Daily camera., 1899-04-15
FEATHERED FINERY.
Plumags fer Millinery Nov Ad6.
eially Produced
The HaAbIe BarnyarA Fowl Few
F.rnisAes the Material for . Great
Deal Of the New Hat
Trimming.

The demand for feathers for mil
linery purposes has caused an inventor
to experiment in thus field, and he has
succeeded so well that many of our
most fashionable bird plumages and
feathers are artificially manufactured.
The trade in feathers amounts TO mill
lions of dollars annually. and the sup
ply of the birds furnishing them is
decreasing SO rapidly that ii 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 quills made of eel
luloid. and the barbs of silk waste.
Then when dyed and skillfully curled
it would take an expert to detect them
from the genuine article.
Various other expensive feathers and
plumes are manufactured out of silk
and cotton waste, and inventors are
constantly devising new methods by
which they can supply the demands of
fashion at little cost 10 the public and
at great profit to the manufacturers.
The utilization of poultry feathers for
millinery purposes is a subject of i'm
portance. There has been an une1-
Jected 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 fsrmyard ducks and
geese have remarkably beautiful feath-
ers, shimmering with gold, green and
blue. and tinged with metallic luster
Of unusual beauty. All of these have .
value aside from the meat and eggs
they furnish. But even the common
harnyard poultry is made to furnish
material for the market By dyeine
the feathers they can be made to imi-
tate the brightest plumes that ever
graced the back or topknot OF trop-
ical bird. The plumes are artfully
made up by hand, each individual feath-
er being oolored beforehand, and then
worked into an exquisite design. Some
Of these plumes are so gorgeous that
they are more in demand than the gen
uine plumes of wild birds.
A remarkable machine is in use for
plucking the feathers from dead pouk
try, and by its use the feather in
iustry has been greatly simplifed and
expanded. The dead bird is placed
on a table, and the picker strips it OF
all feathers in just half minute
Then the plucked feathers are passed
rapidly along TO another small room
where current of air sorts the very
fine from the heavy ones. The very
lightest and softest feathers are used
for 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 a 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 a million dollars 1t was
made of the feathers of an extinct bird
for one of the old kings of the Hawaiian
islands, and contains probably several
million feathers.-N. Y. TimeA