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Show SHARK-SKIN SHOES. Possibly there may be some measure of cheer in the plan to fashion shoes from shark skins. Information has been presented to the department of commerce that footwear equal and perhaps per-haps superior in lasting qualities to the shoes now retailing at 3 to $10 a pair can be manufactured from shark hide at a cost that will enable the public to buy them at $3 a pair. This news, if it can be kept from the leather trust, will be gladly received by the American people, who are paying appallingly high prices for shoes, and who are informed that the present prices are really very low in comparison compari-son with those that will rulo next year. Four large plants in Xew England are already engaged in taking and tanning tan-ning large quantities of fish hides, with an eager market for the product. Shark, porpoise, dog and other fish meat is sold for food; oils for medicinal and lubricating purposes are extracted, and other elements of the fish are sold for fertilizer. In addition, the "shagreen" i or hard surface of the fish may be of value in diamond cutting or polishing. In view of the ready market for these products, it is thought that the production produc-tion of shoe material in substitution I for leather can be undertaken on a (large scale. It is shown that upper leather equal to the cow product now selling from SO cents to $1.10 per foot can be turned out for 25 cents or foot, while shark-skin sole leather can be produced at 3o to 40 cents tlie foot. It is confidently asserted that tish-leatlier tish-leatlier shoes will equal in appearance nr.y cow-leather article on the market, j and' also that they will wear as long and as well, being waterproof, even after long immersion, yet are not airtight. air-tight. The supply of this character of leather is said to be well-nigh inexhaustible. inex-haustible. Fishermen now engaged in the industry frequently net 7o0 sharks in a clay, and some of the larger sharks will supply more than 1G0 feet ef usable lea'her. Idie footwear problem is one of the j most discouraging of the many now facing fac-ing the American people. Supplying a large family of children with shoos is a colossal undertaking, since youngsters young-sters arc notoriously "hard" on shoes, having to be outfitted every two or three weeks. It is sincerely to lie hoped that tho manufacture of footwear from fih skins will bo hastened, so that the people may have relief. The chief concern con-cern will be to get Fhfirk-skin shn-i on the market nt a price whieh the people can pay. It is till very well to say that a shoe ca n be " ma tin f ac i u red ' ' at a low cost, but the painful cxprri-ence cxprri-ence of the people has be-n, and it, that, no matter what heartening news they may read about oriL'iiial rots, they arc still compelled to turn their pockets inside out to acquire a pair of shoes. |