People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 May 1893 — FACTS ABOUT FURS. [ARTICLE]

FACTS ABOUT FURS.

millions oX Squirrel TaUs Used—Dyed Rabbit Skins. A good deal of uncertainty seems to prevail as to the likely supply of sealskins, hut a recent feature in the fur trade is a liberal resort to the use of tails of animals, which at one time were regarded as being of very secondrate importance. The most urgent demand for tails would appear to be in the instance of ermine. But the point only, being jet black, is inserted, after the well-known fact of their introduction, at intervals—in reality, the ermine trimmings of the sovereign and royal family not actually consisting of the tail of the ermine, but of the paws of the black Astakhan lamb or other suitable black fur, according to the Warehouseman and Draper’s Trade Journal. Squirrel tails are however, largely used, and one million or two million of these find their way annually into the market, as well as martens’ tails, which really make a beautiful fur. The musquash tail is also a large article of commerce, the musquash skin itself being perhaps the best natural low-priced fur that finds its way into our markets, and far superior in point of wear to the dyed rabbit skins that are sold in black and brown lustered goods familiar in the trade.