And right here, for the benefit of the layman, it might not come amiss to define the distinction between the well-known process of tanning leather, and the less familiar method of dressing skins, called tawing. The latter is applied almost exclusively to leathers in preparation for glove-making. It differs from ordinary tanning in point of the greater care and cleanliness of all the operations. Also, the dressed skin is submitted to a brief fermentation, by piling one piece upon another in a very warm place, so that, under the influence of the heat and the pressure, the softness and flexibility of the leather may be increased. The actual “tawing” itself consists in treating the skins with a mixture of flour, the yolks of eggs and alum. On the completion of this operation, they are stretched by hand and dried as rapidly as possible. The expert preparation of glove leather, then, was the chief accomplishment of Annonay and Millau. In regard to the latter, it was that city which particularly was embarrassed by the lambskin competition of 1872. Millau long had made a specialty of tawing lambskin, but had not discovered the secret of making the fine-looking gloves which now, suddenly, were put upon the market by Germany and other foreign countries. These manufacturers abroad redoubled their activities, initiating new styles and even receiving compensations from their governments. For a time Millau folded its arms and submitted, as M. Roux tells us, “in tranquil despair.” But before long Millau makers were hard at work studying and experimenting to produce a cheaper grade of glove which, like its rivals abroad should meet the growing demand for a popular-price article with all the fine appearance of genuine kid. The glove trade, along with other industries of the period, found that it must adapt itself to the insistency on democratization of all products. It must recognize the spirit of the times; and in the cause of social equality, it must furnish those who could not, or would not, buy expensive kid gloves, with an excellent substitute, as far as style and finish were concerned. Lambskins, at this period, became the glove of democracy; and Millau, quickly overtaking her foreign competitors, is to-day producing fine lambskin gloves which are second to none in Europe. But, to return to Annonay, whose name is identified with the ancient art of tawing as far back, probably, as the fourteenth century! The place has been called—and not inappropriately—the twin city of Grenoble. Its industry, certainly, went hand in hand and ranked equally in importance with that of the celebrated glove town. Without Annonay tanners and tawers Grenoble would have lacked the fine skins indispensable to her manufacture, and might never have held first position as a producer of the most beautiful gloves in the world.