The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-07-23

emptied upon the earth. These consist Of cotton
ana wooilen rags, paper, iat. bones, crusts OF
ana METALS They are separated and placed IN
little piles. All this work IS completed by twelve
O'Clock at which hour the bone dealer arrives in
the alley TO make his daily purchases
Bones are brisk at present az sixty cents per
barrel
The little heaps OF cotton and woollen rags are
scraped together and transported 10 the OF the
building, where they are suspended upon lines.
ing them up is get rid OF the foreign matter that
cngs to them and which wind aud rain will re-
move. They not suffered TO remain long eX-
posed as too much heat woud dry them and re-
duce their weight To an Improbable figure. On
Friday or Saturday afternoons they are ga thered
IN separate bales and bundles and carried TO the
ragoeaers IN the neghborhOod to a large
warehouse In Third street. near Lewis. The prices
paid vary from time TO time, but usually at
rate OF about two and one-iourth cents per pound
for cotton and three cents per pound Tor wOOllen.
earn an average OF about eight dollars week.
Fat is sold 10 the soapmakers, the usual price
esaery purchased by Long Island conptrVm ee
who come after them with market wagons ana
carry them away as food for hogs for when pur.
S weight low ''N' u . % per NuA''ea
Empty bottles Of every description make up no
small share Of rag pcker's daily collection, both
in volume and weight. They are carefully packed
among the rags to avoid breakage, and are sold at
merchant resides opposite Bone aley. and his
place OF business is a curiosity. He receives MIS-
ceilaneous collections and asserts them after pur-
chase There you VIII find wine bottles which
have contained the choicest impOrtations,
with the remnants OF their labels carefully
preserved; ink bottles, glue bottles, mucil.
age bottles and babies nursing bottles; blue
bottles and green bottles; the smallest OF crystal
Walls and the largest and most uncOuth OF all kinds
OF German settler jugs; patent medicine bottles,
with the most astounding names oil miraculous
liquids cast on the sides These make up the con-
tents OF the shop. Broken glass Is bought here at
half a cent per pound
BONE ALLEY FROM A SANITARY POINT OF VIEW.
Many OF the rags that find their way into the
garbage barrels and the cutters are pregnant with
conragion. Needless or tnoughtless people have,
instead OF destroying them by lire, thrown them
into the street They are not cleansed by the
water with which they become saturated, nor
does the 9th which attaches 70 them destroy IN
condition required for the earliest possible GERM.
nation OF Whatever seeos or disease and death
may be concealed in them. Selected from the
grease, bones ana glass, jumbled together in
the sack Of the rag picker, they are removed
from the vaults OF the cellars 70 the root Tor the
purpose OF drying. and the air which ians them
leeds lungs alike OF the poor and the rich--of
often, IN the adjoining tenements, some poor
wretch dying longs Tor u breath OF fresh air In his
close and overheated ROOM and prays that tile
windows may be opened to admit the breeze thar
he watches curling the smoke from the cnlmneys
and rustllng the clothes drying on adjacent
roof. The easement Is opened only to admit the
poisonous breath OF the wind that has rioted with
tue deadly rags and comes TO the lips OF the sufferer
only to cool them forever Surrounded by malaria
that Is simply an incandescent Stencn breathing
an aerial poison, they gradually loosen their
hold on lie ana sink away from Its noise and
fever into the quiet and chill OF the grave,