CANNIBAL BEAUX.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 303, 22 December 1932, Page 9

CANNIBAL BEAUX.

CAST-OFF FINERY.

SALESMAN TO SAVAGES.

FORTUNES WON AND LOST.

1 The outfitter of cannibal kings and queens and native tribes of half a century ago, a man who made a great fortune by sending old clothes salesmen j among ■ the fiercest of black races, is . now living in a little house off the Brighi ton (England) front. He is facing poverty at the age of 79. 1 Mr. John Hyman supplied the belles j of the native' villages with the frills and furbelows once worn before the [ footlights of the West End stage. l [ In return for the discarded tinsel and bangles of the stage which he shipped ; to the islands off the Malay Peninsula, • Siam, the Australian bush, and both ; West and East Africa, he was given by the native chiefs as much rubber as he i could take away in liis ships. 1 Often there were loads of ivory and 1 other precious things. | Almost a Millionaire. I In mid-Victorian days Mr, Hyman was I also one of the best-known of London 1 costumiers. It is only a few months ■ since lie gave up his shop in Leicester Square. 1 "I am a broken man," lie said recently to a "Daily Express" writer. "Twice j , I have lost* all I made. Now all-I can I : do is to dream of the days when the 1 life of a millionaire was almost in grasp. "Once upon a time I did not know ' all the money I made with my roraan--1 tic trading—and now I am penniless and sleepless." I" asked Mr. Hyman to tell me of the days when he was the "Worth of West Africa" and the "Poiret of Polynesia." "I sold every kind of old clothing I could get," he said. "I used to buy up : all the old military and police uniforms of this country and ship them over to

the native. There was such a demand for these tilings that soon I had to go all over Europe buying them up >ia Civil War Blow. "I was in partnership with two young men, and we had three ships to take the old clothes out, and to bring back loads of rubber and other things the chiefs gave us. "About 1890 we sent ships laden to the plinisoll-linc with old clothes in charge of a young nephew of one of my partners. When the ships got to Buenos Ayres there was a civil war, and one side persuaded the young man to lend them the vessels. "Unfortunately they were on the losing side. We lost our ships and our fortunes in all that followed. ■ i "The two brothers went out from Manchester to get the ships fcadk, but they were captured in Buenos Ayres and sentenced to death. One of them died of shock.

"The Manchester Chamber of Commerce interceded with the King of Portugal, and he was the means of getting the other brother released. He was able to return to .England. Wall Street Losses. "That was my first crash. The other was three years ago on Wall Street after I had made up for the first misfortune. "I cannot bear to go near London now, and it is terrible that although I am still active I have to give up business." ( Once one of Mr. Hyman's travellers came back from a world trip and reported that lie had seen a native chief ruling-liis tribes in the robes of a sheriff of the City of London. Policemen's helinets were regarded as beautiful by the natives, who bought them for festive occasions.

John Hyman may be down now, but he can never forget the romance of the "cast-off; t