The New York herald., 1920-11-07
BY ANNE RITTENHOUsE.


even the animals are leagued
- against him. His beef costs a
pretty penny, her furs cost the last
cent in the bank.
Do you remember a vivid and ex
travagant English story during the
last year of the war in which a new
terror was abroad in Great Britain. in
which the animals of every species
were mysteriously banded together to
exterminate man who had killed them
and misused them for centuries? After
reading it one had the horrible feeling
that some day this thing might hap
pen.
The average person who goes to buy
piece of peltry to keep the body
warm or to be a first aid to vanity
would undoubtedly think the story
true if it could be satisfactorily
reasoned out that the animals could
have had a part in the making Of
prices.
Every kind of excuse is given for
these figures. Labor, always labor, is
the burden of the cry. If man must
get for this work what he demands in
money, then woman must pay for her
caprices.
Peltry is really caprice. 1t is not
a necessity. 1t is a nom Essential. The
woman on a moderate income in other
countries does not look above cloth for
a fabric to keep her warm, but the
American is so accustomed to fur that
she has come to believe that it is the
sartorial salt of the earth.
Neither the purse nor the fur can
be too poor to supply the need. A
woman does not appear TO think that
the costume is quite and utterly spoilt
by sordid bit of pelt dangling from
the neck. IT Is fur Therefore the
wearer is in the procession
When the furriers began to delve
into the substrata of hides and bring
out pieces that could be turned into
costly addenda to the costume, sordtd
fur became less easy to purchase. All
became gold to the fur workers, who
knew how to put a glitter on it.
The price of labor was the thing, not
the value of the skin, and when 1t be-
came an expensive caprice to own fur
women no lOHBtT ulSStilDltut Ahty save
up trying to disguise the name of squir-
rel under that of chinchila.
No furrier needs to rechristen an
animal In order to get the price his
work demands. That day Of mystery is
gone. Now cat Is cat and pigs are
pigs. IL they happen to be sheep. as
many new pelts are, the name is glee-
fully attached to the coat that costs
nearly thousand dollars.
The Glory of sbeepskin.
sheep" you say in high pitched
voice, ITO cost that price when they are
killed TO be eaten. and the West is full
of them"
"Ah, but the men who tend and kill
them and transport them to the fur
riers, who take charge of them before
we get them in the finished state must
be paid over 60 per cent. Of their old
wages. so sheepskin Is a valuable COM
modify and must be paid for like squir-
rel" Is the answer.
"But squirrel" argues the ultimate
consumer. surely is not expensive. A
few years ago one would not own to
wearing 1t after the nursery had been
discarded"
Squirrel" echoes the furrier. his voice
getting more excited, "are hard to catch.
and negro boys do not shoot them down
In an autumn day and string them
for selling. These animals are as diff
ncult TO manage as Russian sable and
ermine. therefore this little box coat
will cost you eight hundred dollars.
please"
And raccoon." weakly pursues the
consumer. surely the Southern woods
are full of that delectable animal. They
are as cheap as sweet potatoes"
'Cnear. wbe~>2" asks the seller OF
skins. 'Raccoons are raised on farms
by experts and their price Is as high
as a plumbers or a paperhanRer's a day.
BY the way, Is there anything cheap
about sweet potatoes?" is the final SEN
tence TO the argument
The ultimate consumer. who bears the
worlds burdens to-day. remembers she
paid az cents for one sweet potato at a
Philadelphia restaurant last week
Names Not Now Changed.
The mystifying fact in the whole sit
uation is that every woman seems to be
armed with enough money TO buy furs
plentifully She looks like a cave wom-
an when she goes abroad.
She does not stop at paying any price
n one listens to the furriers. The an
nouncement made by a French house
that the day after the armlstice half a