26 MORE MINOR HORRORS 



Amongst the things both combatants most 

 want is leather. One of the most impressive 

 efforts we non-combatants have been watch- 

 ing, since August 1914, is an army growing, 

 near us and next us, with apparently an un- 

 limited supply of leather belts, leather trap- 

 pings, leather saddlery — leather harness for 

 man and beast. Yet they tell me that the 

 price of leather since the War began has appre- 

 ciated by 140 per cent. This may be so ; but, 

 as Joseph Finsbury remarked in ' The Wrong 

 Box,' ' there is nothing in the whole field 

 of commerce more surprising than the fluctu- 

 ations of the leather market. Its sensitiveness 

 may be described as morbid.' But Joseph 

 was no business-man, and kept in the back- 

 ground of the office a capable Scot who was 

 understood to have a certain talent for book- 

 keeping. Readers of Stevenson will remem- 

 ber that nobody had ever made money 

 out of Finsbury Brothers, Leather-merchants, 

 except the capable Scot who retired (after 

 his discharge) to the neighbourhood of Banff, 

 and built a castle with his profits. There 

 are still many capable Scots about, and this 

 may, to some extent, account for the present 

 price of Sam Browne belts. 



There must have been well over 150,000 

 Sam Browne belts made since the War began. 

 A widespread belief — at any rate, amongst 



