An announcement has been made by the manager of the Mikimoto Company, that following the decision Jof the French courts lust Spring to the effect that cultured pearls are in effect real pearls, an arrangement. for cooperation betwen Paris and [Tokyo is in course of negotiation. The decision of the courts hiving a definite status to the cultured article is stated to have temporarily wrecked the pearl market, and there is no doubt that it will be to the advantage of both the pearl dealers of Europe and the jcaltured pearl industry of Japan to reach an accommodation. The case is of yet greater importance for those here who, before there was any. idea of cultured pearls attaining any) great intrinsic value, bought them for their artistic worth, A few years ago they could be purchased at comparatively few dollars a string, Jand to-day they—must many times their original value and will be more so if the Mikimoto
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.