Going further in the search, we find that the smooth,
glittering lining, upon which the fish moves, is known as the _nacre_,
and that it is produced by a portion of the animal called the
_mantle_; and, for explanation's sake, we may add that gourmands
practically know the mantle as the beard of the oyster. When living in
its glossy house, should any foreign substance find its way through
the shell to disturb the smoothness so essential to its ease, the fish
coats the offending substance with nacre, and a pearl is thus formed.
The pearl is, in fact, a little globe of the smooth, glossy substance
yielded by the oyster's beard; yielded ordinarily to smooth the narrow
home to which his nature binds him, but yielded in round drops, real
pearly tears, if he is hurt. When a beauty glides among a throng of
her admirers, her hair clustering with pearls, she little thinks that
her ornaments are products of pain and diseased action, endured by the
most unpoetical of shell-fish.--_Leisure Hours._
'ROBESPIERRE.'
In our recent notice of Robespierre, it was mentioned that, at the
period of his capture in the Hotel de Ville, he was shot in the jaw by
a pistol fired by one of the gendarmes. Various correspondents point
to the discrepancy between this account and that given by Thiers, and
some other authorities, who represent that Robespierre fired the
pistol himself, in the attempt to commit self-destruction.
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