CHAPTER III 

 THINGS EVERY WOMAN, WHO BUYS FURS, SHOULD KNOW 



America is to-day literally fur frenzied. 



Newly rich, post-graduate rich and the new poor, impoverished 

 by the High Cost of Living, while professional remuneration has 

 stayed at pre- War levels, — every class and layer of the social 

 world has caught the fad and affects furs. 



For three years now, summer furs have been the fashion in every 

 part of America, not only neck pieces but hat trimmings and edg- 

 ings for elaborate gowns ; and the fashion shows not a sign of 

 abating. Those who cannot afford real silver fox, or sable at #1000 

 per, buy white fox dyed in imitation of silver fox, or Chinese goat 

 dyed in imitation of no fox that ever was on land or sea — and are 

 happy ; and swell the swelling chorus for furs, more furs, and yet 

 more furs. 



"Of all the accursed follies of fashion," declared a great Canadian 

 fur authority to me, "this whim for summer furs is the silliest and 

 the most destructive of wild life. I wish every time you have the 

 chance, you would hit the fashion on the head as you would hit a 

 rattlesnake. If it lasts for ten years, there will not be left a fur- 

 bearing animal in its natural state. Fox and sable and mink will 

 be extinct as the buffalo, to be found only on fur farms and govern- 

 ment preserves. Whole tribes of Indians will die out for lack of 

 hunting ground ; and the wild game life of America will have passed 

 forever." 



"Extinction of furs ! Fiddlesticks !" declared another great fur 

 trader, who has been buyer for one of the largest firms in the world 



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