FALSE FURS AND FAKE TRADE NAMES 43 



silver fox and beautifully striped with black and brown as the backbone 

 mark of some silver fox, or the natural stripes of marten. The 

 public did not look twice and would not have coon under its true 

 name; so coon came on the market as a seller as "Alaska bear" 

 and "silver bear" — and sold at three times the price to buyers, 

 who were greedy for its beauty. 



Then there was the time immemorial prejudice against skunk. 

 There was also the fact that up to very recent years, skunk was not 

 completely deodorized. Get caught in a rain and then come into 

 a hot atmosphere like a crowded church, and the odor of a skunk 

 with his flag up filled the air. Skunk as skunk simply wouldn't 

 sell; so skunk became "Alaska sable," or "black sable" — though 

 "a rose by any other name smells as sweet" — and the salesman could 

 conscientiously assure you it would wear better than Russian sable 

 and had a stronger, tougher pelt as well as deeper pelage. It was 

 no time till under the new name, good skunk was selling high as 

 indifferent sable. 



Then it is only within the last few years that the perfecting of the 

 dyeing of muskrat has produced an effect as beautiful as Alaska seal 

 and much more durable. The most of people remember muskrat 

 as "rat" with a long stringy tail and fur that dulled and faded and 

 shed hairs as it grew older. That muskrat plucked or evened of its 

 long over-hairs would neither shed, nor fade — the public did not 

 know. Rat was rat worth about 10^ a skin ; and the public would 

 not pay $200 and $300 for a first class coat called " rat," where they 

 would pay $300 to #400 for a coat called "Hudson seal." 



Then, do you think any ambitious girl was going to pay #20 to 

 #35 for a neck piece called "torn cat" ? Not she ! Tom cat to her 

 was worth about the 50^ she would pay some villager to shoot an 

 obnoxious bird killer; but "genet" — that was different. It might 

 be some kind of sable, or strange beast a relative of the sable. Any- 

 way, other people didn't know what "genet" was ; so she paid $20 

 to $35 for it. 



As for ermine, with black dots all over it, it was the miniver in 



