The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-03-08
.LONDON'S BIG FUR SALES.
THIS IS THE SEASON WHEN 4 LII THE TORLD GOES THERETO BUY.

Lively Bidding ut the Auction of Seal
 Prices for Silver Fox and Sea Otter
 Peculiar Qualities Required for Suc-
 cess In Buying.
 This is the season when fur buyers the world over turn their faces toward their Mecca and set out for the March fur sales in London town. The seal skins were disposed of in December, the beavers were scattered in January there have been minor sales all through the winter; but the great fur sale comes In March. There are fur sales In other countries, but London is the chief fur market of the world. There the tre- mendous collection of the Hudson Bay company is sold, and to certain great commission firms in London traders all over the world send their annuol col lections of skins. The commission mer- chant has the safe and sure end Of the business. He receives, as sorts, cata- logues and sells at auction the goods consigned to him; and, whether prices soar or fall, he gets his liberal commls- sion just the same; but the man who buys fur at the big sales must have un- erring judgment that works like chain lightning if he wants to come out ot the transaction with profit. For days before the beginning of the sale men crowd the warehouses, examining the assorted lots of furs, estimating values, formulating plans of action. The repre- sentatiyes of small dealers have rather am advantage in this preliminary skir- mibh; for they are not regarded as dan gerous, and both commission men and fellow buyers treat them with compar- ative frankness and genially swap opinions with them, But the buyer who is likely to snatch everything worth having in certain lines is an object of scrutiny and suspicion. Naturally, each separate skin cannot be overhauled for inspection, but enough lots are dis played to serve as fair samples The size of the lots varies, according to the
 value and bulk of the skins Hudson Bay sabes, for example, being small and not of extravagant value, are sold in lots comprising a rather large num-
 Der of belts. Bear skins, being bulky to handle come in small lots; and sea
 otter. silver fox, Russian sable and other skins of great value are often sold singly. Where the lots comprise many skins each one cannot be exam ined, but the general quality can be de- termined from examination of sam ples: for the absolute fairness and equity of these great fur sales are among their remarkable features. The pelts are assorted, according to size and class with absolute impartality, and all buyers take equal chances upon quality and incidental defects
 The seal skins are stored in casks, and it is wise furrier who is unerring in his judgment of raw, or green, seal. The seal catch is made at the season when the animals go ashore to breed; and legitimate sealing consists in sep arating the males from the herd, driving them inland and clubbing them to death, royalty being paid upon each seal killed. The seals must be skinned | immediately; otherwise, the condition | of the skin is impaired, and much defec- tive fur is attributable to carelessness in this detail. If the seals are driven too fast to the shambles the quality of the skin is injured; so the poor beasts must approach their death, nor exactly as one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him, &c., but in a lie-sure- ly and numbering flop. As soon as the skin is removed 1t is placed in cask, with the flesh side up, and liberally salted. The next skin Is laid upon the first, the flesh side down. The cask is tightly packed in this way, with thick layers of salt between the flesh sides of each paid of skins, and this pickling keeps the skins in good condition. Sometimes, however, when unpacked the green seal skins show small pink spots, which indicate that decomposi- tion had begun it's work before the pick ling was accomplished, and these pink danger signals later develop into bare spots in the cured fur. The raw seal has long hairs through the short fur, and for many years these hairs injured the beauty and value of the fur. They would not die like the rest of the skin, but glistened, and were the despair of furrier A New York dealer conceived the idea of stretching the skin tightly over some hard substance, blowing the fur until the soft hairs separated and lay flat, and then clipping the long hairs with scissors. The process was tedious, but he trained girls to do it; and, for a time, had a monopoly of the idea-the other dealers sending their seal skins to him to be treated Then a machine was invented by which strong current of air was forced over the fur, and automatic clippers did the clipping, and that method is still in use
 The sealskin sale last December was one of the lveliest fur sales London has had. and the auction room rivalled in excitement the Chicago wheat pit in panic times. Prices rose 80 per cent, and even old and experienced buyers last their heads and f1oundered helpless ly. America was largely responsible for the tremendous jump in prices. Illegal sealing which at one time almost brought England and America to blows, consists in the capture of female seals that take to the water with their young after breeding time, and are, by law, exempt from molestation. The North western sealskins'' belong to this class The United States government, having raised a mighty row over this sealing matter. was obliged, in order to be con- sistent. to bar all Northwestern seal skins from entrance into this country, under any conditions Every inch ot sealskin entering our ports must be ac-