, 1882-03-24
Ostrich Feathers.

Dnrinr the war ostrich feathers went
go, to nm enormous price in this country.
When we had to pay as high rs 26O for
aoid TO pay not only for the crude feath-
ors bnt for the work of preparing them
for the market, and the heavy duties eX'
acted upon them in their finished form,
they became almost unattainable. At
that time the arts of bleaching and dye
inc feathers were hardly known in this
conntrv. A German, Isidor Cohnfeldt,
was the first to establish the new indus
try here, and already New York has the
LARGEST establishment for feather manu-
focture in the world and is enabled to
maintain lively competition in this
line of products with the principal
Turopean cities. This principal estab'
Isbment employs in its busiest season-
tbe spring and summer months-o20
Girls and 36 men, and all the year round
fnds work for from l30 to 400 persons,
turning out IL ,25O, 900 worth OF goods
ner annum Few people have any idea
of the amount Of rough treatment an
ostrich feather will stand and has to go
through to make it the beautiful thing
which eventually adorns some ladys
Gainsborough hat or Knight Templars
chapeau.
As it comes from Africa in its crude
state, it is plain, rough, discolored and
dirty. In that condition it may he
worth anywhere from $5 to $3.50 per
Mound, according to its length, tineness,
absence of color and thickness. First,
after being counted and tied together by
their dullls, with long strings, the feath-
ers are vigorously brushed one 10y one,
TO free them from the dirt. The work
man laws them On one brush and works
them in great tubs of soapsuds, rubbed
with brown soap, and washed more Vlg'
orouslv than laundresses wash clothes.
After that they are bleached by n
process which turns even black feathers
10 snowy white. From the bleaching
tubs they go TO the dye watts. We now
excel in this country the European
feather dyers in the delicacy and dura-
bility with another, tousllng, hacking
and mussing them in such n way that
their destruction seems inevitable. They
are then soused of all our colors except
the coral tint, in which the Old World is
still ahead. However, that tint has not
been much in demand by fashion.
"When it Is. our dyers say, I'VE shall Of
course beat them,in that too" When
thoroughly dried. beaten, redried,
combed and sorted, the feathers pass
into the hands of girls. The thick, un.
slightly stem of each feather is pared
down thin on the under side, and
in place of its stiff and ugly
quill tapering substitute Of wire,
covered with cotton ard paper,
is firmly fastened on. BY careful sort
ing, clipping, selecting out and match
ing pieces from different feathers, n
composite second feather is made, to
underlie the long and perfect one which
constitutes the top of each completed
plume, and these varions pieces are Sc
Curely sewed together, so that it requires
sharp eye to detect that the fine CON
struction, of double thickness, is not n
single feather. In exceptionally yalu-
able plumes, the lower as well as the
upper feather is whole and not made up
of pieces, but in all cases the completed
plume is double. If the stem of the
upper feather is discolored 1t is carefully
scraped.
After steaming, to soften the feathers,
they are next curled and laid In the
first process girl by passing the tibers
between her thumb and dull knife
blade, gives them regular curl all along
both sides of the feather, and the second
consists in giving them series of dex-
trous little twists which throw the curled
ends upon the upper side Of the plume.
All this work adds an average of ten per
cent. to the value of the feathers. A
pound Of fine ones, suitable for plumes,
will contain $50 feathers, sufficient for
seventy.fve plumes, and costs, say $3.50.
The finished plumes command from S4
to Sl5 each, according to length and
quality, but the general average is low.
cred by the small comparative value Of
the lower gra les.