are secured by rubbing the grain side over with
a size, which imparts a gloss. The experience of Gloversville
manufacturers with "buck" gloves has enabled them to impart a special
finish to a skin which is very popular under the title of "Mocha."
This is the same as suede finish, which is produced in other countries
by shaving off the grain side of the skin at an early stage of its
progress. The Gloversville method is much better, however, and has
more perfect results. Here the grain is removed, and the velvet finish
secured by buffing the surface on an emery wheel. The surface of the
leather is cut away in minute particles by this process, and the
result is an exceedingly even and velvety texture, superior to that
obtained by other methods. European manufacturers do not approach the
Americans in this respect.

The leathermaker leaves off and the glovemaker begins.

A marble slab lies before the cutter on a table, and every particle of
dirt or other inequality is removed before "doling." The skin is
spread, flesh side up, upon the slab, and the cutter goes over it with
a broad bladed chisel or knife, shaving down inequalities and removing
all the porous portions. The dexterity with which this is done makes
the operation appear extremely simple, but any but a skilled and
experienced operative would almost surely cut through the skin. The
most delicate part of the glovemaker's art, in which exact judgment is
required, comes in preparing the "tranks" or slips, from which the
separate gloves are cut. The trank must be so cut as to have just
enough leather to make a glove of a certain size and number. The
operation would be easy enough if the material were hard and stiff,
and if the elasticity were uniform, but this is rarely the case.

To accomplish this operation the trank must be firmly stretched in one
direction, and while so stretched a "redell" stamps the proper
dimensions in the other direction, to which the leather is trimmed.
Upon the nicety with which this operation is performed depends the
question of whether the finished glove will stretch evenly or too much
or too little in one direction or the other. After this the trank or
outline of the glove must be cut out. In olden times of glove
manufacture an outline was traced upon the leather and the pattern was
cut with shears. Modern invention has produced dies and presses which
are universally used. The steel die has the outline of a double glove,
including the o