Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-12-11

feSsio-al scrters in Their eY1p.oy who are
exceedingly skillful in sorting and match,
ing 1urs according to their weight and
quality. and in a few hours will pick out
bale OF a thousand skins SO that they
can be done up in packages Of dozens or
those which are most nearly alike. On
certain days of the week the auctions are
held and the goods are bought by sam
pie upon guarantees by the auctioneer.
In Leipzig there are no auctions. Every
thing is sold at private sale and the auc-
tons In London are held at different times
Of the year SO that customers may go to
both places without missing any oppor-
tunitieS.
There has been a decided advance in the
prices Of all kinds of furs, but most OF
the money goes 10 the middieman and
manufacturers. The Siberian hunters
and trappers have recently made an APP
peal to the government through their
communal village associations and :he
chambers of commerce for protection
against the small buyers and commission
! men who send their agents around
through the villages to pick up the skins
that are brought In during the season
They have read in the newspap ers and In
other ways have heard about the enor-
nous advances that have been made IN
the finished product Fer example. In
1900 SableS were sold to wholesale buyers
by middlemen at the fair at Yakutsk at
+, ing at $3.50 each. In 1900 squirrel skins
were selling at 10 cents each. while In
/ 1909 they sold at 40 cents each, YET the
hunters and trappers who brought them
! in received no more than formerly.
* :.
The hunters and trappers in Alaska
! and British Columbia, however, have
done much better The
| Alaskan prices they receive are
much higher than they
1IlceS. were few years ago.
and have practically kept pace with the
advances in the wholesale and retail mar
| kets. For example, red fox skins which
they sold for $40 each in 1901 are no"
selling for $7.75: silver gray foxes which
| they sold for Sill each are now selling
for S156: lynx skins which they sold for
! $4.45 ten years ago are now $50 each'
mink skins which were bringing only 81
| each to the trapper are now paying MN
| IS: muskrat skins which were 80 cents
each are now $3.50, and others in pro-
| portion.
| But when these skins get to market
there Is big jump In price which Is not
| justified by the cost of dressing and nan
ding. For example, a set Of lynx skins
| which brought the trapper perhaps 500 or
| SEQ sold at retail for ten times that
| money, and silver fox for which ne
! gets s15a is wogth $1,000 A coat of
| muskrat skins, which are worth ~ or
/ 81 each at wholesale, will sell for 800 or
$3.50. and other furs bring similar prices
| The demand for caracul. or Persian
lamb skins. is SO great that more than
two million pieces, valued at $1O.OOOOU.
were shipped from Bokhara during the
| past year, and probably an equal num-
/ Der from other stations in Turkestan
along the Central Asia railway: There Is Is
| no way to get the actual statistics. but II
is entirely probable that the lamb crop OF
| Turkestan brought $25.OOo,OOO into that
! country during the last year
| These skins are brought into market
| unmatched in punches of ten and of diff
/ ferent sizes. which sell in the khans for
| SoJ to $50 a bunch, according to quality
! and condition. The smaller the skin the
higher the price, and the skins Of unborn
lambs are the most expensive. as they
sacrifice Of the mother sheep as we'll as
her offspring.
The demand of fashion for lamb skins
| has pushed prices up very rapidly. They
J used to sell for 81 skin. re-
|! Lamb gardless Of quality, and s.
! ~. was considered an excessive
0AAAs' price. Today you cannot buy
anything for less than $50, while the or
| binary price Is s. skin. The demand
! for wraps, muffs. coats, cuffs, collars and
trimmings is the largest from Russia
| then from England. and next the United
! States. The coarser qualities, used fol
Innings, are not often sent to Leipzig te
be dressed. Indeed, very few of the iamt
skins used in Russia ever see Leipzig
There is large local demand for coats
and fezes which are worn all over Tur-
kestan. Persia and the Caucasus. eau
}, casus dandy will pay $50 or 800 for ar
1 especially fine shake made of lambskin.
The skins come in from the ranches ant
! villages tied UP in bundles Of ten. The,
pieces, and are shipped by rail to Moscow
and Nizhni Novgorod, where they are solo
to agents of Leipzig commission houses
who are not allowed to go into Turkestan
their source of supply. That is CLOSED
country. a military despotism, where
none but Russian merchants are allowed
to trade. All the skins intended for thu
English, continental and American mar
kets are sent to Leipzig TO be redressed
trimmed. combed and curled. and in on
of the suburban villages are families sc
skllful in that sort of work that .yot
would not know skin after it had beer
through their hands. The curling of thu
wool requires a special knack. which I:
possessed to a high degree by severa
families in that particular village. They
have been doing It for generations, ant
nobody can do it any better. Their dress
ing quadruples the value Of a skin, al
though their pay is comparatively small
The commission man enjoys the bigges
part of the profit. After the skins are re
dressed they are matched, tied up il
punches of a dozen, and packed away To-
the fair.
-
There are no manufacturers in Leipzig
You cannot buy a wrap. or a stole. or {
muff here to any advan
ONLY Raw tage. Geneva and Paris are
,r- the best places for that
MdteIlals. and the manufacturer
from those cities are the largest purchas
eris Of dressed furs.
American dealers here tell me there il
scarcely Il county in the United State:
that does not furnish its share of the skin!
that come to the L; ipzig fairs. Farmel
boys are the chief producers. They bring
THE skins Of the animals they catch t,
the country merchant: he ships them t
s. Paul or Chicago. or ST. Louis. ant
. they gradually find their way into a New
York exporting house. where they ar
packed in a bale and shipped to Leipzig
The most remarkable of all l. the mum
her of skunk skins thar are ShfDDf(1 her,