Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

"88 BRITAIN AT WORK. “empties” in the great northern railway GOODS YARD, LUTON. in Luton and district, and the English dyers of plait can challenge the competition of the world. Year by year the principal firms seem to improve in regard to the exquisite tints which they succeed in procuring. Large quantities of straw plait are annually sent to Luton from abroad to be dyed, and are re-exported to America, Canada, Australia, Germany, France and elsewhere. In regard to the fashions in hats it ought to be said that though there has been a run at times on the fancy varieties, the sailor shape has always been popular with the ladies. In the matter of patterns and combinations of materials there has been an entire change since the tijne when the Straw Hat and Bonnet trade came into prominence. Formerly a manufacturer could go on almost indefinitely making up hats from a specific shape ; nowa- days it is a common thing for orders to be received by the merchants for single hats, this necessarily rendering it incumbent upon the makers to be constantly inventing new pat- terns. Originality is as much an essential in the Straw Hat trade as it is in the fabrication of the plait wherewith to make the hats, and it is to the skilful designer that the bulk of the profits go. The straw trade is one that affords ample scope for enterprise, and that those en- gaged in it in the past have been pushful is proved by the fact that very large fortunes have been made by the principal traders. W. H. McNamara.. BUTE STREET, LUTON. Photo: Cassell & Co., Ltd.