The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-08-07
FORTUNES IN WHIPS.

"Jay Gould is the most economical
man in the matter of whips l ever
knew" said a small manufacturer on
West Forty-second street yesterday.
Twenty years ago | made a whip for
him for one hundred dollars, and he has
only had it repaired once. About the
same time ! made one for Harry Hill
for fifty dollars and another for Mr..
Hammond, of the Murray Hill hotel, for
seventy-fve dollars. All expensive
whips are made from the customers
own design. Mr.. Murray's whip was
studded ivory scroll-work for the stock,
mounted in gold, and bearing his mono
gram"
A well-known iewelry house recently
sent up to the Forty-second street whip
maker an ivory handle with delicate
scroll work and gold mounts In the
stock of this whip Were forty-seven
diamonds, and the value of the whip
was said to be five thousand dollars.
The owner wanted a new snapper
on her whip, and instead of putting
one on herself or telling her coach
man to get some whipcord and make
snapper, or sending it to her saddler'S
she sent it back to Union square and
had her jeweler send it to the whip
maker. Another stock for which he
had made a whip was made of rli-
nocerous tusll, into which was set
large diamond n
At another store the journal reporter
was shown ladies' whips at prices ang-
ing from twelve to one hundred dol
lars Some of these contained at the
end of the stocks a miniature watch:
some were fitted with parasol for
phaetOn driving, and some We're COM
bination of whisky flask and whip.
Another novelty was whip braided
with crimson silk and embroidered in
green, which the maker said would be
very fetching near the race track.
There are three kinds of whips-the
straight or buggy whip, the lash whip,
and for riding the English crop. The
crop is a handsomely mornted, short,
straight stick, with fiat leather thong
at the end, into which may or may not
be fastened a lash.
The manager of one large company
said:
THE whip trade of America is car
ried on almost exclusively in Westfeld,
Conn, where there are no less than
forty-six whip factories.
We. alone, employ four hundred and
fifty men, boys and girls. On an aver
age our firm turns out two thousand
dozen whips week, but there was a
week last month in which we turned
out six thousand and seven hundred
dozen. We make all Bismarck's whips,
and we make them for the German M
peror. We sell many whips to English
actors, who take them home as pres
ents to their friends. They seem to be
fond of this whip, for instance. You
see, it is made like a flute or fishing
rod, and can be disioi nted and carried
in the pocket"
Persons walking through Chambers
street : 'sterday might have seen in a
whip-shop window two whips of re-
markable beauty. They had hand
somely carved ivory stocks, were gold
mounted and made of solid whalebone
studded with ivory half way up to the
snapper. One of these was marked
seventy-five dollars, and the other, in
the stock of which there glistened d-
almond, was marked one hundred and
fifty dollars.
''In the comm ercial world" said the
New York agent of one of the Con-
necticut factories, ''ivory stands in
value next to gold, and it is the cary
ing of large pieces of ivory that makes
whips so expensive"
Another manager said that few
years ago whalebone was plentiful at
three dollars a pound, while now it is
scarce. at ten dollars per pound.
1.-The most costly whip ever made in
the United States was made by us for
FrenchwOman. 1t was paid for by an
American and cost fifteen hundred dol
lars. The stock was carved ivory, gold
and jewels. The whip itself was hard
whalebone braided with tapering whale
bone thread. 1t took two weeks to
braid the whip.
''To-day a farmer took very antique
whip, which he had left with us to be
repaired. 1t is over one hundred years
old. He bought it at country auction
for thirty-siX dollars. and offered him
one hundred dollars for it to-day as a
curiosity. He refused it. 1t was very
thick, heavy ivory, clumsily turned
stock. The ivory aHone is worth twen-
ty-tive dollars, and is a piece that would
tear the breast of Stanley with jealousy.
Here is a very old whip-stock that
has carried off prizes in London and
Paris" continued the dealer. SIT was
made in 1892 and it will be on exhibit
ton at the Columbian fair in Chicago.
America leads the world in whips as in
many other things, and the Englishme.a
have found this out long ago A year
ago Il number of noblemen sent a mSu
over here to pick ont some whips. Now,
the American whip is straight whip,
while the English and French and Ger
man whips are all lash-whips, and yet
we Americans excel the English manu-
facturcrs in the making of English lash
whips and also in crops.
Most of the swell guardsmen who
drive tandem said the dealer, send
here for their whips, much to the cha
grin of the London saddlers."
Probably the most remarkable whip
ever made is that now owned by the
Vanderbilt family and formerly the
property of the late w. II. Vanderbilt.
The history of this has never before