Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-08-18
MAKING KID GLOVES.
AN INDUSTRY THAT IS BEING PER-
FEcTED IN NEW YORK.
Shades as Delicate as Those of Paris
Process of Evolution from the
Kid to the Glove.
[From the New York Star. /

SuSh a PSSuAi"h SOioi 40 tilS gown sue
exclaimed as she was having the last "tfy
on" of a magnificent new toilet at man
dressmaker's the other day.
"You will doubtless have to send to
Paris for them," said that artist. "I can
take your order for them"
"Not at all" l spoke up in my dual ca
pacity of consulting friend and patriot !;
"she can get them right here in New
York"
"But, dearest" said the lady of the
lovely gray green gown, ''they almost GER
tainly have to be dyed to order," while
the great man looked unutterable weari-
ness at the nonsense of talking about buy
ing pair of gloves in New York.
"That's Just what you can get done
here" l stoutly insisted, and though they
both politely told me at first that l did
not know what l was talking about, the
thing ended by those gloves being dyed
and made right here on Manhattan Island,
and beautiful they were, too.
/ concluded after I'd ordered them that
I'd see the whole thing through that I'd
not only know that gloves are made from
the skin up here, but, I'd know all about
how it was done. 1t is almost as hard to
say where pair of gloves begins as to de-
eide the maternal parentage of chicken
whether it is the hen that lays the egg
or the hen that matches it. If pair Of
gloves begins with the birth of the kid,
then we don't begin 'em here in America.
The little animal indigenous to Harlem,
and whose normal diet is the tomato can
of commerce, does not give up its life to
adorn fine ladies. 1t lives to green old
age as a landscape ornament purely. The
kids our gloves are made from, when our
gloves are good, are born in France. Just
here it would be as well to sit on that per-
ennial fake about gloves being made of
rat skins. Mems depravity is sometimes
checked by self-interest, and this is one of
the cases. The first insuperable objection
the manufacturers have to foisting rat
skins upon us for kid is that they woHld be
intellectually expensive.
No; kid gloves are made of kid, because
no available substitute has ever been found.
An inferior grade is sometimes manufao-
tured of lambskin, but they can't be fixed
up to compete in the good markets. The
kids are raised, not in large quantities, by
men devoted to the business, though prob
ably that will come with the march of civ
ilization; but now their rearing is still one
of those healthy small industries in which
little farmers are engaged in varying de-
grees all over large parts of France, and,
in less degree, in Belgium and Germany.
AS the best and biggest manufacturers are
French, however, it is natural that the
French farmers should retain their leader
ship. Agents are sent out to buy from
them skins in any quantity-from one to
a dozen or so. Then they are dressed and
bleached, and it is i'll that state that the
one or two houses in the United States that
do their dyeing on this side bring
them over. There are scores of kid glove
manufacturers here who do their own sew
ing, and even their own cutting, but they
import their skins dyed.
1T is only couple of years or so since
the first efforts at dyeing the skins here
were made. Under the regulations of our
tariff, and with the lack of labor skilled
in that industry, it was cheaper to i'm
port dyed skins. Only one thing pointed
to the success of the new venture, and
that was the American woman's uncon-
querable love for having everything about
her dress 'iust right" Here was her
chance to have her gloves the precise
shade she wanted, and the business
schemes founded ON the belief in the fastid-
iousness of her taste have been successful
The skin OF one kid was used in these.
gray-green gloves l am telling about.
When they are very long it takes more,
but most Of the gloves of the day take
about one skin, or leave enough for one
glove of another pair. After the skin was
chosen ] followed the youth who had the
matter in charge around into a queer little
side street, not far from the heart of the
shopping part of the town, but which
seemed as remote and quiet as if it were
some dark nook in Dickens story. We
went into basement half filed with boxes
and barrels and smells-Smells not otlens-
i've, but not perfumes-and then into a
room like a laundry more than anything
else, where ( met the distinguished work
man who was the first person TO dye kid
gloves on American soil. He is a little
a word of English, but is ready to assert,
in the Partisan of his class, that there is
not shade to be concocted on painters
palette which he'll not match for you in
kid. The first thing he did with the skin
destined for the gray-green gown was to
'nourish" it.
That's technical term, but it is not as
mysterious as most technical terms, because
skins, it seems, are nourished much like
other folks, on eggs. This was plunged
into bowl, in which were the yolks of
dozen eggs. 1t was to be left there for
twenty four hours, so were the other opera
tions | watched in progress on other skins
Then you noticed that some of your coll
ored gloves are white inside and some are
the same color inside that they are out
side? The two methods of dyeing are
used in all establishments, according 10
convenience or fancy. After the skin has
been softened and thickened by this egg
bath, it is laid on big sloping table and
the dye applied with brush, or it is
dipped in the dye and only laid on the
table for manipulation. After this it is
dried, and is as stiff as board and about
as promising looking material for gloves as
a piece of tin sheeting. See, here is where
the drying took place, in this little close
place. Whew! what blast of hot air
comes out of there, and how primitive
AOOhS tAiO hlSbhOo vi ICttlilS UN Il lIlllc
rusty stove you see. Nothing else would
do. The gases from furnace would ruin
the colors, and the moisture from steam
would defeat the purpose of the room.
The next thing is to bring this hard,
stiff sheet to more pliable and tractable
state. For this purpose it is buried in
damp sawdust, great rough binful of it
filled with carefully prepared fine oak saw
dust; other kinds would be liable to stain
the skins. In an hour the change is
effected, and the skin comes out equally
moistened and softened. A queer, clumsy,
primitive machine is next employed to do
the first shaving, for you don't wear your
glove the same thickness that the kid
wore his skin. To be shaved and shaved
again is the destiny of skins meant for
gloves. The first roughness of the inside
of the skin is removed on circular piece
of tin like bottomless wash-basin. The
workman seems TO move recklessly and
freely as he draws his leather over the
sharp edge, yet the slightest slip would cut
and ruin it, and he is really employing the
greatest dexterity. This done, he with
even more appearance of recklessness vets
1t and proceeds to s'open" it. All the
technical terms are French, but / give
what seem the English equivalents. OPEN
ing is done by DRAWING n hact- ,nd fnrtb