'ERMINE' WRAPS FROM RABBIT SKINS

Wairarapa Age, 24 March 1920, Page 2

'ERMINE' WRAPS FROM RABBIT SKINS

SECRETS OF THE FUR TRADE. Fortunes are being made by dealers 'n furs, Never betoro in the history of the have purchasers been so numerous and eager or money so plentiful. Record prices are being ed for even the poorest quality of goods. Dame Fashion decrees that with the approach of winter woman shall bedeck herself with the pelts of animals. To supply the demand men venture to the ends of the earth, to the frozen prairies of Alaska, and the fog-bound ; wastes of Labrador, to the depths'of .the vast forests of Northern S'ber'a, to remote provinces of China, to Australian deserts, «nd to the wind-swept tundras of the Arctic. So far into the backwoods do some hunters journey that frequently a

full twelve months elapse betweett the or tuti ana cuo appeal unco or, uieir uuuicssua s m 1.110 tur marts of i-.onuou iana i\e« "iork. I me influence of war conditions, the ' upneatou ai ilubsia ana me wwuut date oi sea transport nave tended u* •uorcen &uppii«.s uuu iuoivu.*c p»ic«o c. illUCtl 111 tuv lUl' ft'ui'Ja <w lu «i» tlunv. iiiansets. Almost fabulous prices are being o*vaiu«u tor some sii-us. jx ba«rf~ «H UUO Oi tilO aubuiuA Buieo icnUv^. iUUU gUiUcUiS, WUilo l^OOu oilOlti c-u-US IauUuSJ 10l VUi j i&tgy sums Dtitrtuen sc-ao uuu s-»U. ooiue years ago m« of tu* pro mace oi i\uci s>oii picsoiiteu tin jiace jcaupross oi ivuSoia wim uli v,* mine nuuiUe valuta -a* ovw AJlojOvv, •i mm a lauious expiotvr li«s t'vov» how, in J&asiern UttjeUiana, ho wee. a g.ri wearing a drest cuiiipuaea wuoil., of silver-iox sinus. Ac prudent jpr Coi. suca a costume woula uo wortn tjuiU' i'i.jjUUU. Kecently a heap of pelts in a big fur company's shaCK on tue shores o. Jdudsou ilay was valutd at £,oO,UuU. Xhe collection mciuuea suver-tox, leu ana cross-rox, 4bUU iuusk rats m bales, lynx, bear, beaver, m.nii, insutcn, otter ana skunk. With ttoe scarcity of furo and the extraordinary pi ices Oem & ♦otaaied for tne bmau quantifies m«i are tor* Bale, it is hartuy surprising that many of the commoner yar.et.es of pelts are put througn camouuagI ing processes ana soiu iu tn« as specimens or the rarer s£*na. bjiinu once considered valueless are no» among the el.te oi peltry. Moieskin, formerly one of the humblest memoers of the fur fam.ly, ia | now very fashionable. A Lttie gar« ment called a "visite" worked in stripes, capelLse at the bactt aiKl witu stole ends in front, may easily co«> ou guineas. Fox >s the leading fur of* the sea-" son. Fur traaeis, however, Jonig s.nce sold the last of their depleted s'tocKS. Having an ample supply bi ihibetan lamb skns", ttiejr have met the new demand by turning these uuo "fox." By meand of hot, comos ana electric irons the curly covering of che lamb has been stroked int.) a resemblance of the long, lank Jia.r of the fox. Only experts can detect the difference between the treated lamb skin when fin.shed and the genuine article. Musk rats purchased in Canada at an average oi two dollars a sirin sell in jjjngland as seal at high pr-ces. Chinese white rabbit sttina appear in the most exclus.ve shops as ermine wraps, wh.le common American opossum is dyed and then sold as the rarer skunk. Some of the ultra-smart fur toqucß seen -in, West End milliners are made from cats' skins. Thirty thousand starving cats are rescued from the 6treets of London every year, their lives painlessly ended, and their furs sold to make hats, gjoves, mutfs, stoles and coats. '• Even sewer rats add their quota. Motor gloves, fur-1 ned slippers, and foot-wraps are all • piade- from "the coats of these vermin. Squirrel no longer wearfe it natural hue. Dyed and trimmed it rosenjbles the opulent sable, and has becomd one of the most expensive of furs. Seventy guineas is by no meana tm ex«esgive price for a capacious blanket of camouflaged' squiri-el.—F. Heathcote Bm»fc. ' • -v-'., : 7-,