Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-13
GUARDING THE SOLE.
Where Leather for Shoes Comes From
and How it is Prepared.
HOW RUSSIA LEATHER is MADE.
Importing Hides From South American and
Mexican Ranches.
LEATHER WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH. ]

WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATCH.1
Since the day that Adam and Eve ex-
changed fig leaves for fu-s the human ami
NAL has had habit of clothing himself in
the integument stripped from his dumb
brothers. How, when, or where hides were
first converted into leather no wise man ever
pretends to know. Doubtless the process
was evolved, not invented.
Leather certainly antedates the earliest
records, and no savage tribe, however low in
the scale, has yet been found ignorant of
some way to dress skins. Our American In
diaus, in especial, are pastmasters of the art.
Rude as are their processes, deer, bear or
buffalo robes dressed by them are far ahead
of those that white men supply, while the
buckskin of their mocasins, leggins, and so
on, is a positive luxury to the touch, so soft
and plant is it.
Neat cattle furnish hides for more than
half the worlds leather. Next to them
come goats, and after them the East Indian
buffalo and the sheep. Horse hides are in
considerable in amount and of low value.
Pigskin used for saddles is in limited de-
mand and supply. Dogskin and ratskin for
gloves are mere items of account, not at all
equal to the kangaroo skin, which has quite
superseded some grades of calf, while deer
hides furnish glove leather, as we'll as that
for variety of other needs.
In 1886 New York imported from all
sources about 81, 500,0 900 worth of leather.
In 1889 the amount fell to little over
S., 900, 900. The home supply of hides is far
below the demand. spite of all the cattle
upon our 10, 900 western hills, not to mention
the plains of Texas or the ranches of New
Mexico. Mexico herself sends us many
hides, both OF steer and goat Indeed, she
ranks next to South America, from whence
comes two-thirds of our importations. For
a dozen years past hides have been admitted
duty free, to the great and manifest better
ment of the whole leather industry.
FORTUNES IN LEATHER.
The heaviest, consequently the best, OK
hides come from Buenos Ayres They
weigh over 20 pounds each, and fetch Is
cents per pound. Big fortunes have come
out of making ''fint" hides-that is, pur-
chasing the hides from the plainsmen, soak
| ing them for weeks in saturated salt water,
then dyeing and selling them. The advance
in price is nominal, but each hide takes up
ten pounds or so of salt, and this yields
big profit, besides cost and carriage. New
Orleans is the main seat of the business in
North America, as it is also the great in
terror entrepot for hides of all sorts. The
20-pound OK hides all go to sole leather
Cow skins and those from young cattle fur
nish the kipskin of commerce, and the hides
of animals year old or under all the sew
eral dozen varieties of ca1lskin.
For cheap work, both kip and calf are
often split-that is divided by machinery
into two sheets, each by courtesy called
leather. 1t will wear for day or maybe q
week, but it is about the most unsatisfactory
investment the bargain-seekers can make.
The first thing is to cut the hides in two.
Then they are soaked in limewater four
days, milled for six hours to free them from
loosened hair, then washed clean and left
for four days to sweat. After that comes the
acid bath, lasting five to ten days, and next
the tan vats, six in number, filled with
ooze of varying strength, in which the hides
remain from five to 60 days. Once the
process stretched over year. Modern in
vention has reduced it one-half. 1t is
claimed that the new electric process will
make good leather in a months time; but
SO tar that remains to be demonstrated, at
least, on commercial scale.
Oak bark, hemlock bark and the DOW
dered leaves of sumac are the things that
supply tannin. The bark is coarsely ground
and stepped in fresh water to make ooze for
the vats. A very late invention is mill for
grinding oak wood, as we'll as bark, into a
sort of coarse meal, which, it is claimed,
makes double quantity of the very best
ooze, at less than hall cost.
PROCESSES OF TANNING.
Once through the vats, the hides are
washed again, scraped anew on the flesh
side, curried with tanners oil, whose source
is those cod livers that are not fresh enough
for medicine; then steam-dried, pressed be-
twixt hot rollers, and send to market the
"sides of sole leather" that everybody
knows.
The bulk of it is hemlock tanned. That
bark is cheaper and gives harder finish,
which is thought to stand rough usage best.
Oak leather fetches always cent or two
more in the pound, and is invariably used
for fine footwear, as we'll as whenever leather
OF peculiar strength and toughness is re-
quisite. There are many big houses in New
York City, which deal in nothing but cut
sOles. They buy leather in quantity, cut it
BY machinery in the most approved patterns.
and can supply shoe men with exactly what |
they want, at great saving of time, expense
and material. A curious feature Of the
leather trade is that while Philadelphia and
Boston have each more shoe manufactures.
New York leads both largely in sales of raw |
material and oil the finished goods.
Kipskin goes through much the same
process-only less so. Being thinner il re-
quires less time and care. More chemicals, |
too, are used in tanning it, and when fin |
ished, much of it is blacked ready for the |
boot or shoemaker. AS much of the best |
sole leather goes to the maker OF leather
betting, so the finest of kip falls to the har.
ness and saddle makers, who also use good |
bit of fine russet calf.
Nearly all of the finest calfskin is i'm
ported from France. 1t is and will likely
remain the favorite for mems shoes, though
kangaroo leather runs it closely. Indeed
so popular has that become that Australian
governments which began by offering boun-
ties for kangaroo scalps have now decreed a
close season six months long, each year, to
prevent the determination of the queer ami
NAL. Its skin comes hither via London and
Calcutta, and furnishes leather pleasant
enough to the loot, but liable to stretch all
out Of shape, if wet, and not very carefully
dried
KID AND GoATsKIN.
Goatsklns, whence come kid and morocco
leather are sent to us from Southern En-
rope, Mexico and South America. The
very bert are shipped from Brazil or Cura-
Goa. Formerly they were tanned with
sumac; now the alum process is mainly used.
Al 1. I.