The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1899-08-29
FEATHERED FINERY.
Plumage for Millinery Now Artif-
cially Produced.
The Humble BarpyRrd Fowl Row
Furnishes the M"terisi for "a Great :
Deal of the New Hat
Trimming. ~

The demand for feathers for mil
linery purposes has caused an inventor
% experiment in this field, and he has
succeeded so well that many OF our
most fashionable bird plumages and
feathers are artifcially manufactured.
The trade in feathers amounts to mill
ions of dollars annually, and the sup
ply of the birds furnishing them is
decreasing so rapidly that it is quite
essential that substitutes should be
found. How many women who wear
the beautiful ostrich tips and plumes
know whether they are the genuine
article or artificial feathers? The work
Of raising ostriches in California has
certainly brought the cost of these
feathers down to reasonable figure,
but hardly to the ridiculously low
prices that are sometimes asked for
them in stores. The artificial ostrich
feathers have their quilts made of cell
luloid, and the barbs of silk waste.
Then when dyed and skillfully curled
t would take an expert to detect them
from the genuine article.
Various other expensive feathers and
plumes are manufactured out of silk
constantly devising new methods by
which they can supply the demands of
fashion at little cost to the public and
at great profit to the manufacturers.
The utilization of poultry feathers for
millinery purposes is a subject of inn
portance. There has been an unex-
pected demand for the feathers of
chickens, ducks and geese this year.
Farmers have really found that their
poultry was profitable. Some of the
special breeds of farmyard ducks and
geese have remarkably beautiful feath-
ers, shimmering with gold, green and
blue, and tinged with a metallic luster
Of unusual beauty. All of these have a
value aside from the meat and eggs
they furnish. But even the common
,barnyard poultry is made to furnish
material for the market. BY dyeing
The feathers they can be made to imi-
tate the brightest plumes that ever
graced the back or topknot of trop-
cal bird. The plumes are artfully
made up by hand, each individual feath-
er being colored beforehand, and then
worked into an exquisite design. Some
of these plumes are so gorgeous that
they are more in demand than the gem
uine plumes of wild birds.
A remarkable machine is in use for
plucking the feathers from dead poul-
try, and by its use the feather in
iustry has been greatly simplified and
expanded. The dead bird is placed
On table, and the picker strips it of
all feathers in just half a minute.
Then the plucked feathers are passed
rapidly along to another small room
where a current of air sorts the very
line from the heavy ones. The very
hghtest and softest feathers are used
Tor pillows, but all the others find some
use in the millinery trade. 1t is be-
coming the fashion now to have cloaks
and mantles made out of the feathers.
and some handsome pieces of wearing
apparel have been made in this way.
Such feather cloak is more expensive
than sable or seal. In the National mu-
scum at Washington there is such a
cloak that is said to be-valued by the
authorities at million dollars. 1t was
made of the feathers of an extinct bird
tor one of the old kings of the Hawaiian
Islands, and contains probably several
million feathers.-N. Y. Times.