The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-02-19
FORTUNES IN HIDES.
a Great Business Done in Hand.
ling Furs and Pelts-
The Skins of Animals, Wild and Tame,
Have Always Been in Great De-
& mand In the East-Some In
teresting Particulars.

Truly, this age is not all wool and
cotton and fax, while stlll the stou1
old merchants of the swamp main taiI
the tradition of the days when the
| foundations of great New York for
tunes were laid in furs and pelts. III
/ the weird shadows of the Old ware
houses one would scarcely be surprised
if the painted ghost of a chief of the
Manhatoes should step forth from the
draperies of leather, with his eeIsli il
Inoccasins, spurning the prosaic dust
| of commerce. Back of him might rise
another phantom-Savage Man, as
Carlyle describes him, with his thick
Natural fell' and naught else!
Not all in the swamp is tame, 90
mestic. Calfskins and cowhides are
there, of course, the great staples OF
the leather trade. But hundred beasts
of the wilderness have taken Scriptural
counsel and yielded their mantles TO
their enemies. Their pelts adorn the
shelves of the merchants yonder, from
the canvas spread of the Asiatic ele-
plant to the pathetic hands-breadth
of the Brazilian lizard.
1t is long day since the hide of an
elephant has appeared in Spruce street
The market is supplied by travelling
showmen who have the big brutes die
on their hands. No hides are shipped
from Asia or Africa. They would spoil
in transit. About once year an Gle
plant skin reaches the swamp. It
takes q twelvemonth for tanning and
there is only one establishment in the
country where the business is carried
on. That Is In Newark.
: AN elephant hide so prepared is
worth $500. 1t is so thick that it is
split dozen times, thus simplifying tho
area of the skin in much the same in
genious fashion in which Dido's city
was laid out. These splits are used for
which sell at princes ransom. The
pocketbooks bring as high as SIS and
the bags as high as 800. Only two
houses are known to manufacture
them. The elephant has rival in the
walrus hide, which is corrugated and
nlarvelously tough. 1t has no use OF
vestment, but it is valuable for polish
ing purposes, emery wheels and the
Like. Another sea animal, the por-
poise. yields a hide which is cut into
strips and makes shoe strings. There
Is some small trade in it in the leather
district.
r The scalp of that old serpent, the
natural enemy of woman" now dan.
giles in triumph from her girdle. Snake
skins are in high favor for reticules
belts and pocketboqks. Chiefly the
rattlers . and boa constructors are
sought out for destruction. A skin
eight inches wide and eight feet long
brings about $3.50. For similar use the
jungles have witnessed run on Java
md Brazilian lizards. The skins of the
former, are sometimes three feet long,
while. the Brazilian variety is only
few inches in length, but brings even
a higher price.
Every house in the swamp has an
alligator hide hanging On nail. There
is a tender strip of skin on the belly of
the gigantic saurian that answers the
same purposes as the garb of his little
brother the lizard. This segment Of
epidermis sells for about S1.25. Worry
few shoes are any longer made of alli-
gator skin. On the back of the brute
Is an area rough as a cobblestone pave
ment that has recently been levied
upon with artistic results for the COW
erings of bags. Occasionally croco-
die hide comes into the market, and |
then it takes one of the older heads |
to distinguish the Egyptian from his
American cousin. There rs always q
lively. business in kangaroo leather.
The raw hides are shipped here from
australia in casks, picked away in
brine. When turned they bring 20 to
As cents a square foot.-N. Y. Mail and |
Express. 81