The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-09-25
FRANCE LEADS IN KID GLOVES
U. $. CONSUL AT GRENOBLE RE-
 PORTS ON THE INDUSTRY.

XVI-How the yain Monarch Fooled
 the Paris Glove Makers and Doomed
 Ills Treasury.
 The United States Consul at Grenoble,
 George E. Anderson, has sent to the
 State Department a letter concerning
 glove making as the industry exists | there to-day, and in it he says:
 The kid glove industry at Grenoble
 is of ancient and doubtful origin. The
 town itself is situated in the center or
 the finest kd-skin region, in France
 and is surrounded by mountains where
 the cheap labor of the peasant women
 can be economically employed in hand
 sewing. Several centuries ago, Greno-
 ble won a well-deserved reputation for
 the quality of it's gloves. The actual
 quantity of gloves manufactured was 1 small in comparison with the output
 of to-day, but we find that in 1891 the glove corporation of Grenoble was or ganized and founded, and that ever since that time records have been Kept which testify to it's importance.
 Since the invention of the sewing
 machine this industry has been grad ally decentraized, and kid gloves are
 now made in almost every country or
 the civilized world Commercial com petition-notably in Belgium, Germany, England, Italy and observation-disclosures close upon the heels of this invention, has been, perhaps, the chief reason why Grenoble has lost it's pre-emlnence in this branch of manufactures. It may justly be said however, that Gren- oble always has been and is still the center of the kid glove industry, espe- cially for the finer qualities of gloves, The quality of the skin is best judged after the tanning and dyeing process is complete, and may be said to be based on the strength, softness and piabiiity of the leather and on the size of the skin, the fineness of the grain and it's freedom from defects, which are main- ly caused by scars or diseases. These qualities of the raw skin depend on the care given to the young kid, on its breed, on the nature and abundance of it's food and on climatic influences.
 The finest kid skins are undoubtedly
 
 not mean that French skins are uni- form in quality. For instance, in the departments of savoy and Upper Savoy, the skins, as a rule, are large and heavy, with fine grain for the size; they are soft and elastic and at the same time strong, and well suited for mems gloves. The rich pasturage of this country is an important element in the superior quality of these skins as class.
 In the region of the Vosges, in the northeastern part of France, kid skins are much smaller and less elastic, owing to the fact that the animals are not so well cared for. Here, the pow erty of the soil is one of the reasons for the inferiority of the skins To the west of the Vosgee, on the line between Paris and Lyons. the kid skins are of a better quality, Still farther west, to- wards the center of France, in Touraine and Poitou, where the pasturage is good and the animals well cared for. the grain of the skin is fine, the skin itself is thin and strong. and compara lively free from scars and disease. Farther south, towards the Spanish frontier, the quality of the skin is in ferior as q rule, the poorer pasturage and hotter climate having marked ef- feet upon it. The peasants in this part of France are careless in the methods of work They neglect the kids while alive and after they have been butch cred take the skins off carelesely, and prepare them for market in a slovenly manner At least onethird of these skins are so dry that they are fit to be used only as Things for boots and shoes, Kid skins have the same general char aeteristics throughout the southwest of France-that is from the Rhone to the Spanish border and the Bay of Biscay.
 Kid skins generally pass through sev- eral hands before reaching the glove maker of his agent. The skins of kids which are bought by the butchers in the towns and used as a substitute for lambskns are sold to the skin mer- chants or their agents The skins of kids which are butchered by the peas- ants themselves are sold to country pedlers, who wander through the re- zion from cabin to cabin, collecting them, in order to finally dispose of them, at a town fair, to the skin deal CTS or to the agents of the manufac- turers, tanners or large skin mer- chants. The more important butchers of the large towns sell their kid skins directly to the agents of the glove man. ufacturers or skin merchants
 Formerly, the regular fair or market brought together all the dealers in the neighboring district, who exhibited in the market place their lots of kid skins. varying in number from five, ten, and twenty to several hundred and some- times thousands. These fairs were watched with the greatest interest by those who Were in the skin business, as the prices obtained there for skins were an indication of the probable prices for the entire season, This is, to a certain extent, true to-day; but the town fairs no longer play the important role that they did twenty years ago. The rail- way, the press, and general education, as we'll as the enormous importation of skins from the Argentine Republic Chile the Cape of Good Hope, Arabia l Mexico, Russia, and Asia Minor have brought about a revolution in the skin business.
 At one time, the annual fair at Va lence was considered by kid skin dealers to be the most important part of all those held in France, because the | prices obtained thete regulated the !, years prices for France and probably l