New-York tribune., 1903-05-04
FTRS IN SUMMER.
Busy Season 7Cith DeaIers-4Uerage
WOman kn0zcs Little of Skins.

other day Why a matter of fact the warn
weather is our busiest time in some ways We
nave to design and make all models and sam
pies. take stock get in our next seasons pets an'
give all the goods hand the annual cold storag.
treatment.
London you know, is the Wall Street of the fur
trade Though America to-day supplies 10 per cent
OF all the skins sold in the world, bulk thes.
change hands in London. There is no duty on raw
skins, you see. and the freight across the ocear
and back again is hardly more than from here tC
Chicago, But though London is the centre of the
fur trade except. perhaps. for some OF the finer
sables for which send Moscow, St. Peters
burg. ETC. the home dealers there, as rule do not
retain the best of the pelts. The cream of the sill
yer fox and sabes for instance goes to Russia
the New-York market comes next. after that
France and Germany. and then British trade bids
for what's left Anybody the inside knows
that, and yet women will pride themselves on get
ting their furs IN London. Why. woman came
here TO get muf like trimming on her suit
She wanted to know the price. I named the
amount. a few dollars She was scandazed why,
she had paid about ten times that amount she
said. for those strips used as trimming
'Didn't know blue fox when it?' she asked.
told her certainly did. but 1 didn't there
on her gown. What I nothing but musk
rat The poor. deluded had bought it on the
other side and paid blue fox price for it. There
Is way OF preparing muskrat that makes it diff
cult for any but expert furriers distinguish be-
tween il and cheaper grade of the fox.
There is nothing that would be of more service
to women than practical knowledge Of furs but
there few subjects of which they know so little
Why, a woman came in here last season and wanted
some bears tails to ornament her bear muff and
boa Bears. you know, have even less tail than
rabbits but because tried to persuade her that
such a thing bears tail wasn't known to the
fur trade, she said she believed it just
We didn't happen to have any. and she whsked out
to try somewhere else.
Women come in here to match Astrakan and
Persian lamb fur IIIy ba1ia
mutations I'M they bring are genuine Then. too. women
and knowine SO little ahoI;t AIRS thv " O
ind themselves in a ludcrous position. For in
stance, woman came In here to buy sable muff.
showed her the handsomest thing We had In the
store II chanced. however, that didn't name the
upon the highest figure did name though in an
rearIy so handsome Presently when I brought
out $40 dyed Baum Marten, before had a chance
oh, that wonderful dark sabIeH and was going
10 BUY II in preference to $40 genuine affair.
Half the women that come here can't tell silvered
woman in 999 knows anything about IL. They don't
another a few dollars and it is not an unusual
thing to have one Of them ask where Siberian
from the darkest depths Of the Siberian woods
from the Yakutsk district the forests of Ytem and
0ekma Sables are the diamonds of the fur trade.
l he finest are rare enough to make trapper think
hunted by natives, of course, who go up into the
whose feet make such a small and light track in
the snow that it is scarcely dstinguishabe by the
ground II "a is home re ne az f5 m m me me
miles, and there he stands. knee deep in the snow
perhaps with his small store of dried herring and
club the minute it's nose appears. Not for mo
nent. night or day. does he dare to take his eyes
little animals trapped, so as to preserve the
perfection Of the pelt They are never shot
hunter would let sable escape him dozen times
rather than secure II with a gun. In the densest
forests where the sunlight hardly penetrates. the
sable grows its darkest. skiest finest pet Larger
= d heayer skins come from the saghalien Islands
is thinner, not so dark and coarser, owing TO the
the Russian Government, and every trapper is sup
posed TO take every skin he to the govern
world But the hunters can get far more nv selinp
them direct to the agents OF other countries who
are always on hand for the purpose of such n
rappers life is the forfeit. So it is no wonder the
little SILKY, brown pelts are costly, when both
;atch and to sell them man takes his life in his
In the pet, however. the Russian sable is not
kin, for which much 5 s. 900 has frequently
S & p s Hde Se pe seHera Is of # bp Sg match & exc @ y
he making of any garment, that sometimes year
selected for a particular purpose can be supple
nented with others Of their especial class So /
the growing of their garments that they succeed
cousins to share these with them
The so-caIled American sables are known in life
IS plain martens. They first. may be sec
nd, cousins of the Russian sables. and It is only
fter the pelts dressed and made up into gar /
nents that they diguifed by the name OF (
american Hudson Bay sables. They bear some /
what the resemblance to their Russian relations /
hat cloth astrakar does to the real fur. All the /
arge fur houses nave their agents throughout the /
Ut districts and their representatives the Lon |
on auctions. These auctions begin in prelim- /
7ary way in December and January. but the most I
Important take place in March, while June sees /
eneral clearing out sale of odds and ends, which /
dealers consider the feature Of the five
lonths' traffic Ever since the days when beaver
kins passed dollars in the Hudson Bay coun-
y the bulk of American pelts have travelled Lon
onward to find American market, and that city
still the centre Of the Alaskan seal trade Alas
an seals are still the finest in the market.
The value a in knowing just where
nd why and how furs of any sort whatever
said to be is that she cannot then be
lsy imposed upon by unscrupulouS dealers To I
ne who knows there is much difference as be- I
veen cotton and linen, silk and wool brass and !
old. Dyed limitations the moments pur-
1se. perhaps. but they will last. A customer
ours brought a sable skin boa here the other
ay be repaired. and told those identical pets
ad been in the possession of her family ninety
lree years That is where the GenIneness makes
self known. woman need not grudge the thou
md she puts into q fine fur. Her grand
lildren will thank her for her forethought not TO
ention the satisfaction 10 the owner of wearing
e genuine thing