Show WHY FURS ARE WORTH THEIR WEIGHT IN SILVER I j I I I I I I rt i t ti i i a lr Y1 h s I r terl4 I = T t i IT 1 I 11 t f ft t v I DANCING IN THE BUTTER n From the animals back to the lady shoulders there Is much skilful handling hand-ling of high prIced furs Aside from the trapping and selling and the malting malt-Ing Into modish wraps and intermediate intermedi-ate step occurs and upon this depends more truly the ultimate value of the skin than its depth of tone purity of color or even rare breed to which it was assigned by the Creator In consequence con-sequence ordinary skunk skins have been made beautiful martens at the dressers shop while the rarest of sable has been rendered useless As a trade this Intermediate handling has been lIt tie affected by the advance of mechanical I me-chanical ingenuity It still remains primitivea trade of hand work and foot work and mans labor Nom < han Ical device has ever been made to equal In delicacy and result this contact with human flesh Machines there are for the curing and tanning of skinsskins of the lower graderabbit and opossum and the heavier pelts are put through a machinery I ma-chinery process But the high grade I fursthe costly skinssable ermine I mink and chinchilla still are manipulated manipu-lated almost entirely by hand and this I together with the increased demand and decreasing supply Idds to the 1lnal cost FLESHING AND BUTTERING The work of the dresser is Interesting interest-ing and in stages highly pidturesque The skins are turned over to him by the firm who bus its seasons supply in the raw state The trapper haH literally I lit-erally skinned his gameturned the I I outside or fur side in leavIng the entire en-tire pelt exposedhence the old nutsery joke of skinning tile rabbit The skins are greased to presere them from vermin and soon turn stiff This constitutes the raw state In curing the pelt is first put through a softening processa chemical soiu tionand the shins are then tubbed Here they remain In the salt and water wa-ter or similar wash as required overnight over-night possibly 12 hours longer The skins are wrung out of this bath and partially dried then turned over to the I flesher This Is another department of the trade and requires skilled hands to scrape these skins properly This is done on upright knives set slightly oblique at the end of a narrow bench son which the flesher sits astraddle From the fiesher the skins go through a greasing process where line creamery butter is liberally slapped over the pelt the skin all this while remaining pelt out of course WHEN DRESSERS WORK The next departure leads one to the picturesque detail of the dressers shop Along either side of the room are ranged large barrels of threquarters height In this the men stand waist deep while sacqulng forms the cover from the edge of the barrel to the mans body This keeps in the heat whIch in time becomes excessive and In these covered barrels the halfnake men tread and tread day after day and look as though they were practicing the couchecouche dance With their naked feet they worl the butter Into the pelt anti fur and the heat which emanates I from their body forms a most important import-ant item in the curing of the skins o A shuffle board fastened obliquely across the front inner side of the barrel bar-rel aids them in rotating the skins which In time acquire a high degree of heat very surprisIng to the novice This heat renders the fur soft and supple sup-ple Only a few skinsten a dozen are trodden at one time When the butter dance stops the skins are removed tq a drying room and spread over the floor At the rIght point of dryness they are gathered together ether and taken to the sawdust room This sawdust is in truth pulverized wood as fine In quality as cornstarch Sometimes it is of mahogany sometimes some-times of rosewood The latter however I contains so much acidity that it is I used more sparingly For the different sorts of furs different dusts are used wood dust fo the darker coats and flou and marble dust for ermine This wood dust is expensive and the supply limited In the curing season It becomes be-comes a serious item in the dressers trade As only 10 per cent of the butter Is actually absorbed by the pelt the rest clinging to tile fur the dust is worked very thoroughly into the greased fur and cleanses It of the butter and renders I ren-ders the fur soft and silky The first mechanical labor is here introduced when the skins with a copious supply of dust art thrown into a big revolving tub which imitates closely the rotation of treading and by passing over coils of steam pipes gets warmer similar to the heat of the treaders body The furs and dust are revolved rapidly until suf ficlent dust has been taken up when they are dumped out picked up separately separ-ately and given a deft shake and the hand labor is again called into use The skins are spread to air beaten i turned fur out and given to the comber lIe finishes the silky coats evens up i ta TUG t i f l I I I I J t ti I N Yla 9 11 mow r J I r I THE ONLY bIACHIiiERY UaED w I i skins to a point of symmetry For with the Indian trapper a hind leg comes very handy for his chief doefo work into Ills tribal robes and many a four legged animal arrives with a three legged skin at the dressers shop Then half of the hind leI is deftly sewed to the trunk and the skin is dressed With the above process faithfully worked out the fur is never fulled or cotton This system and the honesty j ot the trade has won for the American II dresser a front rank in the curing or skins Except for broad tail or unborn I un-born Persian lamb and the treating of I the Persian lamb Itself which Is ex celled only In Lelvslg and the London I I I dyeing or seal which our climate and chemical condition of the water make impossible the United States of Amer ica leads today In the curing and tanning I tan-ning and dressing of furs as its women do In creating the greatest demands and the most appreciative fur market HELEN HAZELTINE |