Great Falls daily tribune., 1919-10-15

Washington, ID. C., Oct. 13.-The old
nursery rhyme about getting a rabbit
SKIN to wrap your baby bunting in has
ceased to be fiction Thousands of
groWn-up babies are trotting around
this fall wrapped in rabbit skins, and
thousands Of American husbands are
hunting for money enough to pay the
resultant bills. For rabbit skin coat,
travelling under some alias, such as
'sealine'', near seal or coney, now costs
| anywhere from sixty-fiye to q hundred
and fifty dollars.
This rage for rabbit fur has grown
up entirely since the beginning of the
war, and has apparently not yet reached
its height. 1t is the latest development
in long process by which the majority
OF the fair ones have come down from
wearing seal and ermine and mink and
fox, as they did a generation ago, to the
condition of being glad if they can get
house cat, skunk. muskrat, or rabbit furs
without bankrupting their husbands.
Even the humble skunk and the musk
rat are fast becoming scarce under the
| pressure Of fashionable demand which
makes it necessary for every woman to
wear furs, not only in the winter, but
even in midsummer. when the fad costs
good deal in persplration as well as
! money.
| This rise Of the humble bunny to a
! place Of honor about miladys neck and
! shoulders is the one fortunate thing
/ about this abnormal and unreasonable
rage for furs. 1t has depleted the world
! supply of nearly every other fur bearing
animal. because most of these animals
are wild ones, and the high prices of
fered for their pelts has been an induce
Z .ts> I'rtJ
| some progress has been made IN domes-
| ticating several species. There is a
| small industry in fox farming, skunks
are raised in considerable numbers. and
few mink are produced in captivity.
/ One man in Ohio has made a success OF
/ raising bears on q farm. But the wild
| fur bearers must still be relied upon for
most of the supply, and all of them are
steadily becoming scarcer.
| The fur bearing rabbit stands on an
entirely different footing. He is cs-
| sentially domestic animal, and has been
for hundreds if not thousands of years.
Hence the sudden demand for his pelt
| has increased his numbers instead Of
decreasing them A whole new industry
Of rabbit farming has grown up in this
country in the past four years. 1t has
reached its greatest dimensions in
certain states where there IS ready
market for rabbit meat as well as for
the fur Ohio, Michigan and California
are especially good rabbit states. \ rah-
bit show will be held in every county
in Michigan this year. A great show was
recently held in Cleveland. which is i
great rabbit center. Dallas. Texas, is
getting ready to hold n rabbit show ad-
verlsed as the greatest ever held any
where One expert on rabbits IS schedul-
cd To act as a Judge at twenty-five
important shows this year. Five years
ago not half a dozen rabbit shows were
held annually in the whole United Seates
The number of rabbits in the country
has multiplied MANIFOLD nobody know:
how many
We even have rabbit kings and rsh.
bit plutoerats now. For example, shortly
before the war certain man of Belgian
birth in New York observed with IN
tcrest the growth Of demand for tan
ned rabbit skins. 1t was wanted at tha
time chiefly for trimmings, hat this maj
saw that the demand would grow be
cause other furs were becoming more
and more hard to get. Furthermore this
man knew all about the preparation .
rabbit skins. His father mad made I
business Of tanning and dyeing them il
Belgium where they have been used Il
some extent for a long time. He there
how to treat It,. He hired barn j,
New Jersey, advertised for rabbit skin
and went TO work. IN 1915, he mad
$3.50, 900. He is advertising for ten mil
lion rabbit skins this year.
Rabbit fur is not high quality ful
When properly clipped and dyed it /
often very pretty and some very al
tractiye effects may be obtained by COIN
bining different colors-for example
coat made of rabbit fur dyed black, an
trimmed with the fur of the blue rabbi
in its natural color. Most rabbit fu- j
clipped and dyed to resemble seal, an
sold az "sealine' or near seal. Their
il white variety which is used as q
imitation OF ermine. But none Of Ia
rabbit furs have any great durability. .
real seal skin coat will last almost
! life time. A good coat of inuskrat-
which makes the best imitation Of seal
will last about half as long as seal
rabbit skin coat cannot lie relied upo
to last more than one or two seasons
Furthermore. rabbit fur Ties down.
50 tfat If it is Tttfnpied TT rubbed II
wrong way, its beauty is maered. Th
furs Of both seal and Inuskrat stan
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