The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-03-28
IMMENSE QUANTITY . OF SAMPLES GIVEN ID ENGLISH RULERS
Two Men Are Necessary to Handle Matter at Buck
 ingham Palace

None of their malesties' subjects receive anything like the quantity of sample goods which. are sent to tre King ati Queen, says Pearson's Weekly They keep coming to Buckingham palace through out the whole year. but they arrive in enormous quantities some weeks before Christmas.
 A special room at Buckingham palace I Is set aside for the reception of these
 sample goods, and at .saristmas-tide so
 numerous are the samples that arrive
 that usually two men from the private court postofrice have to be employed to ceal with them.
 | The rule concerning unsolicited sam pie goods sent to their maiestes is very 1 simple. All such goods Of considerable value are to be returned to the sendcrs, ordinary samples of little value can be i retained and divided among any of the | royal servants who wish to keep them l Many of the sample goods sent to tre King fare of considerable value, and they come from tradesmen all over the world, who hope by this means ln secure the patronage of the British monarch. Fct | example, Il Paris cigar merchant sent | the King shortly after his accession q sample of 50 cigars in a magnificent goid i box. worth at least El0. Both the boX | and cigars were. of course, returned 10 the sender.
 Enough Smokes for Years Last Christmas, among the samples re-
 ceived by the King were enough cigars | cigarettes, tobacco, and pipes to keep tHe
 most inveterate smoker wei. supplied for ] many years Five thousand sample boxes | of all sorts of cigars arrived in one week | from hundreds of different cigar mahu- | facturers and most of the samples wetv
 in silver boxes. They were all returned to the senders.
 At Christmas-tide, when sample goods I begin to arrive in very large quantities. | a clerk enters in a book particulars of all the valuable articles received, and ou- posite each item note Is subsequently, made giving the date upon which the sample has been sent back; II is but very occasionally that the King pr queen care | ;o retain some of these valuable sam | pies, but if either of their maJesties do I so the goods retained are paid for. The total value of the various sar.l ! pie goods sent to their maj6sties in the year Is certainly not less chan G30,O00 but the bulk of the goods arrive, Of course some weeks before Christmas. Queen Mary receives most marvellous assortments of exquisite dress fabrics examples of beautiful aces, embroidery work and shawls. whilst specially pre- pared catalogs, never seen by the ord'- nary public, of various goods arrive in a perfect avalanche at Buckingham pal ace at this time of year.
 Many of these catalogs cost 2 very con siderable sum of money to produce. well known firm that specializes in chil- dren's toys has special log pre-. pared every year for thelr royal GUS
 toners which costs them about $500 tu turn out.
 
 It Is printed on the hest class O. crearl glazed art paper. and Is most elaborateiy and profnsely illustrated from drawings
 and photographs. It Is bound In velluni, and bears the royal crown the cover stamped in gold A copy of the catalog l is sent to every crowned head in Eu- l rope.
 | A great Paris firm which specialzes in children's dresses prepares every year a still more expensive catalog for their royal patrons IL is illustrated by two distinguished artists, who are each paiG