32 



Osprey and Horsehair. 



To make up the tale of workpeople, the trade now propose 

 to include in the list of those whose employment will be gone, 

 the men who handle the goods in the docks, and the assistants 

 in the feather departments of drapers' shops. Perhaps there 

 should also be included the purveyors of the horsehair that comes 

 over as top-dressing for smuggled bird-skins (See page G3.) On 

 the other hand might be urged the increased work afforded, not 

 only to the young ladies in the artificial-flower side of retail 

 businesses, but the workers in all those factories (in the air) 

 which the trade not long ago swore were engaged in the manu- 

 facture of artificial ospreys. If, as a witness for the trade 

 stated to the Committee on July 8th, 1908, " ospreys " can be 

 made so perfectly from horsehair that no one but an expert can 

 tell the difference, by all means let cases of horsehair be 

 imported, without the underlying strata of bird-skins and Egret 

 plumes ! 



