The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-11-17
WCT0RIA'S YACHT CLOAK.
AWFUL FATE WHICH NEARLY
HAPPENED TO THAT ROYAL
GARMENT.

by Accident 1t Was Sold with a Lot
of old stores From the Yacht.
Bought by Secondhand Dealer
for $2-He Was About to Sell 1t to
Wax Works Snowman When the
Yachts officer Heard of 1.-THE
Gladly Paid $50 to Get 1t Back.
And Doubtless Saved Himself
Some Trouble.
1t is well known that the utmost care
is taken by keepers of royal wardrobes
that none Of the left-off garments of
exalted personages shall get into the
hands of dealers, who might dispose of
them to curiosity hunters, or, worse, to
proprietors of wax work shows, as
these latter would pay we'll to be able
to dress their figures up in original
costumes. This rule is so far carried
out that even when royal discarded ia
BILE linen is sent to hospitals and other
charitable institutions it is first
"speared" with holes to render it
valueless commercially
But once, and quite by chance,
garment belonging to Queen Victoria
fell into the possession of a Portsmouth
second hand clothes dealer, by which
he was able to net quite little sum by
selling it back to those through whose
carelessness it had got into the mar
ket.
AT certain periods it Is the custom in
the British government dockyards to
dispose by auction of variety of dis
carded stores, such as old sails, worn
out bunting, etc. Now, upon one of
these occasions, several lots of such
stuff were sold out of the royal yacht,
and a secondhand dealer, who had
made a few purchases, found that there
had fallen to him bundle which, upon
closer inspection, proved to be a volum-
inous cloak of royal purple velvet lined
throughout with rich crimson silk. The
pile was unusually soft and deep, and
in one corner of the cloak was erabroid-
cred the royal cipher in gold thread.
The secondhand man took the cloak
to his store without, at the moment, an
idea OF its sentimental value. There
ne was debating with his wife as to
whom it might have belonged, and how
it could have come to be among the
rest OF the comparatively worthless
stuff, when a sailor from the royal
yacht entered to dispose of some of his
allowance of store" duck. 1t is through
such channels only that the much
sought after store duck, manufac-
tured solely for wear on the royal
yachts, find its way, in small quanti-
ties, into the high-class tailor shops.
On account OF its extra fine quality it
is eagerly bought up to be made into
ladies' expensive yachting suits. The
sailor at once recognized the cloak as
that worn by Her Majesty when sitting
on deck in cold weather.
Here was a revelation. Queen Vic
toria's yacht cloak in a very second
rate, second hand clothes shop! In the
eyes of the fortunate poSsessor it, of
course. Immediately went up 500 per
cent. in value.
1t was just after the sailor had gone
his way with the proceeds of his con-
traryto-r egula lions sale of duck that
the writer, in search of curlosities, hap
pened into the the shop. and Her Ma
jesty's royal yacht cloak was promptly
offered for sale, price $25. 1t had prob
ably cost the second hand man consid-
erably under $3.50.
In the writer's mind there flashed
ideas OF pecuniary benefit TO be obtain
ed from the cloak. IL might be sold at
a high figure 20 a lady OF social aspir-
ne with pride, altered 10 suit the pre-
vliling fashion. or Ia q milliner, who
could cut It up into small pieces, and
"a real royal velvet provide sentiment
tai crowns for those who could not
come by crowns or coronets in any
other way But unfortunately he dld
not rightly gauge the secondhand
mans pertinnci'y nor ala he know
that the sailor was spreading the story
@ D over the ship So after much bar
gaining, be went away, leaving
standing offer of So FOR the cloak and
promise 20 cali again on the morrow
n1t 90 fhe meantime fie report hnd
rescued ears that tnEls1 with rsspon-
nihty Tor tho mifchance What AZ the
ttory rot higher upf On Whist, ~, when
fao Qgten made her next tsp on ths
Yacht. she should cali for thar paFtlc.
uilr clqnff hNr Majesty was well