26 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



for twenty years. "Summer furs are only a fad in America and can 

 never last. In certain fashion centres of Europe, they are neces- 

 sary, because the houses have no furnaces and are mostly brick 

 and stone and owing to close proximity to the sea are chill and damp. 

 During the War, tens of thousands of our people went across and 

 saw fashionable European women beautifully gowned in becoming 

 furs ; and they came back to America and called for the same fash- 

 ions here. Besides furs are the most becoming frame any human face 

 — old or young — can wear. There is a fur for every face. There 

 is a fur for every color of complexion and hair. There is no face 

 they do not improve and soften. They set out the color of a young 

 face and they soften the harshness of an old face. They give that 

 film of beauty to a face, which an artist knows how to impart to 

 a portrait. Why was Gainsborough the pet of society as an artist ? 

 Because he made the portrait of every sitter a beauty. 



"It is the same with furs. They impart the most insidious 

 flattery to every human face. But there is a point of saturation 

 even to flattery, where it loses its potency from being applied too 

 strongly. We are reaching that point in furs. No matter how 

 much an artist flatters in a portrait, no woman has her portrait 

 painted by the same artist more than once. A woman buys a good 

 fur coat ; but she doesn't buy it every year. The same with a sable 

 or chinchilla neck piece. She gets one ; but she doesn't get two. 

 Now Americans have had a lot of money during these War years. 

 A lot of people have had a lot of money, who never had money to 

 spend before ; and they have been spending it ; but they can't 

 spend the same money twice ; and we as fur merchants don't look 

 to see the mad demand for furs keep up to its present level. 



"Besides fashion changes every year. One year the whim is 

 mink and kolinsky. The next year, it is fox, silver fox, cross fox, 

 every kind of fox and imitation of fox. We are in the midst of the 

 fox craze now. Or else the dyeing of muskrat in imitation of Alaska 

 seal becomes so fine that our own fur dressers on a bet of an Alaska 

 seal coat if they were right could not distinguish the 'Hudson seal ' 



