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This is another re-post of a "disappearing thread":
Here is a neat little period tidbit from:
Ireland -The Church and the Land
The Princeton Review / Vol. 40, Issue 3, p. 408 - July 1868
"A young Scotchman called Tait, came to that city twenty years ago, and was engaged in a large dry-goods establishment, He could not make his department pay, and he was dismissed as an unprofitable servant. Not cast down, however, he looked out for some contracts for clothing, which he fulfilled successfully. He continued steadily to advance till, at last, the American war broke out, and he made contracts for supplying both North and South with army clothing. He had a number of blockade runners, none of which were captured; -and, at the close of the war, he had realized an enormous fortune. Any one who passes over Blackfriar's railway bridge, in London, across the Thames, may see on the south side of the river, at his left hand, a very large building with enormous letters painted on it, "Tait & Co's Army Contracts." He now supplies France and other continental states as well as England, with clothing for their soldiers. Besides his factory in London, he employs at Limerick, in a set of mean, cheap buildings, such as can be built on short leases, no less than nine hundred operatives. At the time of our visit he was chosen a second time Mayor by acclamation; and we were told that he will be elected member for the city on the first vacancy."
Here is a neat little period tidbit from:
Ireland -The Church and the Land
The Princeton Review / Vol. 40, Issue 3, p. 408 - July 1868
"A young Scotchman called Tait, came to that city twenty years ago, and was engaged in a large dry-goods establishment, He could not make his department pay, and he was dismissed as an unprofitable servant. Not cast down, however, he looked out for some contracts for clothing, which he fulfilled successfully. He continued steadily to advance till, at last, the American war broke out, and he made contracts for supplying both North and South with army clothing. He had a number of blockade runners, none of which were captured; -and, at the close of the war, he had realized an enormous fortune. Any one who passes over Blackfriar's railway bridge, in London, across the Thames, may see on the south side of the river, at his left hand, a very large building with enormous letters painted on it, "Tait & Co's Army Contracts." He now supplies France and other continental states as well as England, with clothing for their soldiers. Besides his factory in London, he employs at Limerick, in a set of mean, cheap buildings, such as can be built on short leases, no less than nine hundred operatives. At the time of our visit he was chosen a second time Mayor by acclamation; and we were told that he will be elected member for the city on the first vacancy."