The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-07

In the third the Chinaman had succeeded
in crea ting what was apparently new
animal, The robe, like al the others, was
in the shape of a cross of FIVE cubes. Each
of these squares appeared TO be the skin
of a single animal, dark puce color on the
other edges. with irregular circles of mi
mute white dots in the center, increasing
from an indistinct grayish brown on the
outside to clear white in the inner circles
This apparently natural ornament might
have deceived any one who did not know
the actual colors and limits of all natural
furs. ON examining the back of this
robe, 1t was seen to be made up of minute
pieces sewed together In concentric cir
Giles, the pieces being no larger than those
in the tesselated pavement now so COM
monty seen on hall floors. IL was, in fact,
a piece of fur mosaic.
If China Is opened up to European trade
a new reservoir of precious furs will be
tapped for New York, Paris and London.
The latter is now the metropolis of the
fur trade, and il is to London that the
greater part of the catch in North Ameri-
ca, Alaska, Siberia, and Australia is
brought and collected, until it is dispersed
over every country In the world in the
sales of Sir Charles Lampson and the
Hudson Bay Company. Hitherto Pekin
has been the other center of the trade
whom it supplied were within what was
practically a closed market. All that was
good was absorbed by China, and only
Few inferior skins were exported, though
sea-borne furs especially those of the va
rious red, white and cross" foxes, have
always been welcome cargoes. 1t remains
TO be seen whether the attraction Of Lon
don will not draw from Pekin at least
share of its immense stock. 1t is believed
that vii tnlr p1a 41,o
furs will be exported in the finished state,
and present to the West a luxury almost
as new as the original export of Chinese
silks or Chinese porcelains There is al
most as much difference between the fin
Ished furs from Pek!n, more beautiful
than nature made them. and the raw
furs' in the Hudson Bay sales, in the same
condition as they were stripped from the
dead animal, as there is between spun silk
and the same substance in the cocoon
And while the art of the Peking furrier
excels that of Europe, there is something
IN the climate OF the northern mountains
ana the western plateaus of China pecu-
llarly favorable to the perfect growth of
furs and feathers Just as there are half
a dozen Chinese pheasants which vie in
plumage with the most Gorgeous birds of
the tropics, so even the domestic animals
of the colder provinces seem to develop
which the delicate processes of the dress
ers impart an added beauty. Thus Thi-
betan lambskin. after 1t has passed
through the hands of the Chinese curriers'.
becomes a thing of beauty and intrinsic
excellence hardly exceeded by the rarer
furs. The leather is as soft as kid and
white as milk. and the fleece attached to
it takes the texture and gloss of white
floss silk. Even the chow dogs of Man
churia grow true fur in the winter and
are bred for the sake Of theih. coats; while
the skins of the cat and the squirrel from
the same district deserve a place not among
the cheaper, but the choicer. grades of fur.
Manchurian catskins are as superior to
those of the specially bred black cats of
the Bavarian Alps as that of the Man
churian tiger is to the coat of its Indian
relative. The reverse is seen in Japan
where the mountain districts yield furs of
the smallest size. The skin of a Japanese
mink for example, is about one-third the
size of the large North American animal
of the same species The railway and the
coming settlement Of the East Manchurian
region will not probably affect this ancient
source of supply to the Picking market. 1t
is the central plains, not the forest-covered
Khingan mountains, or those between the
Ussuri and the Sungari valley, which VIII
feel the effect of civilization.