PYTHON ROBES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 113, 28 September 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

PYTHON ROBES

THE MILLINER, IN THE FOREST. For once fashion has taken a direction which promises to be of general benefit to humanity. The new idea silences severe critics, and leaves humanitarians nothing to grumble at. Womankind, or at least such as have access to the longest purses, are shortly to use snake-skin for garments of quite everyday wear. It is a startling suggestion, and, in view of the horror with which the sex has always regarded the serpent, has a certain picturesqueness about it. Whether the new robes will prove as artistic as is expected remains to be seen; they will certainly lend themselves in skilful hands to the emphasising of whatever graces there may be in the person of the wearer, and if the fashlon thins out the numbers of these dangerous reptile" all over the world, humanity will owe a debt of gratitude to the inventor of new modes.

We may yet come to see python-skin sold by the yard over our drapers' counters, for the python is a big beast, occasionally reaching, when full-grown, thirty feet in length and a foot or more in diameter; thus, apparently, a single skin might supply enough stuff to make an ordinary gown on modern Empire lines. What the cost will be we cannot yet say. It will obviously be high, for serpents of the largest size are not to be met with every day. The market price of skins, in view of the coming demand, has already gone up to a very high figure, and in Borneo, Sumatra and all over the Malay Archipelago native hunters are scouring the wilderness, tempted by the offers of dealers in Paris and Vienna, and killing or capturing every big snake they meet with. In Malaya the "reticulated" python or rice-snake —so called from his habit of frequenting the paddy swamps where small game abounds—is the largest of available serpents. The native hunters, when seeking them, look for the tracks they make in their nightly foraging expeditions, and place on each a large cane construction much on the principle of the eel-trap. The python entering this to get at some small animal used as a bait finds himself unable to retreat, and is starved into quietness. Pythons are also captured in the open, which is a distinctly exciting kind of sport. If the hunters should have the good luck, to > find one asleep, coiled up on some branch, or rocky ledge, gorged with his last meal, they throw a net of strong rope over him, and then a long battle begins; for the python combines the strength of a horse with a special inability to understand when he has met his match, it being as much as a dozen men can do eventually to bind and secure a full-grown specimen. But it is not only in Eastern countries snakes big enough to supply rough material for blouse and skirt are to be found. In South America some remarkably large kinds haunt the dense forests, especially of the Amazon, and the swamps of the interior. Brazil has its boa-constrictors; while in other regions the water-loving anaconda is numerous, growing to a length of ten or twelve feet, with a girth of a yard in the thickest part, this representing a great deal of available fabric for the Parisian dressmaker to exert her skill upon. Hanging in proportions below these immense reptiles are a world of other snakes, fascinating in patterns and infinitely delicate in coloring. While the more important sorts will no doubt be reserved for dresses, the lesser varieties may lend themselves to scarves, muffs, gloves, and so on, for it is said that properly prepared snakeskin is both soft iuid durable. The anaconda is already "'bespoke" for the latest thing in motor-coats, and thus used makes an attractive novelty. Made up in delicate shades of creamcolor and brown, and lined with satin to match, the material forms most attractive garments, which are especially desirable by reason of their lightness. They weigh almost nothing at all, and it is reported ''never wear out." Four iairsized skins make a touring-coat, but there is sonic trouble in matching them perfectly. Other uses will doubtless be found for species of lesser girth, and a novjel change will come over our drapers' windows when the fashion is fully established, and snake-hide becomes a common article of wear.

Fashion has already made Mich good use of the skins of lizards for purse* and the like that certain species have been almost exterminated in their native wilds. The alligator has lent its hide, unwilling, of course, to the manufacture of handbags and various articles of f. :r.-

inine fancy; why. then, should it be impossible to utilise snake-skins in the way indicated? Tlie fair sex has had a grudge against the whole race of creeping things since the, time of our first parents, and should feel a piquant sense of revenge in the opportunity of now putting it to such practical use. The new material is beautiful in itself; it must always remain more or less exclusive, as every garment will be a separate work of art. The wearer will be conscious of conferring a benefit on humanity by causing the destruction of treacherous creatures.