The record-union., 1895-01-05
KID GLOVES.
Where the Skins Are Procured From
Which They Are Made.
Why Frenchmen Lead in Their Manu-
facture-The Part Hens Play
In the Process.

Barefooted boys and hens form curl
Gus partnership in the making of a pair
of fine gloves. They work together in
preparing the skins for the hands of the
fashionable woman who rushes to the
stores every time new shade of gloves
is announced. Thousands of dozens of
hens's eggs are used in curing the hides,
and thousands of boys are employed to
work the skins in clear water by treading
on them for several hours.
When woman buys a pair of gloves
she speaks of her purchase as "kids." If
the clerk who sold her the "kid'' gloves
knew the secrets of the glove making
business he might surprise his fair GUS
toner by telling her that those beautiful,
soft, smooth-fitting "kid" gloves came
from the shoulders and belly Of a three
week-old colt, whose neck was slit on the
plains of Russia, and whose tender hide
was shipped with huge bundles of other
colts hides to France, where they were
made up into "kid'' gloves. Or he might,
with equal regard for the truth, tell her
that those gloves in the other compart-
ment once darted from tree to tree in
South America on the back of ring
tailed monkey. And if he made the
rounds of tie store and could distinguish
one skin from another, he could point out
kid" gloves made from the skins of
kangaroos from Australia, lambs and
sheep from Ohio or Spain or England,
calves from India, musk rats from any
where, musk oxen from China and other
parts of Asia, rats, cats and Newfound-
land puppies.
But the little Russian colt, the four
footed baby from the plains where the
of
Siberia, where horses are raised by the
thousand, supply the skins which are the
favorItes at present with the glove-mak-
erS. Experts say that the colt skin makes
a better, stronger, finer glove than real
kid skin, and as the colt is a little fellow,
only three weeks old when he is killed,
but a small amount of skin can be made
into gloves, SO that the price is about as
high.
But, after all, the real kid, the lively in
FAINT of the goats which live in France,
Switzerland, Spain and Italy, furnishes
the best, finest and most expensive gloves.
and nearly 100000 kids are sacrificed
every year in order that women and men
may cramp their hands in wrInkleless,
delicate-tinted gloves.
Germans, English and clever Yankees
have vainly tried for years to dress and
dye kid skins as well as the Frenchman
in southern France. Millions of skins
all the tariff which has been imposed, all
the workmen who have been brought to
this country, all the money which has
been spent and all the skill of chemists
and inventors have failed to place the
American alongside the Frenchman in
dressing and preparing skins for the
making of gloves. The buyers for the
manufacturers in France travel over the
mountains of Spain, Italy and Switzer-
land collecting the kid skins. They pay
about % cents skin and. packing them
in bales, ship them to the factory.
The place where the skins are dressed
cannot be called a tannery, for oak bark
and the other preparations which are
used by the ordinary tanner do not enter
into the making OF kid gloves. When
the kidskins are brought to the factory
they are dumped into pits which are
filled with water and lime, and kept
there for two or three weeks. From the
minute they are placed in the pits the
skins are carefully watched, and the
workmen move the skins about with
iron tongs, handling them tenderIy for
fear the delicate skins may be torn.
When they are removed from the lime
water pits the hair is easily removed, and
| then the flesh on the under part of the
skin is taken of. After every hair is
rubbed from the skins and all the flesh
has been scraped away they are placed in
clear running water to remove the lime
which has soaked in. After this the skins
are placed in wheat bran mixed with
warm water, which has the same effect
on the skins that mixture of bran and
| warm water has on the human skin; it
makes the skin soft and pliable and re-
moves all the dirt and impurities.
| AT this stage of the operations the hens
come into play, for the dresser or curer
| prepares mixture of the yolk of eggs,
! flour, alum and salt and places it, with
the SKINS in drum which revolves on a
shaft or axle. The turning over of the
skins in this revolving drum works the
egg mixture into the skins, and the pro-
cess is kept up for an hour. The skins
are then hung separately on hooks in a
| hot room and dried. The next step is to
wet them in clear water again and work
| them by hand over a curved, polished
| tool, on which the soft skin is stretched
back and forth and pulled and worked
until the skin is wider and longer than it
was originally, and exceedingly pliable.
/ The skins are then turned over to the
! shavers, who, with knives as keen as
raZors, shave the under part. This is one
Of the most delicate operations in the
process of curing, and none but the most
| skillful workmen are shavers. The shaw
| ing makes the skins thin and delicate
Then they are coated with a mixture of
flower, oil and the yellow of eggs, and are
turned over to the barefooted boys. The
lads put thefh in clear water and then
J walk back and forth over them, patting