Chapter LIII: Rabbit Down

The transformation of rabbit skins into felt hats is one of the most interesting of the many wonderful metamorphoses brought about by the manufacturer. Of a long series of acts and processes by which this transformation is effected, one of the earliest is the removal by the “fur-puller” of the long, coarse hairs from the rabbit skin. What is left after these have been removed is the short close fur which, after it has been separated from the pelt, is alone used by the felt-hatmaker. The hair plucked off by the fur-puller is the RABBIT DOWN, a waste product regarded as of little value, sold for 1½d. to 3d. a pound, to be used principally for stuffing cheap bedding, and largely bought by mining companies for the miners to lie upon while working the coal seams.

The fur-puller plucks off these long hairs by means of a special knife pressed against the thumb, which is protected by an indiarubber shield. She sits on a low bench before a wooden trough, the rabbit skin stretched over her knee, held fast at one end between knee and trough, and grasped at the other by the left hand. A pile of skins is on the floor on either side of her, and very rapidly she “pulls” each skin in succession, passing it over from the “unpulled” to the “pulled” heap. The wooden trough is for the reception of the “down,” and receives the greater part of it, but it is so light that it flies everywhere, covering the worker’s hair and clothing till all is one uniform grey; it floats in the air and rests thickly on every ledge and beam, the floor too, being carpeted with it.

No description can convey any adequate impression of a fur-pulling room, whether it be occupied by 1 or 50 workers--the universal grey, the haze of floating hair, the sickly, disgusting odour of uncleaned skins--it must be seen, felt, and smelt, to be understood.

Not infrequently the pulling-room in a factory or workshop is used at the same time as a drying-room and store-room, and the skins hang in rows suspended from the ceiling, adding an almost overpowering stench to the other unpleasant conditions. The rabbit skins, when delivered to the worker, have usually undergone no preparatory or purifying process, but are as they were received from the dealer. Before they can be pulled, they must be “opened,” that is, smoothed out and dragged into shape, scraps of fat or clotted blood cut and scraped off, and the skin turned fur side out and laid flat. In some of the larger works, women are employed as “openers” only, and from them the skins pass to the “pullers.” In most cases the pullers open the skins themselves. Fur-pullers and openers belong to the poorest class of women. The dirty and repulsive nature of the work, and the low scale of wages, attract none but those who, for one reason or another, can get no other employment. The trade is dying out, very few young women and girls are found in it, and none will learn it; they go rather to the jam or fancy box factories, or any of the numerous unskilled occupations open now to girls. The fur-pullers are chiefly old women, or middle-aged women in distress. The wages vary according to the class of skins, and according to whether the puller works at home or in the workshop, and whether she opens the skins herself; they range from 1s. to 2s. the “turn” of 60 skins. The knife costs 8d., and must be constantly ground: the rubber shield costs 3d. and 4d., and lasts but a few weeks.

Machines are taking the place of hand-pulling to a certain extent, but the chief part of the work is done in Belgium, where men do the pulling for a low wage. The manufacturer here finds it cheaper to pay the carriage of British rabbit skins to Belgium and back, than to have them pulled in England. Fur-pullers are, as a class, irregular workers; and being paid by the piece, the employer has no hold upon them. They seldom work more than four days in a week; not because there is no work for them, but because intemperate habits prevail, and home cares provide other occupations on Monday and Saturday. When the workers in any industry are drawn only from that class whose standard of life is the very lowest, when insufficient food and clothing and all the other sad accompaniments of deep poverty have made their mark upon them, it is almost impossible to point to any one physical condition as a result of their occupation. Hoarseness, cough, and a bronchitic condition are common among fur-pullers; such are also observed in the old and middle-aged women of the same class who are not fur-pullers. One would certainly expect to find evidence among them of suffering caused by inhaling the down present in the air of the workrooms; but, except for occasional complaints that “it stuffs up the chest,” most of the workers consider fur-pulling a healthy occupation. It may be that the fur being so fine and light is not inhaled; the danger is probably more to be found in swallowing it, and symptoms of ill-health arising from this are, from their nature, not easily discoverable, and must be related by the sufferer; but the poor fur-pullers look with suspicion on any inquiry touching their health, fearing that they may be deprived of their work, which, although they say it is not worth the doing, is all they have.

If the occupation is dirty and disgusting even in a factory and workshop where rooms are specially set apart for it, it is, when carried on at home in a little living room, indescribably offensive and horrible. In 1897 the terrible condition of the homes of the fur-pullers in South London was described in the Press. Since then matters both inside and outside the factories and workshops have been improved, although much remains still to be done. In consequence of recommendations made in 1897 by the Departmental Committee appointed to inquire into the conditions of work in wool-sorting and other kindred trades, fur-pulling was added by Order of the Secretary of State in March 1898 to the Schedule of Trades in which occupiers must keep lists of out-workers’ names and addresses; and by another Order the taking of meals in fur-pulling workrooms, or remaining during the time allowed for meals in such places, was prohibited. By these means greater control has been exercised by sanitary authorities and the Factory Department over fur-pulling, both as a home industry and in factories and workshops, and one of the greatest risks to health, the taking of meals in the workrooms, removed. In the absence, however, of any legal obligation upon an employer to provide other accommodation for employés whom he is bound to exclude from their workroom during their dinner hour, those poor creatures whose homes are at a distance are turned out into the streets, and in bad weather run a risk scarcely less than that from which the legislature sought to preserve them--the risk to health of cold and wet.

Much more than has yet been attempted might be done to improve, by specially applied ventilation, the condition of fur-pulling rooms in factories and workshops. The drawing away of the pulled hair from the worker in a downward direction by means of a properly constructed flue under the troughs, and an extracting fan, would seem to be practicable, and the down could be collected outside in a receptacle for the purpose. But pulling is not a process that pays; and although many occupiers have provided better rooms than formerly, and more attention is paid to general ventilation, to sweeping and cleaning, to warming in winter, and other matters affecting the health and comfort of the workers, a pioneer has yet to be found who will revolutionise the industry by applying to it a really effective dust-extracting system of ventilation--and this will require some considerable sum expended on it.[155]

ROSE E. SQUIRE.