El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-04-04

he international Fur Workers
association meets in ST Paul to-
day. Many matters of interest
Will be called to the attention of the
convention. among them the problem of
conserving the fur supply, and the
problem Of health for the furrier. Fur
workers are liable to contract a peculiar
catarrh that never has yielded readily
10 treatment, and ways and means of
preventing and curing the disease will
Inquire prominently in the discussions.
Fur workers from many countries
Will attend the convention, but they vii
come mainly from the United States
and Canada, which produce more than
half of the raw furs of the world, al
though not half the finished products
Waste Is Great.
There are few businesses where the
waste is as great as in a big fur work
ing establishment. There are always
tnnumerable cuttings and scraps from
FUR, and the more valuable the fur the
more carefully must be fashioned tn
piece made of it. hence the greater
waste. Yet it is not all wasted, fos
the scraps of a fine fur may be used
to strim the cheaper fur, and all tina;
has no other available use can be CT,
into fine pieces ana me hair blown
from 1t. This hair sells at several dol
lars pound for the most costly furs,
and few cents a pound for the cheap
er ones
OF the high priced furs the seal is
the only one that is dyed. Other furs
are made in imitation of more costly
ones by dyeing and trimming. There
used to be an imitation of sealskin
made from muskrat hides, but after
the introduction Of the electric seal
made from the shorn fur of the cony
the muskrat seal went out of style.
Beaver Hats.
One hears of beaver hats quite fire.
quently. and yet it is asserted that
genuine beaver hat today would sell at
wholesale for about $500 a dozen.
Nutria, an aquatic fur, is now the
prime favorite in hat making, though
for the cheaper grades hare and cony
rurs have the call. The muskrat prob
ably is in greater demand than any
other fur in America today, it being
estimated that some 100000 of these
animals annually sacrifice their lives
TO the demands of the furrier.
The fur trade of North America is |
very large. New York city alone trans
forming S15.000,00 worth of raw furs
INTO s26.000.000 worth of finished pro- !
duct, by the labor of 5000 furriers
Oldest Industry In World.
Fur making is the Oldest industry /
'I the world After the fig leaf had |
gone out of style Eve concluded thar |
'urs would become her. so the first n.sIt
vas taken and cured, and thus the
world started out on its career of fur
rappfng and manufacturing The As
or fortune was started in the fur
rade
London has been the worlds princi-
'a fur market for generations. and
cling by inch Of the candle was a pic
uresque way of auctioneering them off.
ms were placed in the candle at every
nch, and when one of them was reach
q the furs were knocked off to the
ighest bidder.
III Is a remarkable thing that more
nan half of the worlds supply of fur
gathered by amateurs The country
oy with his muskTat and 'possum tran.
is mink and coon hunting expeditions.
athers half of the supply Even the
roundhog is made to yield up his hide
the furrier. for some of the hest
loves are made from the skin Of The
rounding, tanned in ashes.
There is a journal published in the :
lterest of the trapper, and its dfstin-
uishing feature is its great quantity of
ADVERTISEMENTS Of dealers wanting TO
NY furs.
Vast Demand for FurS.
For years there has been a belief that
Ci'ili]dllCn pushed back the bOun-
aries OF the unsettled world there
ouid be a growing shortage of fur
caring animals. The drainage of | ]
"amps and marshes has tended to de- I
roy the homes Of the muskrat. while +
lie sawmill In the north and the south
Id the west is singing a death kneu
The habitationS OF the coon. the I
,ar. TIE 'possum, the wildcat. the fish 7
:, the marten and the lynx ,
The beaver and the otter have so liz .
? patience with civilizat ton that the =
'pearance of man in their haunts is | q
ways the sign for their diSappear- :
Ice The vast demand for furs is .
own by few examples of the spripv .
ferings of two leading fur auction y
uses last year These offerings in
uded $4,000 mink skins, 545.O 900 skunk I,
ms. 1.23s,000 muskrat skins. 2O3. GOO {.
cocoon skins. 225,000 oppossum skins 8
zoe wolf skins. $4,000 red fox skins. y
900 ermine skins and others in pro- !.
rtion. .
north America now furnishes a large L
recent of the furs of the world. Some #
the more costly kinds of fur come n
I'm tie northern parts of Europe and | g
Ia, Australia is the principal produc- D
center in oppossum hides. and the lr
incipal supply of chinchilla comes