Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1859-03-18

Leather
We copy from the Baltimore American, one ot
the most ably conducted journals in the country,
the following amusing and interesting article on
leather:
A homely subject, truly, but an important one,
is leather, especially in these days, when the
increase Of its price is attended by no less
slant increase 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.
Including under the head of leather all prepar>
ed skins, whether tanned as sole leather tawed,
white kid for gloves, or eurried, as the upper
leather for boots and shoes, we find that leather
has been used in all ages, and for an indefinite va
Tiety of purposes. If Job, the most ancient of
writer's, does not mention il, the more the pity,
since. had be been furnished with good leather
strap or raw hide, he might. have mitigated his
suferings by applying the same to the backs of
his oficious "comforters." &" Those early black
smiths, Vulcan and Tubal-cain, must have worn
the leathern apron appropriate to their calling.
Indeed, leather comes next after fig leaves in the
ascending scale of costumes. HOmers heroes
seem as well acquainted with leather the people
Of Lynn, Massachusetts, and since Homer's day
leather has figured among the most familiar and
beneficial Of human inventions.
At what precise period the discovery of tanning
was made is not clear. Doubtless the primitive
people in the habit of tanning each others and
their childrens hides, il not the hides of animals
This first method must have saved a good deal of
tan bark, but whether it made the hides question
waterproof is problematic. All manner of skin,
except perhaps, that fabulous tegument, " the
skin Of the teeth, has been tanned The skin Of
birds and fishes make rather Indifferent leather.
The uses Of sesl-skin are we'll known, and apart
from the cases Of 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 stiana
Human skin makes very pretty leather. but it is
too porous for use. We have seen a piece of skin
Of q negTo's breast tanned; twas handsome aud
~ like dressed hog>skin. So much of Ziscas skin
as was made into a drum, must have been taken
from that worthy's head-is was his scalp, or,
more probably, his pericardium the tough skin.bag
that held his hard old heart
Dog skins appear to have fallen into disuse.
In our bOyish days, dog-s caps were as COM
mon as silk beaver hats now are. In fact, leath-
er, as an article of dress, seems to have fallen
from its high estate, descended to the feet there to
remain. Leather, and even buckskin breeehes,
are well nigh extinct in polite society Only the
lion hearted Senator from Texas dares at this day
to display catamounts skin for a vest. Yet, in
old times, the daintiest ladies did not disdain 10
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 appetite of horse drovers, couriers, dra
goons and other gentry who are never out of the
saddle. Morocco is made of harmless sheep skins
and not of the hides oJ Moorish criminals. Sole /
leather comes of the backs Of cattle which roam
the vast pampss of South America in countless |
thousands. A million of hides, it is said, are |
shipped every year from Brazil alone. Most of |
our kid gloves made in Paris, of the skin of |
rats, caught in the sewers. Of eel skins worn /
around the wrist as cure for ague, of buffalo |
skins, the indispensable comfort in sleighng, and
the great provocative Of love and matrimony, or
of other skins, We need net speak.
Leather was the first money. Hear what Herr
Teufelsdroeh, the Professor of Things in General,
but more particularly the Professor Of the Philosr
Ophy Of Clothes-hear what he has to say on the
subject: "a simple invention il was in the old !
world, Gl Glazier-siek of lugging his slow OK about l
the country till he got il bartered for or oil
to take piece Of leather, and thereon scratch or
stamp the fgute Of an OK (or pecEs;) put it in his
toket and call il pecEnia, Money. Yet hereby did |
barter grow sale. The leather money is now gold
en- and paper, and all the miracles have been out'
miracled. ..t --
But, lest we might be called "Leather>headed,"
we will no longer dwell on the history of leather,
curious ss it is, viii dilate upon its impor
tance 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 it into the ten thousand different
forms in which it is used. We return to the pro-
position with which we set out, and which we be-
lieve deserves heserious consideration of all class
es Of sOeistyviE; that the consumption and ncress-
ed price Of leather has, in this country at least,
been attended everywhere by corresponding de-
crease in its durability-its value. Everybody who
wears <hOes and especially the farmers and plan
tiers of the South who buy them for their negroes,
will bear Titness to the truth Of this statement.
Not only are grossestimpositious h as brown
paper seles, practced upon Southern buyers, but
the leather itself, wherever sold wherever Eorn
Is getting more worthless. It is not so much the
annoyance, and the loss of money resulting from
WorthIessness Of shoes and boots as the great and
ali extensive danger to health, that challenges
attention to this subject. Disease like burgisr.
enters oftsnest at the lowest story, and he WHOSE
feet are constantly vet may follow the exampls
of the Chinese gentlemen, who purchase eofins
aud keep them in their parors as ornamental fnr-
niture.
The cause Of the universal and really dangerous
deterioration of leather in this country is perfect.
ly pIain In this as in everything else, the Amer
iean people are 10 too great hurry. Leather in
order to be perfectly tanned requires time. The
Hquiek process" about which SO much noise wa
made in New York. some years ago. proved TO be
failure for this reason; the quick process newt
ably tans the outer surface of tho skin that the
ashingent principle cannot reach the interior at
all, and hence the leather must be worthless.
The most durable leather we get nowadays is
rom England, and there we have heard, the
ime of tanning is established by law. The result
IF such tanning will hardly be believed in this
,ountry. We knew Of pair Of English hunting
yaiters which have been in constant use for eleT
u years, and they are good yet; the fortunate
,vner expresses his Willingness to give twenty 4
dollars for another pair ike them. And ii would
,e economy in him TO do so; better that, mnch
,etter, than to give S. for q pair Of American
hoes which will last him only sixmonths, or a
ear at the farthest. The difference is as $50 to
IS or Sll0 We hear great deal about the de-
es.e constitution Of the American people, and
,ueh is said about bsd diet and want Of exercise.
las boot leather nothing to do with iR The evil d
Ii 80 .loksn- / y