The Press., 1889-04-04
A FEW FACTS ABOUT GLOVES.

There are many peculiar fallacies con- corning kid and other fine leather gloves. Some of the most skeptical people, if their attention is called to gloves, will say with the utmost confidence ''Oh, they are made of rat and dog skins; in fact, almost anything but the skins of kids" Many people think that dog skins play large part in the manufacture of kid gloves. The fact of the matter is that not one dozen out of thousand so. called dog-skin gloves are made from dog-skins dog skins do dressed to give them a fine finish and are thick and course. Of the rat skin fallacy it need only be said that there could no considerable number of rat skins be ob- tained, and they would be useless for the manufacture of gloves if there should be-
 The dapper clerk in gentleman's fur nishing store tells you: "Now those are dog skin they are warranted to us by the manufacturer and so we can warrant them to you" The gentleman tells his com panion that he might as we'll buy pair of dog skin gloves and pay dog-skin price for them :; for if he asks for kids be is sure to get dog-skins after paying the extra price. The fact of the matter is that about ninety-nine out of every hundred dozen pairs of mems gloves are made of sheep or lamb skin. There are some few made of horse skin, but these are considered fine and in fact cost as much or more than kids. Nearly the whole supply of horse skins comes from Russia, and when properly treated the leather tans beautiful white and is used for the finest mems gloves. Many sheep, lamb and kid skins come from South America, but the natives down there have not learned the process of properly curing the skins and consequently much leather that with proper care might be pairing 1t for market. The finest kids come from France, although a number of Eu- ropean countries furnish large number of good quality. Goats multiply in num- bers rapidly, with suitable care, and the peasants in some parts of Europe live al- most entirely on goat meat and milk and what few vegetables they raise in their gardens. kid five or six weeks old is said to make more palatable dish than lambs meat. The butchers 1n some Eu- ropean countries will kill and dress the kid for the hide. They understand how to dress the skins and treat them so as to make them most valuable, and do not blunder as the South Americans do by nail ing them upon flat surface and allow the broiling sun to burn all of the strength and elasticity out of them.
 "A good lamb skin is better than poor kid" /" said J. M. Salve, the superintendent of the glove department of E. s. Jaffray < Co.,, "and many lamb-skin gloves are sold for kids, but the supply of kids skins IS very large and is increasing each year, so that there seems to be no danger of per manent increase in the price, although there has recently been an increase of from ten to twenty per cent. in the price of the skins"
 This was explained by a large dealer by the fact that though there is theoretically no kid glove trust, there is what practical ly amounts to the same thing. The busi- ness in Europe is in the hands of three or four rich dealers, who can buy up the bulk of the skins on the market and control prices for time, by making an agreement, perhaps verbal to keep the price at cer- tain point. This cannot be maintained any great length of time, however, for the reason that number of American houses now have special buyers who visit all of the countries where the skins are produced and buy them directly from the producers. The only dealers that are affected by the market being cornered are the small ones, who only buy stock enough to last them 6 month or two, and when their stock is used up they must pay the increase de. handed by the large dealers or stop their works.