, 1888-06-07
ARMY STORIES IN ENGLAND.
Chat with a London Government Co

| That with a London Government Con.
| tra'trr-AIade Over Goods.
/ spent an evening with Mr.. William
Pope, one of the largest dealers i'll army
stores in England, AID in the course of
the Interview he told me several curious
| facts in connection with the business.
''Why, bless me- said the wealthy
dealer, there have been times when l
| could have clothed and equipped good
sized army on n days notice. | once had
an old chapel full of rifles, warehouse
full of swords, hundred thousand he'll
| NETS, and rs many coats, trousers and
boots. But the rifle business, like the dis
carded rifle, is broken up noW."
'Why IS that!h
1T was after the Poenix park murders.
The great market for the rifles had for
many years been Ireland. The govern
ment BECAME alarmed, and the order was
issued to break up all the rifles, and as the
order has never been resciuded l suppose
they will go on breaking them up until
doomsday. At any rate there are no more
rifles to be had'
But were not these rifles very old fash
ioned?''
''Of course they were, but that was al
the better for the South African trade.
The natives liked the old flint guns with
the stocks painted red. Why, there is an
establishment Mt Brandon, in Norfolk,
making flint locks to this day 1t even
pays to take out the more modern locks
and substitute flint locks. These flint guns
and old swords are sent out in barrels
and exchanged for palm oil, which comes
back in the same barrels. Before the
Phoenix park murders I employed 100
men cleaning up and repairing govern
ri t-l4- pr,I Of oil
sorts. / have received as many as 20, 900
In month. Now the British govern
ment employs men at e3 4 week to break
them all up"
what else do you buy of the British
and continental governments besides i'm
plements of warfare?''
why, bless me. my yong friend,
buy everything; tents, blankets, picks,
shovels, boots, gloves, gaiters, helmets,
saddles, harness and accouterments of all
kinds"
''Do you examine them before purchas-
ing?''
Don't examine one. It's what you
Yankees call trading out of sight and I'M
seen. You pay down your money and
you find out what you've got when you
begin to assort, according to the value. 1
employ 500 people at times in the various
departments of my business, and if you
would only reduce your tariff could soon
employ a thousand
What do you do with the old boots:''
well, I'm not So much in the old boot
line. There isn't much in that unless you
make business of it. have friend who
has factory employing 500 or 600 men,
and he literally makes old boots into new
He buys all the army, all the police, and
in fact all the old boots he can lay his
hands on. They are taken to pieces and
the leather cleaned and redressed, and
new boot or shoe constructed out Of the
good pieces Of leather, and all sorts of
smaller articles made out of the best part
of the worn out pieces. He makes q very
in the trade and bought by costers, farm
laborers and railway porters. This is
called translating"
''What becomes of the uniforms!'
''Most of them go abroad. The Oil skin
capes and cork helmets go to India, the
brass helmets to the Cape, and the trInic
and policemen's uniforms to South Africa.
You see, as trousers are dispensed with,
red jackets are rather drug, though the
natives do buy them, and lengthen them
bit with white cotton cloth. The cast off
court suits worn by.ofiicers are rare things
to get hold Of. They are renovated and
sold, with few peacocks' feathers thrown
in, to the chiefs. They ore always in de-
mand, and bring good ''ha pride
these natives take in =
astonishing. '-Rober
Ocean.