What Becomes of Old Clothes?

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 14 August 1914, Page 2

What Becomes of Old Clothes?

Black cloth clothes purchased h* second-hand dealers, provided they are too far gone to be "revived," are sent to France, Russia, and Poland to be made into caps, which the working people, of these countries wear. The cast-oft red. coats of the British soldiers almost all go to Holland, for in that damp country the people have a notion that red cloth keeps off rheumatism; therefore, all careful Dutchmen of the labouring classes wear red cloth waistcoats next their skin. These are made by cutting off the sleeves of the British soldiers' red coats and altering the shape a little The showy uniforms of the Guards and the full-dress liveries of the Lord Major's footmen and thr : Royal servants come into the hands of the old-clothes dealers, and go chiefly to the south coast of Africa, where they are sold to the nativechiefs. Travellers are sometimes amused at being received in full state by a swarthy chief on his throne dressed out in footman's livery or a rifleman's uniform.—' Northern Weekly Gazette."