36 FUR FACTS 



more beer and not show it than any other tradesman with the pos- 

 sible exception of the printer. They were always ready to show their 

 prowess if the time was ripe and funds were available. 



It so happened that the proprietor of a trunk making establish- 

 ment was called away from his place of business for a day to another 

 city and the night before he left he appointed one of the workmen 

 to take charge of the shop the following day, and gave him very 

 explicit instructions about a certain order that was to be filled. 

 Everything went along well the next day until one of the men sug- 

 gested getting a pot of ale which was forbidden during working 

 hours when the proprietor was around. A vote was taken and it 

 was decided that a pot of ale would not be out of order, and one pot 

 called for another, until after a short time there was more thought 

 of ale than there was of work. A dispute arose and a scuffle followed 

 with the result that a large barrel of water was knocked over and 

 drenched a pile of seal skins that were lying on the floor. This 

 accident tended to sober some of the more serious minded of the 

 workmen, and they were at a loss to know what to do with the wet 

 seal skins. If the boss came back and found the skins wet they 

 would probably all lose their jobs, and so they decided the best 

 thing to do was to dry them quickly before anyone could discover the 

 accident. They built a roaring fire in the stove and draped the wet 

 seal skins around it and waited for them to dry. In due time they 

 dried out alright, but when the workmen came to handle them they 

 found that the hair came out and this put them in a worse plight than 

 before. They made another discovery, however, that it was only 

 the top hair that came out, and that after the top hair was loosened 

 and pulled out, there was a soft velvety underfur strong and beauti- 

 ful and much better looking that the seal skin had been before. One 

 genius in the crowd suggested that they pull out all of the top hairs 

 and line the trunks with the skins having only the underfur, and as 

 there was hardly anything else to do under the circumstances, they 

 went ahead with the balance of the skins, wetting them and hanging 

 them by the hot stove, pulling out the top hair, and lining the trunks. 

 The trunks were finished in time and were sent off to the customer. 

 When the proprietor returned he congratulated the men, not knowing 

 of course anything about the accident and the fact that the cases 

 had been sent to the customer lined with plucked seal. 



Some time afterwards the customer who had received the trunks 

 placed another order and this order was lined with the old fashioned 

 seal. The customer sent them back and refused to take them and 



