WHE

THEN the world war drafted men by millions from farm and factory the habits and occupations of whole communities were twisted topsy turvy. New trades were born. Old arts and practices were revived.

Esau, the mighty hunter was reborn and came again into the birthright surrendered so long ago to Jacob.

Into the forests went thousands of hunters and trappers after skins to keep warm the men exposed to the bitter cold and sweeping storms of Northern Europe; the aviators flying the icy upper levels of the air.

That was the beginning of the great hunt, the most determined, the costliest and the most successful fur forage this old earth. has ever known.

Then women took the up demand for fur where the fighting men laid it down. Not since man emerged into civilization has there been such a hunting and trapping as that which woman inspires today.

Prices for fur have soared beyond all precedent and previous imagining.

Esau brings the furry pelts of his kill into the highest market of all time. Modistes and milliners of world-wide authority have set the fashion in furs.

Dressmakers and furriers have carried the fashion into every community and stratum of civilized society.

The fur fashion has also been set for men. Custom tailors and makers of ready-to-wear have snapped up all the suitable fur they can get for fur collars and linings of overcoats and reefers. Fur caps and gloves are in unprecedented demand.

The return of Esau has driven sky-high all fabrics into which fur enters.

Beaver, Nutria, Hare, Rabbit -soft, fine furs always in high favor with Madame, are precisely those furs on which the maker of fine hats must also rely, because of their supreme felting quality.

So your next derby or soft hat must pay a considerable tribute to Madame's love of fine furs.

"Fur in my hat!" you say. "What do you mean?"

Exactly that! Every good hat worn by men is felted jur. Examine your Stetson under a microscope and you will see neither warp nor woof, but a fine, close-meshed material, densdurable than er, softer, more any product of loom and needle.

The felting process. is one of the most interesting and least known of all industrial fabrications. Every filament of fur consists of a central shaft with tiny barbs extending along it, opening toward the tip of the filament. In the making of Stetson Hats, the furs best adapted are the Beaver, Nutria, Hare, Scotch Rabbit and pelts of like fineness.

The fur is cut from the hide by knives revolving like the blades of a lawn mower.

The fur fibres are weighed, so many ounces to a hat and the filaments are now ready for felting.

They are fed into a machine which blows them under high pressure into a chamber containing a finely perforated copper cone about three feet high..

Through the perforations comes sufficient suction to catch the filaments after they have been whirled madly around the chamber by the blast, their barbs

having meanwhile meshed and locked as they whirled.

A skilled worker opens the chamber and finds adhering to the cone a film so tender that a careless touch will break it. He removes the cone with the fur felt upon it, carefully wraps it in flannel, places a metal cover over it and plunges it into hot water to shrink and compact the felt.

Then follows the coloring with dyes of the highest quality, the shaping and trimming, the stiffening with India shellac, the finishing touches of finest leather and silk-all of which have climbed to record-breaking costs since the

Every Stetson is hand finished, just as every Stetson shape has been designed by artists who have studied heads, the temperaments, the facial conformations, the callings and the preferences of mankind.

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Fur in a hat! Nothing but the best fur if it's a Stetson. And the quality is maintained, even though fur prices have increased to ten times the pre-war level, and Beaver and other fine furs used in a Stetson are obtained only after arduous search and high bidding.

Esau, the skilful hunter, has returned. He sets his snares and his price. Fair woman clamors for the choice of his spoils and you Messieurs, must pay your share of the toll!

Now if you want to know more about the inside facts of Hat Quality, The John B. Stetson Company, Philadelphia, will be glad to send you the little book, "The Making of a Stetson Hat"-showing how these fine Stetsons are made of the furry pelts brought home by Esau, the hunter.