MILITTRY POCKET HANDKERCHIEFS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1123, 15 August 1882, Page 4

MILITTRY POCKET HANDKERCHIEFS.

Last year a Swiss manufacturer, Herr Wettstein, of Toss, in the canton of Zurich, “published” a military pockethandkerchief, illustrated with diagrams of all the portions of the new • Wetterli rifle, with explanatory notes in German and French. It appears that a specimen found its way to the French War-office, and it was so highly approved that a pocket-hand-kercliief of a similar character, but with a number of improvements, has now been introduced into the French Army. The material is cheap cotton, and the article is so handled as to serve as a vehicle of military instruction as well as cleanliness. The centre is occupied with the Cross of the Legion Honour upon a red blackground, and the inscription underneath It, Honneur et Patrie. Around this central point are grouped a circle of medallions containing representations of officers of all grades, from the modest sub-lieutenant to the proud commandant of acerjis d. armee. The different uniforms are pictured so distinctly that the French private can tell at a glance to what grade any officer whom he may see has attained. The special pockethandkerehief prepared for the infantry soldier has exact drawings of the arms used by him, with explanation of their mechanism. The borders of the handkerchief are hemmed in with a framework of the natural colours, and within this framework are printed a number of sanitary precepts to be observed on march and during campaign.