MISHAPS GOOD FOR TRADE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2375, 7 September 1899, Page 61

MISHAPS GOOD FOR TRADE.

ONE MAN'S LOSS IS ANOTHER'S PROFIT.

There is a well-known utterance to the effect that it is not the mustard that people eat that makes the fortune of its manufaturers, but rather the quantity of it that they leave upon their plates. Similarly it is a fact that while, of course, a large proportion of articles of attire, etc., are worn out in actual use, a goodly percentage have to be either repaired or renewed on account of accidents. Such happenings, therefore, are distinctly beneficial to commerce. In the first little sketch we give will be seen pictured a death-trap for umbrellas that exists at a- certain railway terminus,

two innocent-looking rails forming* the ends of sliding gates that partition off the platform. Hurrying through these, the city man, late for his office, accidentally swings the point of his gingham into the trap. Ere he can step back and extricate it, the next person behind him, unprepared for the sudden halt, runs into him and knocks him over his umbrella, which suffers in the manner shown. Ths glossiriess of his silk hat being the pride of every well-dressed man, that fragile article of headgear has often to be re-

newed ere it is really worn out or a new shape has come into fashion. Said an individual in the hat trade: "I will tell you one thing that is good for us. When ladies wear hats with very large brims the gentlemen's silk hats suffer." "How?" it was a&ked, and the answer is here pictorially reproduced. Gentleman and lady walking arm and arm, their hats appear to be upon as friendly terms as are the wearers themselves, and hard straw scraping against delicate nap very soon accomplishes a work of ruin that would fill with joy the heart of any hatter. | A sudden shower on a fine Saturday or ! Sunday afternoon in summer occasions the I purchase of many a new straw hat. Maybe the old one has cockled up, or the dye in the coloured band '' runs " and hopelessly stains the straw. Gratings and other openings in pavements and roadways are responsible tor not a few occurrences of the description we are noticing. One of the very commonest of such happenings is here shown. The point

of a neat, slender walking-stick fits accurately into, perhaps, the perforation in the top of a coal plate. Crack! and the mischief is done. A peculiar accident was in this way not long since brought about. The ferruls of a stout cane became caught in an opening, the jerk wrenched the handle from the gentleman's grasp, whereupon the cane, being suddenly released, sprang back, and, rising from the ground, described a graceful trajectory through the air and a grocer's window. Ladies wearing boots with small, high heels have not infrequently suffered severe sprains from catching them in gratings, the heel of the .boot itself being sometimes wrenched away. In one case a lady whose shoe thus suffered eventually married a gentleman who had hurried to her assistance. Perhaps, therefore, this should not bs classed under the heading of "mishaps." Wet days, of course, benefit some trades. For a splash of mud to alight on the business man's collar is an every rainy day accident. It means the purchase of a substitute. Mud on the clothing, too, will often be wiped away with the handkerchief, and another is then procured to replace the soiled one. Accfflents to vehicles of all sorts in street cpllisions, etc., bring grist to the mill of

the repairer. Many a so-called coachbuilder never from year's end to year's end turns out a new carriage of any kind, but

thrives on mending damages done to those already existing. A mix up of the description shown, from which both barrow .maker and coachbuiider alike benefit, is a good example of the happening that thus brings them profit. Referring again to hats, it may be mentioned that on a gusty day hatters in the vicinity of bridges and wharves often number amongst thgir customers bareheaded individuals whose late headgear is floating away with the tide, a literal carrying-out of the "ill-wind," _ etc., theory. — Cassell's Saturday Journal.