The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1859-03-19

homely subject truly, but an important
one, is leather, especially in these days,
when the constant increase of its price is
attended by a. no less constant decrease in
its value. Important is leather, if for no
other reason than this-that the more we
put it down and tread it under foot, the
higher it rises, and the greater the demand
for it. Fl. - -------.-.'-., -.,7s .-----.---f
Including under the head of leather all
prepared skins, whether tanned, as sole
leather, or taaVed, as white kid for gloves, or
curyied as the upper leather for boots and
shoes, we find that leather has been used in
all ages, and for an infinite variety of pur-
poses. If Job, the most ancient of writers,
does not mention it, the more the pity,
since, had he been furnished with a good
leathern strap or raw-hide, he might have
nlitigated his sufferings by supplying the
same to the backs OF his officious com
/ forters. Those early black-smiths, Vulcan
and Tubai-cain, must haveworn The 1eathern
/ apron appropriate to their calling Indeed,
leather comes next above fg-lcaves in the
ascending scale of costumes. Homer's he
roes 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
Z human 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
question waterproof is problematic. All
manner of skin, except, perhaps, that fabu-
| lous tegument +" the skin of the teeth" has
| been tanned. The skins of birds and of
fishes make rather indifferent leather. The
uses Of seal.skin are we'll known, and apart
from the cases for mathematical instruments,
to which it is generally applied, we conceive
I that shark-skin, in the form of gloves, would
prove of great service to the professors of
| practical fStidnd. Human skin makes
/ very pretty leather, but it is too porous for
use. We have seen piece of the skin of a
negro's breast tanned; it was handsome and
| very like dressed hog-skin. So much of
| Ziscas skin as was made into a drum, must
! have been taken from that worthy's head
/ it was his scalp, or, more probably, his peri
cardiam-the tough skin-bag that held his
! hard old heart
| Dog skin appears to have fallen into dis
! use. In our boyish days, dog-skin caps
| were as common as silk beaver hats now
| are. In fact, leather, as an article of dress,
/ seems to have fallen from its high estate,
| and descended to the feet there to remain.
| Leather, and even buckskin breeches, are
/ well nigh extinct in polite society. Only
| the lion-hearted Senator from Texas dares
ut this day display catamouuts skin for a
vest. Yet, in old times, the daintie5t ladies
| did not disdain to wear leather. Chamois-
! skin under-shirts may yet be fashionable in
| Europe. Hog skins are made into saddles,
and this perhaps accounts for the enormous
I appetite of horse-drovers, couriers, dragons
and other gentry who are never out of the
saddle. Morocco is made of harmless sheep
| skins, and not of the hides of Moorish GRIM
! inals. Sole leather comes off the backs of
1 cattle that roam the vast pdmpas OF South
America in countless thousands. A million
hides, it Is said, are shipped from Brazil
alone every year. Most of the kid gloves
are made in Paris, ofthe skins of rats caught
in sewers. OF eel SKINS worn around the
wrist as cure for ague, Of buffalo skins, the
indispensable comfort in sleighing, and the
great proyocation 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 Pro-
iessor of the Philosophy of Clothes-hear
what he has TO say on this subject: "A SIM
pie invention it was in the old-world Gra-
zier-sick of Juggling his slow OK about the
country till he got it bartered for corn or
cil-to take piece of leather and thereon
scratch or stamp the figure Of an OK tor
Pecas ) put it in his pocket and call it
Pecunid, Money. Yet hereby did barter
grow sale, the Leather Money is now Gold
II I Al, l.
out-miracled. q
But, lest we might be called "leather-
headed, we will no longer dwell on the
history of leather, curious it is, nor will
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 manu-
facture of it into the ten thousand different
forms i'll which it is used. We return to the
. proposition with which we set out, and
! which we believe deserves the serious con-
sideration Of all classes of society, viz: that
the increased consumption and increased
price of leather has, in this country at least
I been attended everywhere by correspond.
0 ing decrease in its durability, its value
, Every body who wears shoes, and especially
e the farmers and planters of the South whc
!. bay them for their negroes, will bear wit
ness to the truth of this statement. Not only
are the groSseSt impositions, such aS brown
paper soleS, practiced upon Southern buyers
but the leather itself, wherever sold OF
wherever worn, is getting more and NOR,
worthless. 1t is not SO much the annoy
an:e, and the loss of money resulting fron
the worthesSneSs of shoes and boots, as tn
great and all-exteusive danger to health
that challenges attention 10 this subject
Disease, like Il burglar enters ofteheSt at tn
/ lower story, and whose feet are coustantl,
wet, may follow the example Of the Chimes
gentlemen, who purchase collins and kee
them in their pariOrs us ornamental turni
2 t ire.
The cause Of the universal and really dan
gerous deterioration of leather in thi
country, is perfectly plain. IN this, as il
everything else, the American peopl
are IN too great a hurry. Leather, in orde
to be perfectly tanned, requires time. Th
quick process, about which 30 much nois
was made in New York, some years age
proved failure and all such attempts wi
likewise fail for this reason: the quick prC