Evening star., 1925-11-17
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

All the fur-bearing animals in the
world can be seen on F street during
the course of any noon hour.
The other day I saw a fox, several
raccoonS, innumerable opossums,
many seals, hundreds of squirrels, a
leopard, a wolf, a whole tribe of
muskrats, some beavers and assorted
animals of unknown lineage.
The strange thing was that every
animal went on two legs, not four,
was laughing and talking away for
dear life.
And then saw that what had mis-
taken for animals were women and
girls wearing the pelts of these va
rious creatures around the collars of
their coats, around the cuffs, or strips
Of these dead animals fur in bands,
or around their necks.
l stood for more than an hour
watching this spectacle, and I give
you my word that I could have count
ed on the fingers of my two hands
the women who did not have their
coats adorned with animal fur.
There were green coats. and blue
coats, and coats of bunny brown"
there We're yellow coats. and red coats,
and coats of "gracklehead blue
and every coat, no matter what It's
color, had a collar of fur or cuffs of
the same.
Those that had no fur around their
collars. or at their wrists, contented
themselves with wearing, cast around
their tender necks, a strip of some
sort of furry material.
SO aSsiduously have the fur people
worked to supply this demand of our
fair women for this sort of personal
adornment that no self-respecting
animal, if he could turn out there in
his stripped, quivering flesh, would
recognize his own furry coat
1t would be a wise fox, indeed. that
would know his own skin today.
X X \,
Fear not, fair readers, 1 am not go
ing to deliver q lecture. l have my
own ideas upon the suhject-but
what's the use? 1t is beyond the
power of any writer to change one
jot the flow of fashion.
l used to laugh with scorn at what
/ called the excuse of theatrical man.
ayers in feeding the dear public
salacious plays. Give the people
what they want-bunk!" I snorted.
l snort no longer. Along with
many others, ! have come to the con-
clusion that the world of men and
women gets more or less what it
wants. in the long run; that so long
as the people stand in huge lines to
sec some nasty play, perhaps ii is
best that the play is there for them
to see.
We make no excuse for them-we
simply accept facts. There was q
time. for instance, when America
would no more have tolerated dis
plays of practically nude women on
the stage than they would coun-
tenance the same undress on the pub
lie streets.
Yet these things are. The theaters
are full, and F street on any bright
afternoon is filled with more animal
fur than one would be able to find
in hundreds of square miles of forest.
When those of US who love our
furred brethren of forest and field
stop to realize that this same fur
mania is being repeated in every town
and city in the United States, from
the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean,
from the Great Lakes to the toe OF
booming Florida, our hearts become
indignant-if we are inclined to be
touched by such things we even may
find our eyes moist.
The tragic, awful joke Of 1t all is
| that women are kind. They are much
kinder than men. There is not one
of these fur wearerS-with her piece
of fur proudly around her neck-who
would not revolt in horror at the real
animals dying in the traps.
What you don't know won't hurt
you" said some old cynic. who knew
his men and women.
The explanation is there.