Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 291, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1913 — What Becomes of Old Clothes? [ARTICLE]

What Becomes of Old Clothes?

Black cloth clothes purchased by 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-off 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 laboring 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 or the guards and the fulldress liveries of the lord mayor’s footmen and the royal servants come into the hands of th«> oldclothes dealers, and go chiefly to the south coast of Africa, where they are sold to the native chiefs. Travelers 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.