pearl of great value in his character. Howarp G. LAPSLEY, 05. Baseball When the time came around for the organization of the baseball team, matters looked rather doubtful for a successful season. Of course some of the old team were left, but an entirely new battery was required. There were very few candidates for either pitcher or catcher; but, of the material at hand, the most promising were “Phil.” Smith, for pitcher, and “Neal” Davis, for catcher. How well these two players fulfilled that promise is a matter of history. In the beginning of the season we often heard the