Military Pocket Handkerchiefs.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume I, Issue 16, 1 November 1879, Page 4

Military Pocket Handkerchiefs.

From J}-on. Geography is a weak point with the Fi ench nation. The Germans, when they invaded France, were found to know the country Letter and to possess better maps of it than the natives themselves. Culture in France, indeed, seems to be the possession of the few, and that probably is one cause of the dangerous instability of the Government. The men in power appear to have discovered this, and are evidently doing all they can, despite priestly opposition and intrigue, to strengthen themselves and the country by educating the masses. One of the expedients adopted for popularising science in the army partakes of the ludicrous, suggesting as it does the “ moral pockethandkerchiefs” for the elevation of the little niggers which Dickens has made famous. The French soldiers, we are told, have for some time had pockethandkerchiefs served out to them, on each of which is printed a map of France and its principal colonies ; and now others are being distributed bearing impressed on them the leading directions in reference to arms, equipments, harness, drill, &c, of the infantry and cavalry.