Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-12-07
Leather.

one, Is leather, especially in these DAYS when
! the constant increase of its price is attended
| by no less constant decrease in its value.
Important is leather. il for no other reason
than thls-that the more we put it down and
tread it under our foot the higher it rises and
the greater the demand for il.
| Including under the head of leather all pre-
pared skins. whether tanned. as sole leather. or
td,Ued as white kid for gloves or cuTrie9 as the
| upper leather for boots and shoes we find that
| leather has been used in all ages and for an
infinite variety of purposes. IfJob, the most
| ancient of writers, does not mention it. the
| more the pity, since, had he been furnished
with good leathern strap raw hide. he
might have mitigated hisssnfferngs by apply
| ing the same to the backs of his officiOus
''comforters." Those early blacksmiths, Vul-
| can and Tubal-cain, must have worn the leath-
| ern apron appropriate to their calling. In
deed. leather comes next after fig-leaves in the
ascending sea lie of costumes. HOmer's heroes
seem as well acquainted with leather as
the people of Lynn. in Massachusetts,.
and since Homer's day leather has figured
among the most familiar and beneficial of hui
man inventions.
At what precise period the discovery of
tanning was made is not clear. Doubtless
the most primitive people were in the habit
of tanning each others and their children's
hides, if not the hides of animals. This first
method must have saved good deal of tan
bark but whether it made the hides in qnes-
ton waterproof is problematic. All manner
of skin. except perhaps, that fabulous tegu-
ment the skin of the teeth" has been tan
ned. The skin of birds and of fishes make
rather Indifferent leather. The uses of seal
skin are well known. and, apart from the
cases for mathematical Instruments to which
it is generally applied, we conceive that shark
skin, in the form of gloves, would prove of
great service to the. professors of practical
fstiand. Human skin makes very pretty
leather, but it is too pOrousfOr use. We have
seen a piece of the skin of a negro's breast
tanned; it was handsome, and very like dress
ed hog skin. So much of Zisca's skin as was
made into a drum. must have been taken from
that wortby's tead-it was his scalp, or. more
probably. his pericardium-th tough skn-bag
that held his hard old heart.
Dog skins appears to have fallen into disuse.
In our boyish days. dog skin caps were
common as silk beaver hats now are. In fact,
leather, as an article of dress. seems to have
fallen from its high estate, descended to the
feet. there to remain. Leather. and even
buckskin brooches are well nigh extinct in
polite society. Only the lion-hearted Senator
from Texas dares at this day to display a cata-
mounts skin for a vest. Yet. in old times,
the daintiest ladies did not disdain to wear
leather Channels skin under skirts NAV yet
be fashionable in Europe. Hog skins are
made into saddles, and this perhaps accounts
for the enormous appetite ofhOrse drovers. cOu-
rers, dragons and other gentry who are never
Out!Ot the saddle. Morocco is made Of harm
less sheep skins and not of the hides ofMoOrish
criminals. Sole leather comes off the backs
of cattle which roam the vast pan,pas of South
America in countless thousands. A million
of hides it is said are shipped every year Fl ON
Brazil alone. Most of our kid gloves are
made in Paris of the skins of rats caught in
the sewers. OF eel skins, worn around the
wrist as IL cure for ague. of buffalo skins, the
indispensable comfort in sleighing and the
great provocative of love and matrimony. or
of other skins, we need not speak.
Leather was the first money. Hear what
Herr Teufelsdroch, the Professor of Things in
General. but more particularly the Professor
of the Philosophy of Clothes-hear what be
has to say on this subject: "A simple inven-
"tion it was in the old world Grazier-sick OF
.Iugging his slow OK about the country till he
"got it bartered for corn or oil-to take
''pece of leather, and thereon scratch or stamp
"the figure of an OK (or Pecus;) put it in his
"pocket and call it Pecunid Money. Yet
thereby did barter grow sale. the Leather
Money is now Golden and Paper, and all
'the miracles have been out miracled."
But lest we might be called .'leather-head-
ed" we will no longer dwell on the hstOryspf
leather curious as it is, nor will we dilate
upon its importance in an industrial point of
view, or expand this article with statistics as
to the quantity of leather used in this and
other countries of the world or the number of
people employed in the manufacture of 1t
into the ten thousand different forms in which
it is used. We return to the proposition with
which we set out, and which we believe de-
serves the serious consideration of all classes
of society, viz that the increased consump-
ton and increased price of leather has, in this
country at least. been attended everywhere
by a corresponding decrease in its durability
its value. Everybody who wears shoes, and
especially the farmers and planters of the
South who buy them for their negroes, will
bear witness to the truth of this statement.
Not only are the grossest impositions. such as
brown-paper soles, practiced upon Southern
buyer but the leather itself, wherever sold
or wherever worn, is getting more and more
worthless. 1t is not so much the annoyance
and the loss of money resulting from the
worthlessness of shoes and boots as the great
and al-eXtensive danger to health. that chal-
lenges attention to this subject. Disease, like
a burglar, enters oftenest at the lower story
and he whose feet are constantly wet may
follow the example of the Chinese gentlemen,
who purchase collins and keep them In their
parlors as ornamental furniture.
The cause of the universal and really dan
gerous deterioration of leather in this country
l. perfectly plain. In this, as in everything
else. the American people are in too gre1t a
hurry Leather, in order to be perfectly tan
ned, requires time. The ''quick process"
about which so much noise was made in New |
York some years ago. proved a failure, and |
all such attempts will likewise fail, for this |
reason the quick process inevitably tans the |
outer surface of the skin so that the astrin- !
gent principle cannot reach the interior at |
all, and hence the leather must be worth |
less.
The most durable leather we get nova |
daysis from England, and there, we have
heard, the time of tanning is established by |
law. The result of such tanning will hardly |
be believed in this country. We know of
pair OF English hunting CATERS which have |
been in constant use for eLeuen years. and they |
are good yet I; the fortunate owner expresses !
his perfect willingness to give twenty dollars |
for another pair like them. And il would be |
economy to do so better that much better, |
than give IS for pair Of American shoes !
which will last him only six months or year |
at the farthest. The difference is as $50 to |
SIS or Sll0. We. hear great deal about the |
delicate constitution of the American people, |
and much il said about bad diet and want Of |
exercise. Has bad leather nothing to do with |
il The evil is a crying one, and we'll worthy
of legislation. BdltrmoTs american.