Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1903-03-10
HOW A FASHION ORIGINATED.
Story Of the 100000 Squirrel Skins
American Women Are Wearing.

not get rid of.
One day, says the New York World,
famous dressmaker Of Paris heard
Of these skins and a brilliant idea
came to him. 81 will make market
for your skins" he is said to have
told the government, "if you will
make it worth my while"
Now the goyernment-which is
that of Russia, for this is true story
was very anxious to turn its vast
stock of skins into currency, and an
agreement, they say, was made with
the Paris dressmaker.
That is how the squirrel-skin coat
fashion is said to have started and
why certain maker of coats for the
aristocracy of the French capital has
developed much wealth in the past
few months.
The only gray squirrel skins in the
world that are soft enough and fine
enough to make beautiful garments
are those Of Russia. Only Russian
skins are used in the garments seen
in New York.
These skins pass as currency in ST.
IBERIA, and the peasants often pay
their taxes in them, the government
having accepted them from time i'm
memorial. In consequence vast
stores of the skins are in the posses
sion of the government. As they pro-
duee no income, the officials are con-
stantly seeking some means of dis
posing of them.
The fashionable dressmaker found
his work easy. He made up some
beautiful coats of the skins and in
duced number of his leading pa
irons to buy and wear them. Imme-
date success followed. The new
coats caught the fashionable fancy,
and the dressmaker was swamped
with orders for the garments.
In an astonishingly short time the
fashion had spread to London, Ber-
lin and New York and thence
throughout the civilized world
The Paris dressmaker reaped
double reward-from the introduce
ton of the fashion and the sale Of the
coats.
As many as 5000 skins are used
in single garment, but very short
coat may be made of $50, and 800 is
generally used. There are from l 5 to
80 days work for one man in gar
ment.
The Siberian squirrel looks like
the American squirrel. a cheerful,
active. busting animal, it increases
with great rapidity and is trapped
with ease The most common sort Of
of trap is made in the fork of hollow
tree. Here a store Of nuts is set and
the section of wood upon which the
squirrel must stand to reach the nuts
is set on a kind of pivot, so that the
squirrels weight causes the bottom,
so to speak, to fall out of the tree fork
and the animal is suddenly dropped
down through the hollow trunk into
little chamber under the soil. lmme-
diately, then, the pivOted section of
the wood springs back into place
again and the trap is set for another
victim.
The darkest, handsomest and most
expensive Siberian squirrels are
found in the Sacamina district, near
the Arctic circle. They are very
scarce. A blouse of them--a blouse
reaching only to the waist---costs
$3.50. A coat-reaching little be-
low the hips-eOsts about $3.50. An
automobile coat, coming to the knees,
costs $500. The next best quality of
skins come from the Talutskik dis
trict, and the next from the Y eneseiki
district. The cheapest skins IA light
color, tinged with red) come from
Tobolsk and Kazan.
Squirrel skins are all dressed in
one place--in Weissenfels, a town
that produces a chemical clay and salt
to be found nowhere else. This clay
alone will cure the skins in proper
manner. Twenty firms there are en-
gagged in this business. America i'm
ported last year only 10000 squirrel
skins. These skins cost on an aver
age IL cents apiece. This year Amer
lea has imported, up to the present
time, 1000, 900 squirrel skins. They
cost, on the average, 35 cents apiece.
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