Tricks in All Trades.

Kaikoura Star, Volume XII, Issue 22, 18 March 1892, Page 2

Tricks in All Trades.

‘ I used to play cards for coin pretty promiscuously before I went into the tailoring business,’ said a prosperous builder of the noblest kind of swell attire, ‘ but since I have been following that gentle trade I no longer play with strangers or chance acquaintances, but only with my friends. ‘ One's morals are not specially stimulated by the cutting of clothes, but the mysterious devices that certain of my customers insist upon attaching to the same led to my reform. Whether they are professional handlers of the pasteboards or not I have no way of learning, but some of the garments they order would be more than effect ive upon the person of a gentleman of that kidney. ‘ I have made for them coats that contained no less than fifteen pockets, although to all outward appearances there were only four. They opened upon the seams and the edges of the coat, and were so arranged that no one but the wearer would suspect their existence. 1 received an order yesterday for a pair of trousers with a secret pocket in each leg just below tbe regular one, and my finisher is just completing a vest, made from a customer’s design, which is simply honeycombed with invisible pockets.

‘ I wouldn’t give much for the chances of the oilier people in the game if that vest encircles the figure of an expert, who is out for that variety of currency known as the long green.’