The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-02-18

bought, aud where it comes from. Inc one OF
two small shops which few years ago were
found in out-of-the-way sections OF the city,
have increased and multiplied, and the owners
in MANY instances have acquired goodly pile
of filthy lucre. There are now forty hcenseo
iunk-shops in the city which are scattered from
South Bay to Line-street, and from the Cooper
to the Ashley. "Tall oaks from little acorns
grow" and many of the small beginners In
this trade, who have started in hole IN the
wall scarcely large enough to SWING cal
around, expect to attain the dignity OF mer-
chant princes. The shops are generally loca-
ted in unfrequented back streets, and some de-
serted carriage house is selected where the
rubbish can be stored under tho eyes OF the
owner, and his nose can be regaled with the
balm of a thousand effiuyias that emanate from
the different piles. A glance into one OF THESE
shops would soon convince the visitor that II
was ON omniuna gaLheram. Nothing ID too
mean to be purchased, and the collection con-
sists OF every imaginable article, from an old
bone to bar of railroad iron. Rags, oones'
old iron and scrap metals are the general COM
modities offered for sale, and when the dlifer-
ent piles become too formidable in size and
smell, they are put in crates and sold to the
head centres Of the junkers, Messrs. Moses
Goldsmith g. Son, and VIM. Meade, and shipped
by them to Boston. In describing these junk
shops. it would be well to consider first how
their motley stock is collected. The first who
has hand in the dirty pie is
THE CHIFFoNER.
This individual is not unknown to lame
as he has been graphically described by
several prominent writer's. The chifonier
OF the romances was, as his name indi-
Gates, Parisian, and somewhat different
from those who scratch the dirt heaps in
our streets. In this benighted land the en-
ployment of chifomer is monopolized almost
exclusively by the darkies who ply their voca-
ton from early morn to iewy eve. They are OF
both sexes, generally of an advanced age, and
are to be distinguished BY chronic stoop, which
they have acquired from long bending, both
over their muck heaps and under the weight OF
their plunder. Whatever is collected is at
once put into bag, and the search being con-
cluded, the poor chiffonier staggers to the next
inviting pile and renews bis Investigations.
Where these characters live or how they con-
triye to support themselves is unknown. The
Partisan chiffonier has been known TO secure
valuable prizes of jewelry from his dust heaps,
but with the poverty now prevalent in this land
such an event is almost an impossibihty. When
the trash is coll .cted it is assorted, and the
bones, rags and other scraps separated; these
are then taken to the nearest iunk-shop and
sold readily at one-quarter to one-half cent per
pound, the metals tringing higher prices.
There is, however, no settled rate, as the price
given is governed by circumstances. AS there
are few families who save their rags and other
rubbish, the dirt heaps are always rich With
this description of plumber, and to the chlf-
fonier present an alluring field for speculation.
Having described the chifonier we next come
to the
JUNK-sHoPS.
Webster, strange to say, even in his Gun
abridged" ignores the word that forms the
subject Of the present article. We find there
'iunk, n [Lat. j,incuS, Fr. jonc, 1t. giunco,
bulrush, OF which ropes were made in early
agesl. Pieces OF old cabl. or old cordage
used for making paints, gaskets, mats, &C.,
and when picked to pieces forming oakum for
filling the seams of ships" This is clearly the
ancestor of the modern junk-shop, and our
readers, we feel assured, will b, content with
this hint as to its aboriginal etymology.
In the large cities Of Europe, where popula-
tion is dense and life struggle, the rag-pick-
er has long been an institution, and in the
odoriferous suburban precincts may be found
the dealer in "old clo'," in rags, old iron, glass,
bones, etc.; hut in the United States, and
more especially in our highly favored Southern
country, the ciltonier was but little known be-
fore the war. There were ',junk-shops," it is
true, even in Charleston in days long gone by,
bnt they we're few and far between, and form
ed but the nucleus of the present f1ourishing
trade
Enter one of these original junk-shops. 1t is
usually located somewhere in the vicinity Of q
sailors boarding house. The first at traction
to YOUR senses is the smell, a combination Of
tar, salt water and sulphuretted hydrogen
Most of our readers have heard of the balm o.
o. thousand flowers, but as Coleridge wrote ol
Cologne, there is in every junk-shop TIN thou
sand we'll defined and separate stinks. The
proprietor himself generally partakes largely
of tho cloud" characteristics of the place. A
first-class junkist is supposed to be possessed
of unbounded information over everything re-
,ating to old clo' AID old iron. His shop is al
ouniura qatherum of almost every conceivable
object that has been born, grown or manufac-
tured, from petrifcd mermaid to four-inch
cable, He is on the best terms with all the
indefatigable little boys in town, from whom
he buys their metallic rickings ut rates which
tempt their cupidity, and give them the alpha
betical lessons in crime. The consequenceist that
in the course of o very few months what might
under other circumstances, be respectable
twelve-toot chamber, is turned into receptacle
where the most homogeneous materials in all
shapes sizes and conditions, are thrown helteI
skelter, waiting to be finally transformed IN
the furnace of the foundry into shapes OF use
fulness and beauty.
Hero there is p lie of lead pipe, there hal
bushel of nails, yonder mounds oil fmatter, COM
posed Of sheet iron, bits OF shells, gas tubes
pumps, and every conceivable description o.
metal. This, however, constitutes but single
department. The ragman comes in and emp
ties his dirty stores. Bags and crates Of paper