Omaha daily bee., 1910-02-03
Some Things You Want to Know
The Leather Industry.


The snake skin hunter exercises much
ingenuity. He takes a forked stick and
plnions the snakes head TO the ground.
Then he puts a pinch Of snuff into the
reptiles mouth. and the nicotine produces
instant death by paralysis. thus saving the
skin intact.
The invention OF the chrome process OF
leather making will be the means OF saving
millions of trees to the forests. Instead OF
vegetable tanning extracts, a mineral sub
stance is used. 1t effeotually tans the
hides and In addition renders the leather
porous enough for the admission Of air,
but tight enough for the exclusion Of
water. Who does not remember the days
when boots and shoes had to be creased to
keep the leather soft and pliable?
The most costly leather in the world Is
known to the trade as plano leather. Tho
old and the new world must unite in its
making. A family Of German tanners sold
the secret of its preparation. and it can
be made only from the skin Of the Ameri-
can grey deer found in the vicinity Of the
great lakes. The tanners have an agency
at Detroit where the skins are purchased
from the Indians and halfbreeds. The
leather Is used exclusively for covering
piano keys.
An eastern shoe house has put out a line
Of ladies' opera shoes which are to retail at
$50 per pair. Not all of the intrinsic value
Of these shoes comes from the leather that
is in them, nor from the workmanship.
The gold and pearl trimmings and Jet
beads are what bring the cost up so high.
One shoemaker has turned out a pair OF
shoes costing 5000, but their principal
value lies in the diamonds with which the
wanna aud heals atrtHdaA Tn 1.vAot.
kinds of shoes the leather is made rough
by being ground on rapidly revolving emery
wheels. Thu grinders have to wear silk
masks or wetted sponges over their faces
to keep the dust from their lungs. II is
that bronze shoe leather will be
the vogue during the coming summer sea-
son,
While great strides have been made in
the methods Of tanning leather, 1t must
be conceded that the Indian perfected the
art 70 q degree never vet attained hy the
white tanner. Some years ago q Sioux In
dian chief produced a piece Of buckskin
that had been tanned fifty years before by
a member of his tribe. A leading leather
expert compared 1t with the best buckskin
he could purchase in the market. and
that the indian leather was superior
In ~pliability and every other particular.
Specimens Of Chinese leather 1900 years
old are as soft and pliable today as they
were when new.
Special methods OF tanning are required
in making some of the big driving belts
used in factories. What is believed to be
the biggest belt ever made was turned out
recently by a New York firm for a lumbe
mill in Louisiana. Five hundred and forty
selected Texas steer hides were
used in making this belt. 1t is 240 feet
long, six feet wide and cost s., 800.
The feathers which are used for ladies'
gloves, and also for mems finer gloves
are not tanned, but tawed, and millions of
eggs are used in this process. The finest
glove leather comes from France. The ad-
vent of the coal tar dyes in the coloring
of feathers has proved to be harmful to
the leather. 1t is not as noticeable in
glove feathers, however, as in book
feathers. Bindings are supposed to last
through years and years. But the aniine
dye has proved so deleterious to the last
ing qualities. of leather that the English
Library association has made a careful
examination of the subject. 1t declares
that after all there is no tanning for book
feathers like that in which sumac is used
in connection with vegetable dyes.
A writer for the Smithsonian institution
beautifully expresses the intimate rela-
tionship of leather to the race by tracing
the activities of the savage woman after