FALSE FURS AND FAKE TRADE NAMES 47 



"Pointed fox," the fake for "silver fox," is a very expensive fur 

 and almost as good as its prototype; but the white hairs are the 

 badger put on by hand ; and when the badger hairs begin to come 

 out and the silver fox to show wear, the buyer is apt to blame silver 

 fox and to hunt the market for true silver fox ; so here, true names 

 should be enforced. 



Coney is rabbit. Near seal is rabbit. Electric seal is rabbit ; 

 and no rabbit will ever wear like seal ; and the sooner this name is 

 given its honest brand the better. In a few years, when Alaska 

 seal have multiplied to the point of being within reach of buyers of 

 moderate means, the real Alaska seal will be on the market again in 

 volume ; and to have half a dozen varieties of seal on the market 

 will only hurt the true seal. 



Chinchilla has become so scarce a fur that the most of South 

 American countries from which it comes have put on a closed season 

 for several years ; so look out for a chinchilla on the market to-day 

 being nothing more or less than a faked rabbit, which is a very mean 

 fake, indeed, for it will both shed and wear. 



Two or three absolute cheats for which there is no excuse what- 

 ever and should be subject to arrest for misrepresentation are : 



(1) Coon plucked, dyed and sold for beaver, which is preemi- 

 nently the undyed and undyeable fur. 



(2) Marmot, or mountain ground squirrel, which has a tough 

 hide but a fur that always sheds, dyed in stripes for mink. 



(3) Muskrat dyed in stripes for mink. 



As long as the world markets for furs were in London, Germany 

 and Russia, the responsibility rested squarely on the dyers and 

 dressers in those centres ; but now that the world market for furs 

 has come to three centres in America — centres especially for Ameri- 

 can and Canadian furs — honest names over honest goods and a 

 trade standardized fine as wheat or cotton must be the rule. 



And this is the universal desire of the trade, from the great 

 auction corporations like Funstons of St. Louis to the great traders 

 like the Hudson's Bay or Revillon Freres, and the great dyers like 



