Connecticut western news., 1900-09-20
USES FOR DEERSKIN.
Guides Who Underntand ThorouGhl unwxv Tnru 4 to GnnH

Guides Who Underatand Thoroughly
 How to Turn It to Good Service.
 Guides and the native hunters of the Adirondack region have a variety of uses for the deer they kill. There are still a good many hunters who know how to tan the deer's hide and a few who use as one of the tanning agents liquid extracted from the brain of the deer. From the tanned skin many articles of use are made. The thick hide from the neck of an old buck Is excellent for moccasins, and the art of moccasin making still fingers here among those whose ancestors learned it from the Indians. The men and wo- men of French Canadian extraction are especially apt in household arts of this sort, learned from the savages. Cheap as factory made gloves are, few women of the region still cut and stitch buckskin gloves.
 Whole suits of buckskin are made by expert women of these parts. Such suits were once much used by the thrashers, who travelled from one mountain farm to another to thrash the small oats crop of the region. A buckskin suit Is good for dozen years of hard usage, and with care will last lifetime. 1t Is remarkably warm and impervious to water. One rarely sees nowadays such suit with the hair on. A garment with | the hair on to be serviceable must be | made from the skins of deer just com | ing into the "blue," as the hunters ex- | S0 hot ic Cho smooth and tough. Later 1t Is long and brittle. It is necessary, too, if such a | suit Is to be of uniform color, that 1t | be made from corresponding parts of skins from deer of about the same age | and shot about the same time. Even If | the law did not stand in the way, 1t | would be difficult in these times to shoot in a single week enough deer of the same age to yield the desired quantity of hide of uniform color, so deerskin suit with the hair on Is rarely seen. One still does see, how ever, moccasins with hair inside and out, and very soft, warm, inviting slippers they make. Raccoon skin now furnishes cheap fur garments in these parts, and winter residents buy | or hire overcoats of coonskin to brave the January winds.
 l Raw deer hide is used for many purposes. It makes excellent thongs for tying articles of one kind or another, good whips and indestructible shoestrings. You may buy in these
 parts rustic chairs with seats and
 backs of woven rawhide. The green skin is cut In thin strips, stretched un- til 1t Is almost tranylucent, and then
 woven into seat. The result Is a comfortable, elastic chair of almost
 indeatructible material Deerskins
 with the hair on are still used for car
 pets and mats, though here again, as
 in the case of the deerskin suits, the
 skin Is not serviceable unless the deer
 be shot just at the right season. No
 body Is more fastidious than the
 Adirondack guide In these little mat
 ters. If he cannot have his deerskiD
 coat or carpet just as 1t should be, be
 will go without, though he Is in-
 different enough as to Store clothes and
 ordinary household furniture.
 Out of the marrow from the shank
 bones of the deer the guides make. by
 a laborious process, beautifully clear,
 sweet oil, which will keep in good con.
 dition for years. 1t is much used by
 jewellers and watchmakers because of
 peculiar qualities that exactly fit their
 needs. This oil is sufficiently scarce
 and useful to sell for high price.
 Buckhorn walking sticks are much
 commoner in New York than in the
 Adirondacks, and, indeed, the hunter
 of today finds little use for the antlerf
 save as trophies. A tiny bone of the
 leg furnishes sharp and strong tooth picks for the native hunter, and you
 may occasionally see in the houses oi
 guides stools, the legs of which arc
 those of the deer, carefully cured witt
 the hide and skin. In beauty and use
 fitness they fall far short of the ex
 cellent and durable furniture that
 guides make from native evergreen
 timber.-New York Sun.