3 o THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



never can be scarce. They hide in the earth and multiply almost 

 as prolific as rats, and come to the market in millions. Why is a 

 moleskin wrap costly as a tiara of jewels, or a good moleskin neck 

 piece in the same class as the necklace it conceals ? 



Consider for a moment ! The little mole burrow has been 

 turned up by a boy plowing. He succeeds in killing and skinning 

 the mole, pickling the skin and sending it in good condition to the 

 fur buyer. It now has to be fleshed and cleaned — that is, tiny par- 

 ticles of fat or flesh adhering to the inside of the skin must be scraped 

 off. The mole skin is fragile as oiled paper, especially at this stage, 

 when it has not been softened ; and whether the fleshing be done by 

 hand with the smoothest and bluntest of bone scrapers such as the 

 Indians use, or a knife such as professional skin dressers use, one 

 false strike, one careless look away from the job may ruin a skin. 



This is all hand work and it takes 400 to 600 skins to make a lady's 

 evening wrap. The skin is next cleaned — a process that will be 

 described further on. The skin side must now be dipped to dye the 

 edges where the seams meet; otherwise a raw pelt would show up 

 at each of the 1600 seams in the coat. They call this "topping." 

 Now each mole skin must be cut even at the edges to be sewed into 

 squares — another 1600 hand operations. The sewing comes — 

 another 1600 hand operations. The hand operations now total, 

 400 skinnings and picklings, 400 fleshings, 1600 tippings with dye, 

 1600 cuttings of the edges, 1600 seams sewed, — in all 5600 hand 

 operations. No lapidarist polishing lapis lazuli could do more. But 

 the dresser has not finished with his mole skins yet. They must 

 be dampened and fitted to curved models to give the skin a circular 

 shape for the human figure — all this before the manufacturer has 

 yet touched it for a coat. 



One sometimes sees a jeweller caress jewels almost lovingly. 

 Could the fair wearer of furs know what they have cost in human 

 effort, she would caress them just as lovingly and keep them just 

 as carefully, if not in a glass case then in cedar boxes, or cold storage, 

 moth proof, heat proof and damp proof. 



