GROWTH OF THE OSTRICH FEATHER TRADE DURING THE PAST TWELVE YEARS IN
THIS COUNTRY.
The manufacturers of America could have been counted on the fingers of
one's hand a dozen years ago. At the present time New York alone can
boast of between forty and fifty. Enterprising men in other cities and
throughout the country are yearly becoming interested and endeavoring
to take hold of this young and profitable business, and we can look to
ostrich feather manufacturing at the present time as one of our staple
industries. The greatest disadvantage manufacturers have had to contend
with was a lack of knowledge of coloring. Our greatest chemists and
aniline manufacturers have worked diligently, contributing largely
to the progress of wool, cotton and silk dyeing, but the amount of
dyestuffs used by the largest feather manufacturers was of such minor
importance that it did not seem profitable for them to investigate;
consequently the art of ostrich feather dyeing progressed very slowly.
Feather dyers a dozen years ago were scarce, and the art (if in those
days it could be called such), was controlled to a great extent by the
French, who, judging by my experience with them, impressed me as being
the most egotistical mortals, and decidedly orthodox in their methods,
absolutely refusing to take hold of anything new that might prove
beneficial to them, and so jealously did they guard their (as they
considered them) secrets, that during working hours every one of them
even their employers, were denied admittance to the dye-house.
Millions of dollars are at the present time invested in ostrich
feathers in all conditions, in the cases of raw stock in the
ware-houses and in the flourishing ostrich farms now in existence;
and a milliner's window without its rich clusters of ostrich tips and
plumes would to-day be a rare sight. They are used not only in the
trimming of hats and bonnets, but fashion demands their use in trimming
dresses, wraps, etc., and to a large extent they are being used in
making handsome and very valuable fans. It is to be regretted that
London and Paris markets are supplied with the choicest of the goods
that come from the Cape, and America gets the leavings, although our
market consumes equally as many, if not more. It is only a matter of
time, however, when manufacturers will be importing raw stock direct.