Evening star., 1936-12-27
Receive Rich Products
Of Search Amid Perils
Rare and Costly Products of Wild Life Pro-
vide Most Highly Priced Garments for
Use of Those Able to Pay.


United States Biological Survey re-
ports that chinchillas may be raised
successful on a considerable scale in
semi -domestic2tion in the United
States in such climates as obtain in
the mountainous sections Of Mary.
land, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New
York. A western mining engineer
named Chapman. who lived in South
America for many years, imported
breeding chinchilla rabits and now
has built his herd up to several hum
dred animals. Several ranches in
Utah and Idaho, as well as one fan
cier in New York, are now raising
these rare and costly rabits. Breed
ing pair sell for $4,000 to $1,000. The
pelts of mature chinchillas are worth
at least $3.50 apiece 1t looks as
though Washington multimillionaires
of the coming decades will again be
able to gladen their spouses with
chinchilla coats as Christmas gifts.
THE lure of a real fur coat is a
bait which the average Govern
ment girl-if her salary permits, even
thought but feebly-apparently finds
irresistible. The Washington furriers
extend every possible courtesy to these
prospective purchasers. Your credit
Is good with the dealers if you are
employed permanently on a civil serv-
ice status by your Uncle Sammy; that
Is, OF course, if your salary Is sufi.
cient to feed and lodge you and pro-
vide a surplus which in time will
liquidate your fur-coat obligations.
What tales those fur coats that
daily parade Connecticut avenue and
fashionable F streets could tell If
they even momentarily had the gift
OF speech-stories of sacrifice on the
part OF their present owners to pos
sess them; narratives of peril and
privation. daring and even death on
the part of the hardy hunters and
tireless trappers who slew or shared
the wild animals which formerly kept
warm in paralyzing billiards under the
protection of those selfsame furs.
their natural skin-tight birthday
suits.
Even as you, Miss or Missus or Mis-
ter Washingtonian, read this piece in
the snug contentment of your living
room with ruddy, spark-spitting logs
ablaze in the hearth, camel caravans
are crossing the expansive Cobb Des-
ert in Mongolia on the long-lap 1,-000-
mile trek to the sea coast with ship
ments Of valuable furs en- route to
the United States, possibly even to
the Nations Capital. That time
consuming trip from Urga, capital
OF Mongolia, to Kalgan, railroad ter
minal. continues to Pekin, China,
with final delivery to New York fur
rierS. who convert the skins into val
liable garments for the Washington
trade.
BY Summer, in Manchuria and ST.
IBERIA, boats and wagon trains trans
port furs to Harbin and vladivostok,
whence they are shipped to the Oc-
cident. Heavy snowfall in Winter
does not even deter delivery; dog
teams and pony sleds then being mo-
bilized for fur-carrying service. In
Tibet. Turkestan and Afghanistan
camel and donkey caravans and
trains. drawn by ponderous oxen, con-
vey precious furs in bales from the
mountain-encircled and desert-bor.
dered interiors to the seaports.
London and Leipzig are the ulti-
mate markets for the fur consign-
ments from Scandinavian countries.
An annual sale Of furs from Green.
land is an important merchandising
event on the Copenhagen calendar,
7 ANKY-LIMBED, long-striding Ne
groid porters pack huge burdens
Of furs on their heads from Aus
tralia's darkest jungleland to the
coast, the while other shipments
rumble and jolt to market in bullock
carts. Those furs come to roost on
the heads Of Government clerks and
executives and Washington business
men in the guise-or disguise-of
jaunty Fall and Winter hats of felt.
Other fur from the backs Of Aus
tralian rabbits nits along the main
avenues Of Samland on the shoulders
of feminine ambulators who would
have you believe that the coats which
they wear are pure sealskin. Some
Washington women, although they
probably do not know it, are warm
and comfortable in garments made
from the pelts Of foxes and 'possum
that formerly ducked, dodsed and
detoured through the Australian bush
country.
In that wind-swept Winterland Of
Canada patrolled by the Northwest
"Mounties," remote fur-trading posts
are still extant. Their annual catches
Of fur are marketed by dogsled dur.
ing snowtime, the on-trspping sea.
son. That q the sole period whsn