Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1880 — The Costliest of Furs. [ARTICLE]

The Costliest of Furs.

The skin of mustela zibelina, known as the Russian sable, is the most expensive fur sold. The zebelina is of the weasel family, and is about the size of the German martsn. It takes four or five skins to make an ordinary muff. The best and darkest of these little animals are found in Russian Lapland, Yakootsk and Yenessi. Very few of these skms ever leave Russia, where they are almost monopolized by the imperial family and the nobility. A muff and boa of “crown” Russian sable will bring from S3OO to $550. The exclusive beauty of this fur is its rich colors, a deep brown and a jet black, with points of hair tipped with white; the hairs are so fixed in the skin that they can be brushed either way and will lie nicely. The Russian sable is never made up into garments in any country except China and Russia. This fur is too costly to be ranked as fashionable, in the general significance of the term fashion. Only the wealthy can afford to purchase such cosily raiment, and that article of dress pronounced fashionable must be within the reach of the majority of society dressers. Russian ■able is an exclusive fur. Jay Gould controls fourteen railways sod 5,000 miles of track in the West.