INGENUITY AND LUXURY 



American kids, chamois, and reindeer. Mexico, Cen- 

 tral and South America furnish most of the deer-skins, 

 although a large supply still comes from the woods of 

 North America. Most of these skins are brought to 

 the United States as raw hides, and are tanned in 

 American tanneries. 



Just after the close of the Civil War gloves made 

 of "vat-liquor-dressed" antelope-skins became popu- 

 lar. But, as we have seen, about this time the antelope 

 began to disappear, and it was no longer possible to 

 supply the demand for this kind of glove. Fortunately 

 at this time two bales of skins of an unknown variety 

 arrived in America, coming from Arabia with a consign- 

 ment of Mocha coffee. When tanned these proved to be 

 a good substitute for antelope-skin gloves, and an effort 

 was made to discover their source. They proved to 

 be from a breed of sheep raised on the Arabian side of 

 the Red Sea, and from their association with the con- 

 signment of coffee with which they first arrived, they 

 came to be known as "Mocha" skins. Large impor- 

 tations followed, and at present this kind of skin is 

 used extensively in the manufacture of fine gloves. 



As referred to a moment ago, there have been revo- 

 lutionary changes in methods of tanning hides during 

 the last twenty-five years. At first, the Indian method 

 of tanning was employed almost exclusively. In this 

 the brain of the deer was used, producing a soft, tough, 

 pliable leather; but as this material was hard to obtain 

 in sufficient quantities, the brains of sheep and hogs 

 were substituted. Curiously enough, neither of these 

 gave satisfactory results, although the reason for this 



