Butlers....

You are absolutely correct in Ch. 1. The 1892 trials saw the offering of a clip system with the Krag. Norway had a clip and their trials were running nearly concurrent with the US. US ordnance at the time saw the clip as un-needed and expensive. They saw no need for it in a single loader where the magazine intended to be normally cut off and only used in an emergency. The clip sytem did not fit their concept. Nor did it fit the cartridge carriage sytem then envisioned. Nobody in the Ordnance department envisioned trench warfare that was but 20 years away. They were thinking open country fights with Indians or fighting in skirmish lines. They still worried about ammo waste and ammo supply difficulties with the magazine sytem. British ordnance had not seen the need for a clip (at the time) and US ordnance was closely following what the Brits were doing.