The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1910-03-16
A SADDLE OF HUMAN SKIN
QUIT WHEN TOLD WHAT GAVE
LEATHER SUCH FINE GRAIN.
Not Even Fishes of Sea Nor Serpents
of Forest Escape the Tan
nerS' Search.

ners' Search.
BOSTON.-No other industry has
shown greater strides of growth dur
ing the past SO years than that of
leather making. The demands of the
individual for leather products not
only have multiplied many fold, but
the list of leather users is being ex-
tended with each passing year.
Leather follows civilization, and hun
dreds of thousands of barbarians are
being converted to it's use each year.
The result is a scarcity of leather
producing animals. They have not
multiplied as rapidly as the demand
for their hides, and the tanner is
forced to ransaCk the world for ami
mails that hitherto were exempt. Not
even the fishes of the sea nor the SER
penis of the forest have escaped the
tanners search.
The automobile industry affords
one illustration of the increasing de-
mand for leather and its products.
Ten years ago there were about 1000
automobiles in use in the United
States; now there are nearly 2OO,-
900. Each of these machines has
required leather in its construction,
and requires even more in the &C
cessories.
Z. S. Leads the World.
The United States leads the world
in the production of leather, it's 600
tanneries producing one-fourth of the
worlds supply. Every year nearly
200, 100000 hides and skins pass
through these 500 tanneries, and
when finished into leather they are
worth $3.50, 100000. 1t requires l.
250,000 cords of tanbark and $780,
900 barrels of extract to meet the
demands of the American tanner in
the conversion of these hides and
skins into leather.
Philadelphia is the hub of the
leather world. The goat skins used
there each year would suffice to cover
a procession of goats reaching from
the most northerly point of Alaska
to the most southerly point of Pata-
gonia. Other kinds of hides and
skins may become scarce and rare,
but the goat is always ready with a
supply equal to the demand The
kid shoes men wear are usually made
from goat skins.
Smooth Feel Was Human.
A man in Philadelphia owns a sad
die that was made from the skin of
a human being. 1t is presumed that
he got this skin from some medical
school. He employed one of the best
saddlers in Philadelphia to do the
work.
When the job was nearing com
pletiOn the saddlemaker asked what
kind of. leather it vast had such
fine grain and such a smooth "feel."
When he learned that it was human
skin he threw up the job. Later
another man was employed to finish
the saddle, but the employer was
careful not to let him know what it
was made of. Many medical students
have little trinkets of leather made
from human skin, but this Philadel-
phia saddle is said to be the only
one of its kind in the world.
Newark, N. j., stands at the fore |
front as an alligator leather center. |
More than 100000 alligators annual !
ly surrender their lives to the needs |
of the Newark tanneries and facto-
ries.
At one time only the belly side
Of the alligator skin could be used.
But the tanner has learned how to
get the hard scales off the back, with
the result that the most valuable
part of the tanned skin is that which
was rejected.