The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-04-20
Special to The Ase. Herald

Speciai to The ASe- Herald
 Ldndon, April 5.-In England during the past winter people have been crying out against the monstrous prices asked by retail dealers for fur coats and Things and trimmings for coats and dresses. dare say that England alone has not speck ckally suffered in this direction, put one becomes apt to specialize concerning the particular quarter of the globe in whidh one happens to reside.
 I am reminded of this fact concerning the price of furs by an article in one of the London papers today Wnich' to mi V mind seems to strike an optimiS- tic uote in regard to furs for future use by those to whom rare and expensive skin$ are barred luxuries. The article give$ an account of a conference held In the town of Newcastle, the meeting nav ing been convened to consider the prop lem of the extermination of rats. The veterinary inspector to the NeWcastie coIpdration produced the cured skin or A brdwn rat, and said that 50 or 100 such skink would be equal in quality and ef- feet to those belonging to the musquash, which after all was also only rooeht. This gentleman stated that in his opinion for lining or for a coat, rat skins that had been properly treated would oe supefior to many garments ol siiiliial kind for which s2oO or s3oo each were now de ma nded and received.
 ThA inspector said that he had ap- proadhed furrier on the question or having a special industry started that would deal in rat skins, but the actual d;ffidulty seemed to be the lack of steady supply of animals. In his opin- ion. however, the creation of such an in dustry would naturally result in a de- mand for the skins and that demand vculh create an incentive for the destruc- tion bf rats It was stated that the year fly dal lnage to crops and to stores ol grams l and other foodstuffs done by rats anollnted to more than $75,OOO.0O0 year. If solne of this wastage couid' thereioIe' he redeemed by making these pests both l decoratiye and remunerative, the state ' o,1eht eagerly to welcome an industry i that would turn rat skins into fur coats SurelE this sounds a particularly sensi- 1 ble point of argument. I am now iookins i forwArd to the time when we will all 1 turn rat collectors and hand the result ! of a hay or night bag into some clear ! inc Louse for rat skins that will dispose
 of them at a fair profit
 And spsaking of industrial matters, re- ; p,ind4 me that during these days when i Er gid nd is aftemptng 10 reconseiue. nsa
 self after years of war, an effort IS pe- /. inc made in many districts to revive the !, old alhd beautiful lnoustry pi iace I,..,n In Devonshire, Lady Peek of Rousdor 1 has fbrmed a society to encourage the re- ! vivaI of hand made Honiton lace. ane this ddea has been carried out in many other districts of rural England where years ago the making of handmade faces fvas Almost as prevalent if not as com ! n,ercihlly valuable as it was in Belgium and France before the war. At the pres ent time there is scarcely any real lac made lin England, although the most won de rfuj specimens of English-made iace' are chrefuily preserved in many grea families. Honi iton lace-maklng was ti'iouuee' into England by Flemish refugees. abou a century or more ago. It is an odd co incidehce that it was again the arriva of refugees from Antwerp and Brussels Ij and other Belgian cities that has brough about la renaissance of this beautiful ant bdelicate industry. The Queen. l am told is intaresting herself in this revival, an' has recently made purchases of beauti fut srIecimens of lace that have beei
 made bv Englishwomen under the instruc lion oil Belgians in several country towns
 Everybody is prophesying return t enthusiastic lawn tennis playing tni