Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1881 — British Army Buttons. [ARTICLE]

British Army Buttons.

Year by year the British army, once the most beautifully-clad and brilliant-ly-equipped in the world, loses something in picturesqueness. Feathers and epaulettes are gone, and, except with the hussars, lace of gold or silver has all but disappeared. Such is the rage for economy and utility that every button, save such as maybe absolutely necessary to keep his clothes upon his back, has vanished from tbe soldier’s tunic. The marines are still permitted half a dozen such ornaments on the skirts of theii tunics, but it is enough to make soldiers despondent and civilians smile to observe how button after .button is cut off the uniforms of both cavalry and infantry Two are all that we now allowed at tne

back of the infantry tonic. The very, facings are pared down to the merest selvage. Those decorations which gave prettiness and variety to the uniform, and were once regarded as the distinctive badges of regiments, are now nothing more tfran tiny patches upon the caff and collar.