Beverly banner. [volume] (Beverly, N.J.) 1877-1964, 1925-03-13
J8s619 s

prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety. Washington, D. CO.
One thousand cats have been killed
and the walls Of Paris gardens are
unstalked and silent under an invit-
Ing moon, according to recent dis
patches. all because of the newest fad
planned for America. Summer dresses
must have bands of white and pearl
gray fur, fashion makers decree, and
the cats Of Paris pay toll.
Man now makes In laboratories
many things he used to search the
world for. but he still must call on
far places for their contributions of
odd customs and queer objects to sat
isfy the faddist.
A medicine chest had certain
thrill when the ingredients came
from bulbs and roots dug in distant
lands. Science, when it began con-
cocting drugs from prosaic gas plant
chemicals, spoiled this pleasure. Col
ors were robbed of romance when
gummy coal tar elbowed brilliant ber-
ries, clays and nut husks out of the
job of serving new tints to jaded eyes.
Fads garner their materials in a
way to make the geographer dizzy.
Today they dip into the heart of the
Congo for monkey fur, tomorrow they
go to Foochow for parasols; in quick
succession they call on France for
Coue, Java for batik work and Spain
for shawls.
There is probably little danger that
the felines will fare as badly as an
other fur-bearing animal whose debut
as fad brought about bad feeling
between the great powers finally
necessitating an international treaty.
Fur manufacturers invested 100000
In popularizing Alaskan seal in Lon
dom The vogue took" with such ire
mendous enthusiasm that the millions
Of seals that raise their young on the
Pribilof islands in the Aleutian chain
were nearly exterminated. Only by
the United States taking complete
control Of the seal islands, paying GER
tain sums to the other nations con-
cerned, has the preservation of the
Alaskan seal been assured. The gov
eminent is marketing the skins again,
but meantime a curious circumstance
has arisen. So great has been the
progress in the art Of dressing fur
that the skin of the less valued Green
land seal, it is said, can now be made
to appear practically as brilliant as
that of it's aristocratic brother.
Fads of All Varieties.
Apparel manufacturers put civiliza-
TONS craving for something new and
something different to work more
productivity than any other masters
of fads. But the field Is wide-there
are fads of food, fads of toys, fads
of game, fads Of sports, fads of furni-
ture and household ornament, fads of
perfumes, fads of music, fads of
smoking. revived fads and fads of
jewelry.
In the latter part of the Eighteenth
century feet of Dutch merchants
off the west coast of South
America. They did good business
with the native traders, taking away
many Spanish doubloons. Soon after
they had returned to Holland a bit
of gold fell off one of the coins, ex-
posing another metal beneath. To
their establishment, they found that
all the doubloons they had received
from the traders were gilded. Bent
on vengeance, the Dutch merchants
returned to South America and
hanged the counterfeiters to conven-
lent trees. The metal beneath the
gold was platinum, and those doub-
looms for which the traders hung
would be worth four times their
weight in gold today.
So far as men know, the worlds
supply Of platinum is sharply limited
at its obscure sources. This fact,
quite as much as its adaptability and
beauty, is the probable reason that
the jewelry trade now takes half the
four tons imported annually into the
United States.
No self-respecting flapper Of 1925
would consider being engaged If
was unaccompanied by
diamond in platinum filigree, although
her mother still wears a gold setting
with pride. Yet the bride-to-be has
little conception of the Juror her in
sistence on platinum has caused in a
South American republic.
Colombia, with Russia pretty well
out of the market. is the leading plati-
mum producer. Coiombians built up
considerable settlements along the
Atrato river, which flows into the