The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-07
BUYING OLD CLOTHES
WHERE CAsTOFF GARMENTS FIND
 A READY SALE.
Thousands of Bales Leave England Ev- cry Year and Go to Savage Peo- ples, Who are Anxious to Array Themselves in Car.
 ments of Civilization.

Every year thousands of bales of cast-off clothing leave England's shores.
 The savage people of the world anx- ious to array themselves in the garb of civilization at low prices, are the dealers customers.
 A recent consular report mentions that the natives of Mauritius are eag- erly demanding secondhand waistcoats of the willow pattern, fashionable some years ago in London.
 Africa is the land for old top-hats. Cylinders which formerly graced the heads of Bond Street fops are now be- ing worn by the swells of Swaziland, Ashanti and Senegambia. A Belgian firm, which trades with the Congo, ev- cry year exports over 10000 old top hats. mostly bought through a London dealer.
 Vast numbers of old hats. too. find new homes in Portugese West Africa.
 Angola imports our gloves. paying high prices for cleaned white kid. To Madagascar go hundreds of dancing shoes, both English and French. In Southern Abyssinia and "Somaliland. English top boots and leggings find a ready sale.
 The Tunguses and Buriats of Siberia buy our women's cast-off blouses for
 
 spring purchases. in London, thousands of pairs of old stockings. and sends them to the Central Asian steppes, where they are worn as gloves and arm coverings by Kirghiz women.
 To Persia go frock coats and carpet slippers. At Oman to the south, there Is a great demand for collars, which are worn by the tribesmen in the in- terior as armlets.
 
 centage of cast-off women's clothing. sible social pre-eminence when attired in a serge skirt. Some New Guinea tribes thirst for old slippers. not for wear, but as amulets to keep off the Evil One.
 Dutch traders with Java buy large quantities of English clothing. The Javans have an unquenchable thirst for cricket caps of a kind worn only in England, and thousands picked up in London at a penny apiece fetch the equivalent of sixpence in Batavia The less civilized Javans purchase English teacosies, which they wear on their heads.
 In the Bismarck Archipelago and Sol omon Islands there is keen competi- tion for ancient British boots. Natives. otherwise utterly unclad, may be seen adorned in dancing pumps, the soies of which no longer exist.
 Old English underclothing used for merly to go to Hawaii, where it was worn as "overclothing." but American competition has killed this trade.
 Honolulu however, still accounts for a great many English hats, bowlers being preferred to "toppers."
 When antimacassars went out of fashion, large quantities were exported to the Sandwich Islands, where they were worn as mantillas or shawls, by dark-eyed chieftainesses.
 Old corsets and cycling stockings go to the Fiji Islands. The Fijians also absorb considerable proportion of our worn-out trousers. showing a decided preference for those of loud pattern.
 Old cricket-belts and wristbands are sold in large numbers in all the tiny islands of Micronesia. The Caroline Is- flanders sometimes adorn themselves with two or three belts at the same time.
 Mindanaos, in the Philippines. display a great desire for cuffs and false shirt fronts of English make. India-rubber collars are also much in demand
 German agents buy large quantities of our cast-off clothing for shipment to South America. The Indians and negroids of Brazil buy womens hats. the chiefs extracting the feathers or artificial flowers for their own adorn- ment, and giving the bare shapes to their wives.
 In the diamond district of Central Brazil the natives purchase English colored shirts for wear on ceremonial occasions, and the inhabitants of the great forests south of the Amazon pay large prices for worn-out "boas."
 The Indians of Bolivia prefer our knickerbockers to our trousers. So profitable Is the trade that firm in Lubeck finds it pays to make new knickerbockers of cheap cloth, and ex- port them when the second hand supply Is short of demand. In the highlands near La Paz, a secondhand dress-coat Is a sign of distinction.
 Vast numbers of our cast-off over coats go to the Argentine. Of these some are worn by the Europeanized Indians; but the less civilized natives wear them without much clothing un- derneath. embroidering the collars with beautiful designs in beads and threads. | The Argentine natives also buy many of our old waistcoats.
 When "spats" went out of fashion, | thousands of pairs were shipped to San tiago for the adornment of the Indians | of Chill. who wore them around the | ankles with the instep half projecting behind. During their funeral ceremo- nies some of these tribes regard a frayed shirt as the proper thing.
 The Peruvian Indians. however, have | the strangest taste of all many of them | wearing our cast-off neckties tied round | the knees as garters.