The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-03-26


which were much more brilliant in tex
ture than those made from q wooden
stuff. II was progress, no doubt, but
q progress of kind not tolerated in
those times. The unfortunate Lepre-
vost, although he had the distinction OF
being halter to the King, was unable to
stand against the hostility of his brother
matters, who in the name of the rules OF
the guild forcibly entered his premises
and seized forty-nine silk hats. which
they kept as evidences of his breaking
the law. while they destroyed by
trampling on them no less than sou
hats that were in stock. Thencefor-
ward the silk hat had hard time of it,
but it gradually fought its way into
favor, first in Italy. In 1925 it got
back to its place of birth. and began to
be popular article of wear in France.
Previous to the introduction of the
shiny silk hat tall beaver hats had been
! largely worn. These were made at
first entirely of felt, in all sorts of
shapes, and with wide and narrow
brims. The general rule appeared to be
to make wide-brimmed hat of soft felt,
and a narrow margined one of thicker
and sitter material. Sometimes a
pasteboard or cloth body was used
to keep the tall crown better in shape.
The first silk hats possessed little
| variation in form from the felt ones
of the time. The difference was
in the substance, not the shape. The
earliest silk hats after the futile in
ventiOn of LeprovOst appear to have
been worn i'm Florence, Italy. Tall
silk hats first came in for morning or
undress wear. For full dress hat in
the shape of a crescent, which folded
| fiat, and which is still in use as part
of certain uniforms. was adopted. This
kept i'm favor till about 1920, when the
present opera hat was invented. All
gentlemen visiting carried their hats
in their hands at that time. whether
calling or at ball, and the opera or
crush hat speedily became very popu-
lar.
! The old fashioned matters made a
bitter fight against the silk hat and
offered one curious objection to it. This
| was that it possessed no medicinal
properties, while the beaver hat did.
According to them, by wearing a cap
of beavers fur, amounting the head
once a month with oil of castor. and
taking couple of ounces of the same
| year a mans memory would become
SO strengthened that he would remem-
Der every thing he read. Even when
beaver had ceased to be beaver and be-
come a mixture of lambs wool and
rabbits fur. the old theory of the medi-
cinal value of the beavers fur was
upheld.
RABBIT-FUR HATS.
The trade in rabbit-skins for hat
making is now an enormous industry.
The skins are doubly valuable, the hair
being used for felt-making and the
pelts to boil down into glue. The
present statistics of the industry in
Europe may be figured from the fact
that eighty millions of skins are col
lected in France, twenty-five to thirty
millions in England. almost entirely
from the warrens of the sand-hills and
woods; twelve to fifteen millions in
Belgium, almost wholly of domestic
breed (as are nine out of ten of the
eighty millions of French skins); two
to three millions in Russia. Sweden
and Norway. and four millions in
Northern Germany yearly. In Austria
and Hungary there are twelve millions
collected, but retained for home manu-
facture. Spain and Portugal have skins
of inferior quality which are kept for
the hat factories of these countries.
France occupies the chief place in the
commerce of rabbit-skins, not only in
regard to quantity but quality. There
is no rabbit comparable to the French
rabbits. either to eat or make hats of.
Both to Belgium and to England large
quantities are exported.
The supremacy of France did not ex-
list at the start in the rabbit-skin trade.
In the early part of this century the
Germans and English took the lead in
the preparation of. the skins. France
was oppressed by the system of protec-
ton and prohibition, and so was unable
to take advantage of this new industry,
and it was not till 1847 that the system
of prohibition was relaxed and the
protection of the home manufacture
was removed. Paris. which is the
center of the preparation of the ma
terial, dispatched agents in every di-
rection to employ brokers, chiffOniers
and other collectors of skins of rabbits
and hares, which had before been sell
dom preserved for any use. The most
energetic and successful purveyOrs in
this industry were the Auvergnats,
who still remain the chief agents in the
collection. In 1847 the cOuperies de
potts worked up two and half millions
of skins; the establishments in the
provincea consumed about an equal
quantity.
At first the manufacturer collected
and stored rabbit-skins, and trans
formed them into hats with very rude
machinery. 1t is only recently. by the
distribution of labor, always advan-
tageous. that the preparation of the
stuff has been separated from the man.
ufacture of hats, and the collection OF
the skins is organized as distinct in
dustry. In England there are now
some twenty firms engaged in prepar-
ing and cutting the skins, the largest
of which firms are in Southwark, and
others in Manchester and Leeds. The
industry altogether is a very interest
ing one in many respects, and it repre-
sents living to large numbers OF
people, including the collection OF
skins in the towns and villages through
out the country, and the hundreds OF
women and girls occupied in pulling
and in other operations preparatory to
the telling. when the hat manufacturer
enters upon the mysteries of his special
trade.
The value of the rabbit-ski., trade in