Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 212, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1910 — RAISE PLUME PRICES [ARTICLE]

RAISE PLUME PRICES

Advance of 50 Per Cent, in Cost of Feathers. Ornament Becoming More Fashionable *nd Last Three Years Have Seen Greater Demand Both Abroad and In America. London. —Ostrich plumes,—always an expensive Item of woman’s millinery—are generally growing more and more valuable. During the last three years the price of these feathers has risen 50 per cent., was the information imparted by a West end merchant A feather that a few years ago cost only SSO Is now worth $75. “The ostrich plume L the most fashionable feather this year,” he said, and very few other varieties are worn. More ostrich feathers are being sold than ever before. *We are making one form of feather nearly two yards long in some cases, to be arranged round the crown of a large hat Other large plumes are sold In sets of three. The most fashionable colors are shaded grays, chinchilla, which will be worn on chinchilla toques in the winter, and blues, from royal to navy.— But the leathers now sent over are of a much better quality than formerly. There has been a great increase in the supply from ostrich farms. With the demand for feathers, ostriches, too, have become more expensive, and the farmer now has to pay $5,000 a pair for birds. “As for the reason of their popularity and increased cost, ostrich plumes have had a great vogue this summer in Paris. American women, too have helped to make plumes more expensive. At the April auction one-half of the whole quantity put up for sale was purc ased by American buyers to take over to the United States.” Hand-painted hats are also becoming something of a fad with the ’ smart B€ ,'" They are made in sofe white felt, with beautiful flowers and ‘ foliage feathers or any other kinds of ornamentation painted on them. Oil colors are used, and, according to Heath’s, th a Oxford street hatters, the headgear 8 to all intents and purposes indeBtructlble. •• EVe one ’” the mana ger said, which is covered with great red decorativ- poppies, and they are painted f.w r * &lis . Ucall y that they really look like freshly gathered flowers. “An ordinary flower trimmed hat can only be worn a short time by the welldressed woman, because the decorations get knocked about or are ruined by the weather, but the painted hat will last for the whole season, and more, with proper care.” The married man who Ms wont to tremble at the tremendous collection of hat and bonnet boxes which his wife insists on taking with her when on a holiday tour regards the painted hat as a godsend, for it can be folded up and packed away like his own Panama, and, moreover, it is calculated to cut down the millinery bills by half or more. If the wife’s taste does not lean to flowers or feathers, she can have lizard, snake or chanticleer designs painted on the felt, or even goldfish swimming in a shadv pooL ,

Glaciers Increase Speed. Juneau, Alaska.-The great glacier In Rainy Hollow, near Haines, Alaska Is moving at the prodigious rate of 12 feet a day. Huge masses of ice are falling with thunderous noise over the precipice, at whose brink the glacier discharges. This is a season of glacier advance all over Alaska. Never before has such rapid extension of the ice rivers been known. The theory is that avalanches caused by earthquakes are responsible for the increased flow. The National Geographical society has an expedition in Alaska studying the phenomenon.