mistresses.

Before the leather can be cut and sewed into the handsome articles
that are sold over the counters of the retail dry goods houses and
furnishing goods stores as gloves, the skins from which they are made
must be specially prepared. The two important points in this
preparation are the removal of the albuminous portion of the skin and
the retention and chemical changing of the gelatinous part, so that
it shall become pliable, elastic, and resist decomposition.

There are various methods which produce these results, and they are
technically known as tanning, alum dressing, oil dressing, and Indian
dressing. Each method produces a leather distinctly different from
that produced by any other. All the preliminary processes of these
various methods are alike in principle, although they vary somewhat in
detail. The object in all is to remove the hair from the hide,
separate the fleshy and albuminous matter, and leave only the
gelatinous, which alone is susceptible to the chemical action and can
be transformed by it into leather.

When the skins are received in the factory they are thoroughly soaked
to open out the texture and prepare them for the removal of the hair.
Then the skins are placed in vats of lime water, where, for two or
three weeks, the lime works into the flesh and albuminous matter, and
loosens the hair. The skins having thus been properly softened, the
dirty but picturesque operation of beaming for removing the hair
ensues. Before each beamer, as the workman is called, is an inclined
semi-cylindrical slab of wood covered with zinc. The skin is first
spread upon this, and the broad, curved beam of the knife glides
across it from end to end, scraping and removing all the loosened
hair, the scarf skin, and the small portion of animal matter adhering
to the skin.

After the unhairing, kid skins must be fermented in a drench of bran,
whose purpose is to completely decompose the remaining albuminous
matter, and also to remove all traces of the lime. The operation is
extremely delicate. While the gelatine is not so sensitive to the
decomposing action of the ferment, nevertheless great care is required
to prevent overfermentation and resulting damage to the texture of the
skin. It is impossible for even the most experienced to tell just how
long the fermentation should continue. Sometimes the work is done in
two or three hours, and sometimes it requires as many days. Incessant
watchfulness both day and