Page:Once a Week, Series 1, Volume II Dec 1859 to June 1860.pdf/96

 21, 1860.] likened to a general-shop on a large scale. Everything is packed away with the utmost regularity, and placarded with the exact number of articles in each department, so that if our entire army had to be supplied it could be done almost as quickly as a company.

Not far from the store of soldiers’ necessaries is the button-room. It is quite clear that the Horse Guards haven’t souls above buttons, otherwise they would simplify this department of the soldier’s dress. Every regiment in British pay has its own distinctive button with its own special device; possibly this arrangement is made for the benefit of the Birmingham button-trade, as it is difficult to conceive what useful purpose such diversity can serve. “They manage these things better in France,” and in Germany also; but possibly like those countries we shall come to a simple button for each arm of the service some fine day next century. It was the fashion, during the “good old time,” for every regiment to dress its hair differently, and there was a regulation curl or pig-tail in the possession of the regimental barber by which he fashioned the heads of his companies. A little of the same spirit still lingers at the Horse-Guards.

But estimate for us, good reader, the number of buttons in this room, a 100 feet long by 40 wide, and stuffed with buttons as full as it can hold. Here are the silvered ones for the militia; big-sized page-buttons for the hussars; rich gilt for the Guards, and second-best for the line. If, like the Covenanters of old, they were to fire these buttons for shot, there would be ammunition enough here, we should fancy, for another Crimean war. Each class of button, of course, has its separate debtor and creditor account; so we may imagine what the bookkeeping of this department is like.

Up-stairs there are the various rooms for the overlookers and inspectors. Under the present system every bit of cloth received into store is examined by an inspector, who passes the contents of every bale between himself and the light, and in this manner is capable of instantly detecting the least weak place in it. After this inspection it is measured and weighed, and then refolded by machinery, and passed into store. In like manner the articles when made up, and all accoutrements, are closely examined and tested by the sealed pattern. One room of the establishment is devoted to these sealed patterns, which contain complete suits of each regiment in British pay.

Why so, says the reader, seeing that all infantry regiments are dressed alike? The Horse Guards, good readers, have no notion of such a simple arrangement. The dress of the infantry is exactly the same, it is true, but what of the facings and trimmings—these are as diversified as the buttons. There are no less than sixteen different shades of green alone used as facings in the British army, besides an infinity of buffs, browns, yellows, blues, and all the other colours of the rainbow. What end all this paltry tailoring serves, we are at a loss to know, for the buttons alone serve to distinguish the number of each regiment, and the service to which each uniform belongs. The manner in which the soldier is fitted is as follows:—

The regimental tailor makes out certain size rolls, as they are termed, in which the different sizes required for the men are set forth. Garments answering to these sizes are forwarded from the Government store, and served out once a year, on the First of April. If they fit, well and good. If not, the regimental tailor is called upon to alter them, a charge of one shilling being allowed for the service, of which the soldier is expected to pay sixpence.

It certainly is a little hard upon the poor soldier, first to make upon system a misfit, and then to charge him with correcting the error. “But it’s the way we have in the army,” according to their professional song. If a soldier joins a regiment in the middle of the year, he gets half-worn clothing, if towards the end of the year, clothes nearly worn out. There must be some little difficulty in hitting the exact amount of shabbiness of the regiment and supplying the new comer with an equable dilapidation. Regiments on foreign service are beginning to receive clothes according to climate, instead as of old, according to an inexorable pattern. Thus, soldiers serving in Canada, in winter, have fur caps and flannel under-clothing, together with high Canada boots. The black troops again, serving in the West Indies and on the Gold Coast, are clothed in the Zouave dress—Turkish trousers, sandals, and leather leggings, with the red fez and turban cloth. We wish European regiments serving in the West Indies were as sensibly dressed, as they are certainly less capable of bearing the heat than their coloured comrades. The stifling red cloth coat has been abandoned for the summer wear of troops in the East, and a light red serge blouse, fitting into the waist with the belt, has been substituted in its place. Why red should be selected as the colour is, however, unaccountable. The reason given is, that it is the national colour; we are not governed at home, however, by any such notions as these. Volunteer riflemen are certainly national troops but the Government is satisfied with grey here. This is a question of health, and should be settled by the doctors rather than by the Horse-Guards. The Irregular Horse of India use grey, for the reason that it is so much cooler. A German savant, Dr. Couleor, has carefully investigated the qualities of different coloured materials as clothing for troops. Of all materials he found white cotton to be the coolest. This material placed over a cloth dress, produced a fall of seven degrees per cent. in heat. When the tube of the thermometer was covered with cotton sheeting and placed in the sun, it marked thirty-five degrees; with cotton lining 35° 5′. Unbleached linen raised the temperature to 39° 6′, and dark blue and red cloth marked 42 degrees. As the variations of temperature in India, however, are very great, a neutral grey cloth, or serge, would be, we should fancy, the happy medium. Mr. Jeffrey, a military medical officer, who has lived long in the East, recommends garments with metallic reflecting surfaces as by far the best adapted for tropical climates. These would throw off the rays of the sun. The flashing helmets of Eastern nations are far more scientifically applied than we give them credit for, as they are much cooler in the hottest