AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
July, 1911 
logue free. 
To the Real Owners 
of Niagara Falls 
OUR property is in danger. You must act quickly if you would 
save for yourselves and the Nation one of the most magnificent 
pieces of scenery in the world—Niagara Falls—which draws 
each year more than a million visitors—a great army of travelers who 
spend Twenty-five Millions of dollars there and on the way. This vast 
income will increase if the Falls remain as a great spectacle. Would 
it be good business to destroy the source of such an income? 
Here Is the Danger 
The Falls have “‘unquestionably been seriously injured by the diversions already made 
by the Power Companies, to run their giant turbines. This is the formal report of the 
Chief of Engineers of the United States Army, after two years of accurate measurements 
and records. And he reports that ‘‘additional diversions, now under way, will add 
to the damage.”’ The American Fall is very thin in places. The Bridal Veil is less in 
volume. Hundreds of feet on the Horseshoe Fall are barely covered. Portions of the 
Rapids are much less impressive. 
The Power Companies, seeing an opportunity to increase their income more than Five 
Millions of dollars annually, are fighting the reénactment of the Burton Bill, which expires 
June 29, 1911. They want now the maximum limit of water allowed under our Waterways 
Treaty with Canada. This would mean an INCREASED DRAIN on the Falls of SEIXTY- 
EIGHT PER CENT beyond the amount of water now taken by these corporations. They 
also want the limit removed on the transmission of power from Canada. 
It Is to Your Interest 
to have Mr. Burton’s Senate Joint Resolution 3 passed without amendment, thereby 
preventing the passage of measures that would benefit only a few private corporations at 
the expense and the shame of the whole American people. 
The Burton Bill, passed in 1906 and extended in 1909, was more than fair to the 
Power Companies. It gave them all the water they could then use, or were preparing to 
use. It did not stop any going enterprise. The Burton Resolution will continue permanently 
these fair, just, and protective provisions of the original Burton Bill. 
Will You Help 
to save this great National Asset from the Aggressions of Forty Millions of 
power-company capital? Write or wire your Senators or Representatives 
in Congress. DO IT TODAY. Write for further facts to the American 
Civic Association, which first called President Roosevelt’s attention to the 
National ownership of Niagara. Send us copies of the replies you get. We 
are fighting for your rights and we need your assistance. Protect your own 
interests by using a dozen postage stamps. Tell your friends. 
AMERICAN CIVIC ASSOCIATION 
J. HORACE McFARLAND, President S14) Unione lrust Building 
RICHARD B. WATROUS, Secretary Whiner D.C 
WILLIAM B. HOWLAND, Treasurer ashington, D.C. 
” 
The Luden Glass Dome Pneumatic Cleaner 
Thorough, Durable, Reliable 
You can see it breathing in dirt 
through its Glass Dome 
J The Price is Fifteen Dollars 
keep. Highest type. 
Write us for Illustrated Circular 
and Address of nearest dealer 
Luden Pneumatic Cleaner 
423A Buttonwood St., Reading, Pa. 
catalogue free. 
Dept. W, 
ACBETH makes over three thousand styles 
of Electric Light Shades and Globes, and a 
Lamp Chimney for every size burner. Cata- 
Address MACBETH, Pittsburgh 
CARPETS, RUGS, UPHOLSTERY 
FABRICS, INTERIOR DECORATIONS 
Shetland Ponies 
An unceasing source o 
yleasure and robust health 
» children. Safe and ideal 
playmates. Inexpensive to 
plete outfits. Satisfaction 
guaranteed. Illustrated 
BELLE MEADE FARM 
Markham, Va. 
ANTIQUES 
A very large stock of OLD CHINA, Old Mahogany 
Furniture, Shefheld Plate, Old Blue Quilts, Copper, 
Brass and Pewter, Old Glassware, Brass Andirons, 
Jardinieres. Many Old Prints. Antique Jewelry. My 
New Catalogue contains descriptions and prices of hun- 
dreds of Antiques, sent free to any one interested. 
Mrs. ADA M. ROBERTS 
Washington New Hampshire 
Prices marked in plain figures 
will always be found EXCEED- 
INGLY LOW when compared 
with the best values obtainable 
elsewhere 
Geo. C. Funt Co. 
43-47West 23°ST. 24-28 West 24"Sr 
are the sea snakes, the smaller octopi, the 
stingray and the blowfish. : 
After a day’s take of shell has been con- 
veyed ashore the shell opener begins work 
at once. The pay of the men is $30 a 
month, plus ten per cent on the value of the 
pearls found. Some idea of the magnitude 
of the industry may be obtained on learning 
that in one year five hundred and twenty 
luggers paid an annual five-dollar license 
to engage in the trade, and that they took 
many thousands of tons of pearl shell; 
while as to the pearls themselves, the cus- 
toms duties in the pearl town of Broome 
exceeded $5,000 a month. 
The treasury authorities of Western Aus- 
tralia estimate that they receive at least 
$100,000 a year in dues from the pearlers. 
Hardly a month passes without the discov- 
ery of pearls having a market value of from 
$5,000 to $15,000 each. A beautiful pink 
pear-shaped specimen weighing two hun- 
dred and six grains was found last season 
and sold for $80,000. 
Before setting, pearls are classified ac- 
cording to size on a setting board, and the 
delicate work of drilling a valuable speci- 
men is invariably done by an old-fashioned 
hand apparatus. Moreover, no matter how 
valuable a set of pearls may be they are 
invariably strung on fine silk thread. 
Inland pearl fishing forms no mean in- 
dustry in this country. Although pearls have 
been gathered from the fresh water mussels 
of our country as far back as the time of the 
aborigines, yet the hunt for them did not be- 
come systematic and general until shortly 
after the middle of the last century. 
Since then nearly every stream east of the 
Rockies has been prospected in the search 
for these valuable parasites of the pearl 
mussel. 
One of the finest pearls ever secured in 
the fresh waters of the United States was 
found in Notch Brook, near Paterson, New 
Jersey, in 1857. It weighed ninety-three 
grains. Subsequently it became known as 
the Queen pearl, and was sold for $2,500 
to the Empress Eugenie. Owing to the 
great increase in the value of pearls in re- 
cent years, it is now worth more than five 
times that amount. 
Shortly after the year mentioned what 
was probably the largest pearl ever found 
in these waters was taken in the same brook. 
A CATSKIN CARRIAGE ROBE 
AVE you ever seen a catskin car- 
riage robe with the skins in their 
natural colors? If not, you would 
be as much surprised at its beauty as the 
writer was, when a young nephew who 
was visiting me from the country brought 
his robe out for admiration. It was really 
beautiful, but it seemed also remarkable 
as the handiwork of a boy not yet seven- 
teen. He had bagged the cats of all the 
neighborhood, killed them and tanned 
the skins. But the lining was still more 
remarkable. It was of blanket-like ma- 
terial, and this boy had himself taken the 
wool as it came from the sheep, washed it, 
dyed it, spun it into yarn, put the yarn on 
a loom, and had woven it into the cloth, 
thus alone completing the production of 
the cloth lining. His father had a small 
woolen mill driven by a water wheel and 
covering a floor space of probably 40x60. 
In these days, when the large factories 
specialize labor so that different persons 
perform the different steps in the produc- 
tion of a cloth, it seemed remarkable that 
the boy should have, single handed, con- 
verted the raw material into the beautifui 
finished article. 
