Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1915-11-24
Breeding SLIDER Foxes One of the Most
Profitable Industries in the Universe

Royalty has hit upon brand new
fad.
Only few weeks ago, at Potsdam,
the Princess Victoria Luise, eldest
daughter of the German emperor, at
tracted surprised attention as she was
driven through the streets in her au-
tomobile. Her whole body seemed lit
orally to simmer as with a golden
light.
"What is that our princess wears
this day." asked one citizen of an
other.
at is some kind of celestial fabric,
surely" was the reply.
Yet this notion was a mistake. At
all events, what the Princess Victoria
Luise had on was not a fabric at all,
in the ordinary sense of the word. 1t
was a coat Of silver fox fur tipped
with gold and she carried muff to
match.
This is a new and quite remarkable
invention, one should eXplain-gold
being applied to an electrolytic pro
cess to the tips of the long black hairs
of the fur. Thus is produced the pc
culiar "shimmering" effect described.
1t is a curious fact that, So far as
known silver fox is the only kind of
fur which can be treated in this way
successfully. The hairs of no other
fur will hold the gold. Hence it APP
pears that this particular and latest
touch in costume is obtainable only
by very wealthy women-silver fox
being far the most costly of all furs.
For Royalty Alone
As a matter of fact, however, the
available supply of this kind of fur
l. run
royalty. Ermine is out of fashion
nowadays with kings and queens, save
as a trimmings for robes of state.
Perhaps this is because it has been
initiated so extensively by the skilful
manipulation of ordinary pussy-cat.
A first-class skin of a silver fox, on
the other hand, is worth $4,000 to day,
and to counterfeit it is impossible.
The government Bureau of Animal
Industry reckons that at least $780,
100000 is paid annually in this coun-
try for furs of all kinds. But it is
very difficult to obtain silver fox fur
at any price Not long ago one skin
of great beauty was sold in London
at auction of $2825. No such price
has ever been paid for the pelt of any
other kind of animal.
And yet the American multimillion-
aire is always ready to bid against
royalty for anything Whence it
comes about that few Of our richest
women are able to boast the posses
sion of silver fox furs. At the last
horse show in New York was seen
one set of black fox, consisting of only
three skins, which is known to have
cost $4,000. Another lady, on the
same occasion, wore a coat of Siber-
ian marten Commonly known as
Russian sable), which cost $50,
But the marten is much smaller ami
NAL and the number of pelts that went
to make up the garment was consid-
erably greater.
One naturally asks, from what
source is the race and precious silver
fox fur obtained? The answer is
that the bulk of the small market
supply comes from Prince Edward Is
land, off the Canadian coast. That
is the only place in the world where
silver foxes are reared under condi-
tions of partial domestication-the
business being so profitable that up
to now it's very existence has been
kept carefully secret by the few per-
sons engaged in it.
If the pelts are costly, the living
animals are much more so, being use
full for breeding purposes. Silver fox
pups born in 1912 have a value of
$4,000 to $4,000 apiece, but to get one
at even that price would be extreme
ly difficult. To kill one for it's fur
would be like wringing the neck of the
goose that laid the golden eggs-save
only where there are superfluous
males, which furnish the furs that
are sent to market.
These skins, so few and so costly,
are shipped to London, where they
are disposed of at the great auctions
of furs-that city being, as everyone
knows, the fur market of the world.
Thence they find their way almost
inevitably into the hands of royal
families, which have Standing orders
with agents to buy them at almost
any price whenever they are offered.
The empress of Russia has a magni-
ficent set of silver fox furs, which is
rivaled perhaps only by another set
in the possession Of the morganatic
wife of the heir to the Austrian