The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-04-17

| remind us anew OF her pre-em1nenC9
Beaver may give way to otter and err
mine yield to the superior claims of sill
J yer fox but the fur-bearing animals OF
the earth, almost without exception, nc
matter how remote the region of their
birth may be, may expire in the assur-
ance that their pelts will reach the cap
ital of the British empire.
1t is not at first easy to understand
why London should thus be the fur en-
porium of the world. We are not a
specially cold country, and we certainly
wear fewer furs than almost any other
people, but it is doubtless connected
with the capitals pre-eminence as a
commercial center and the nation S
rank as shipper in chief to the universe,
Whether or not London can always
hope to retain its hold upon the fur
trade we will not venture to predict.
About the middle of March the fur
dealers began to arrive from every cor
ner of Europe. Paris, ST. Petersburg,
Moscow, Leipsic, Frankfort and Buda-
pest firms had dispatched their expert
buyers, as did the United States and
Canada, to the London fur mart At
the Hudsons Bay company's ware
tA0S'i
were hung up or pigeonholed for the in
spection of these buyers hundreds of
thousands of the undressed skins Of
bears, foxes, seals offers, sables, mar
tens, mink, skunk and musquashes
Here too, We're the hides of lions, Loop
ards, gigantic polar bears, and large
numbers of musk OK from the shore of
the Arctic sea, ready to be sold to the
highest bidder.
1t was our privilege to make tour
through the Hudson's Bay company's
warehouse with an expert furr1er-a
Russian, who has been all his long life
in the trade. Before him his father was
in the employ of the Menikoffs, and he
himself has been a clerk of the great
Russian Fur company, that corporation
which sought to rival the English mer-
chant adventures and which once
owned Alaska.
On a row, depending from nails. the
visitor sees the most precious treasures
of the Hudson's Bay company's collec-
ton. What diamonds are to the jewel
err these skins are to the fur trade. SO
rare are the furs of the silver fox this
year that only five hundred and thirty
five have been gathered by the white
and Indian trappers of the company
The silver fox may not be the most
beautiful of furs, personally our guide
prefers the sable. the marten and the
kit foX,) but last year the price, which
had been yearly rising, reached the fig
ure, at the March sales of three hun
bred and seventy pounds. 1t Is marvel
Gus the insight the expert possesses.
He is able by merely handling this or
that fur to tell the country and even
the exact district of its origin. Some
times he ISIS obliged to have recourse to
the sense of smell in order to pronounce
an opinion; but he is rarely deceived
Scores of buyers are roaming the
mammoth warehouses, each attired in
the long white wrapper prescribed by
the immemoral custom, and each car
rying bulky catalogue in his hand, in
whose pages he inscribes the necessary
particulars concerning each skin, or
bundle of skins, whose acquisition
seems to him desirable. Nimble at
PENDANTS bring him the pelts, placing
them on one Of the many long tables for
examination. 1t Is extremely diverting
to the visitor to observe the pride with
which certain of the furs are brought
forth by the attendants, and it becomes
clear that the warehouse employers are
experts and connoisseurs, too, and that
they are equally alive to the beauties of
good fur as any furrier or Partisan
coquette. You hear one man remark:
''Give me a good soft marten and l
wouldn't swop it for any other pelt go
ing, in the mere matter of beauty.
There's little chap yonder that ought
to be on the shoulders of duchess.
And yet I s'pose he'll go fer couple of
pounds If he'd come from Siberia in
stead of Canada, he'd be worth more,
and even now I'd like to bet he'll finally
be sold as sable
But, in the midst of the furriers from
st. Petersburg, Sofia, Stockholm, Ant
werp, Paris Berlin, Lyons and Dresden,
your eyes retina will ever be conscious
that, mingling with all, and OVERLAPPING
ALL is the omnipresent Jew. You will,
here at this great fur sale, behold yellow
Tartar faces and pale-haired Scandina
vians and swarthy Roumanians, but it
is the Hebrew type which, after you
have forgotten individual lineaments, |
you will carry away with you And |
when you have seen this and noted it, |
y
self of one indubitable fact; that there |
is money in the fur trade!
This years fur sale commenced with |
otter skins, for which there was more
spirited bidding than last year. and |
prices ran twenty per cent. higher. |
Messrs. Goad, Rigg & Co. realized the |
record price for both silver fox and sea
otter, viz, five hundred and eighty
pounds for silver fox and two hundred |
and eighty pounds for sea otter each |
per skin.
But these are by no means all the |
furs sold at the worlds fur emporium |
during the past week. After the COM
pany's sales came that of the free
traders, known as the Lampson sales,
which realize annually about one mil
lion pounds. With the exception per-
haps of such furs as fisher and blue fox,
most of the furs advanced in price this
year. especially all varieties of foxes.
But the lion skins-are there no more
bogus sportsmen, they who used to fig
ure in our novels and stage farces, they |
who paid extravaganza sums for impos-
ing trophies of sport? Because here at
the fur sales al College Hill numbers of
hides of the king of beasts
went for a mere song-a few patry
pounds. Twenty lion skins for the
price of a single silver fox TT seems |