The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-04-01
FACTS ABOUT FURS.
St. Paul, MINI, Is the Leading CITY
in the Business.
The Best Furs Come from the North
western Ststes-Many of the Fur
Bearing Animals Have Been Al
most Totally Exterminsted-

most Totally Exterminated.
Perhaps incredulity will sit in thu
eyes of the readers, but it is neverthe
less fact that in St. Paul every year
there are upward OF 225, 600 dogs cut uI
for the manufacture OF fur coats IL
the last year or two there has been q
scarcity of dogs and the prices natural
ly have advanced The dogs come from
China, and are that peculiar animal
with the black mouth and black tongue
They are a queer animal, and are known
in China by the name of 1.-The monks"
Nobody is prepared TO believe, per.
haps, that in this city annually about
$4,000 cooDskins are cut up and made
into coats, but it is true, for we have the
word of prominent fur man who deals
extensively in all kinds of skins, from
the skunk to the seal. In 1893 his firm
cut up los, 900 coonskins alone, and viii
keep it up so long as the animals exist
There are certain animals that have
survived civilization, as, for instance,
the skunk, the raccoon and the opos-
mails of their nature have almost en-
tirely disappeared.
In Louisville there lives an old fur
buyer by the name of John White, WHO
has followed the business of buying and
selling furs for the past so years. When
asked short time ago by st, Paul fur
man what difference he noticed in the
business now from the first time he
went into it, White replied that the
people are getting more coons, opos-
sums and skunks now than ever before,
proving conclusively that these animals
are not affected by civilization, and 60
ahead multiplying without stint.
The vast majority of the otter, beaver,
mink and other skins of that ilk are
captured in the northwest, throughout
Manitoba and the northwestern states.
The wombat of Australia was for many
years drug on the market, and dealers
found it impossible to dispose of them
until the coat manufacturers of ST.
Paul took them up. They were found
very excellent for the purpose of coat
making, and the hunters who had pre-
viously become discouraged and refused
TO kill any more found their occupa-
ton renewed and profitable. In the last
two years the stock has been cleaned
out, the wombat has become scarce and
the prices have advanced proportionate- |
". Everything seems to be declining IN |
quantity but the raccoon, the skunk |
and the Chinese dog or monk, and these |
constitute the bulk of furs from which |
the coats are manufactured to-day.
The buffalo coat at one time was the |
most popular of them all, and it was the |
prevalence of the buffalo that gave st. |
Paul such a start in the industry of fur /
coatmaking. At the time the buffalo 1
were plenty on the western plains fully |
90 per cent. of the fur coats manufac-
tured were made of buffalo skins. II |
was a great industry, not alone for the
Indian, but the white hunter, who
focked to the buffalo swamps by the
hundreds. The decline of the buffalo
was SO rapid as to almost exceed belief.
When the industry first started the
plains fairly swarmed with the animal,
and it was the easiest thing in the world
to kill all that were desired, but in three
years this noble animal was almost en-
tirely extinct. When the Northern Pa
cific road was put through to Miles
City, Mont, in 1888, there were 3D., 900
or 100000 buffalo hides shipped out of
that town. That was in 1853 alone.
All that number had been killed by
white hunters, while the Indian collec-
ton amounted TO 10000. The Indians,
of course, were not possessed of the i'm
proved firearms and other methods of
destroying the restless creatures, and
that accounts for the size of their col.
lection. So that in 1883 the collection,
all told. amounted TO about 270 900 hides
and robes.
In 1854 there were not over 10000 col
Iected by the Indians and white hunt
ers, and in 1885 there were less than
5 900. In 1886 there were none, and now
the only buffalo that exist are the prop
erty of the government and live under
rs protection in the Yellowstone park.
Previous to 1888 all the southern herds
we're killed off, then the northern herds
we're attacked, and they disappeared,
i seemed. in the twinkling of an eve.
One fur that is not used extensively
n ST. Paul is the seal. although great
many ladies garments. coats, muffs and
he like are made from this most desir-
lble of furs. Strange to say, every seal
hat is captured in Canadian or Ameri-
an waters must be shipped 10 London,
for dressing and dyeing. They
ire then returned 10 the United States
md made up. Naturally. all this trans
,ortation adds TO the cost Of the gar
nent, and that explains why seal is 50
much higher than the other furs. Raw
loins, of course, have no duty on them,
md most other skins can be made up
n this country, but all efforts TO dress
md dye the seal successfully in this
,oun Try have fsiled.-St- Paul Dispatch
INSECT aAEOlIC ITEMC .