TURNING THE WAR TO ACCOUNT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5215, 8 December 1877, Page 2 (Supplement)

TURNING THE WAR TO ACCOUNT.

(From the Philadelphia Ledger.)

We all know, or are supposed to know, the virtues of the moral pockethandkerchief. Combined with flannel jackets for the natives of tropical countries, as an agency for inculcating sound doctrine and handy precepts, its value has been frequently computed. Some people also know that a thrifty trade has heen carried on in England in the manufacture of idols for the Hindoo and African markets, and that the idols go out not uufrequently in the same vessel that carries the missionary. A very neat adjustment, the manufacturer would doubtless consider this arrangement, of bane and antidote, and certainly a most curious commentary on the flexible morals of some British traders. But the French take the palm for graceful conceptions and combinations. They combine to turn the moral pockethandkerchief idea into a medium for winning favor from their Moslem customers. Thus we read that " 50,000 shirts, on which are printed extracts from the Koran in blue characters, and as many woollen waistcoats, whereon is emblazoned the Prophet's seal, are being manufactured in Paris for Turkish soldiers." Our girls at Home during the war of the rebellion were in the habit of pinning little notes to the wristbands of the flannel shirts, or inserting them deftly into the toes of the stockings they knit and sent to the soldiers in the field, with good wishes and a cheery word therein. One large manufacturer of flannel blouses had a number of notes sewed to the garments that went out from his factory, giving his address, and saying, " This is not shoddy. Write and let me know how it wears." In a number of instances acknowledgments were received from the wearers, saying that it was a very good cloth indeed, and that it was pleasant to be able to say so. But this beautiful softening of the harsh features of war on the part of the patriotic manufacturers and devoted gills aforesaid is as nothing to the surprise which the Turkish soldiery will feel when they come across the French extracts from the Koran on the bosom of their shirts.