Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1882-09-06
NEW YORK LETTER
SAYINGS AND DOINGS IN THE GREAT
METROPOLIS.
The Slack Season, and Trade Fortunes
Built Of Rags-A Plncky Woman
Etc. Etc.

The Slack Season, and Trade Fortunes
Built Of Rags-A Plncky Woman
Etc, Etc.
Special Correspondent of the TIMEsl
New YORK, August 81, 1882.
To THE EDITOR OF THE TIMEs.-
Nobody can tell how many people
leave New York to live in the country
during the heated term, but the num-
Der is certainly a very large one. Yet
look at the streets, the stores and
the shops of the great city convinces
you that the population has not been
at all diminished, although the crowd
of incoming and outgoing steamboats,
and railroad trains, every morning and
evening, bear witness to the fact that
the regular increase Of temporary resi-
dents is very great. The superin-
tendent of the elevated railroad saws
that travel on these roads falls off so
much during the summer months that
he is obliged to discharge 500 train
hands who are employed during the
winter. The slack time is between
the beginning of June to the middle
of September; but, unless appear
ances are deceiving, that period will
close two weeks earlier. Large num-
bers Of people who have been at the
seashore and in the mountains for
several months, are now hurrying back
to the city, and the prospect is that
before many days the hotels will be
crowded with Western and Southern
buyers, and that our merchants in
every branch of trade will have their
hands full of business long before the
opening Of the autumn season, as
prescribed in the almanac. That trade
will be heavy this fall there can be no
doubt, and, according to the best
judges, the winter trade bids fair to
be better than ever before in the his
tory of New \ ork.
Rags are not pleasant things te
look at, especially when they com
pose the garments in which a fellow
mortal is enfolded. This looped anc
windowed wretchedness is something
that disturbs the current of aesthetic
thoughts and diverts it into a diluviar
channel of mental recklessness, mucl
like an afternoon nightmare. Yet
rags are of great importance in the
worlds economy. The prudent house.
wife boards them for the purpose ot
barter and for inexpensive quilts, and
also for patches. While a needed
stitch has, many time saved count.
less other stitches, how oft have We
seen a patch save the price of pail
of breech-trousers! Then of rags We
make paper; and think of the millions
of reams we use every year on which
to write and print the various com
binations of which the alphabet j.
capable. In New York alone we ex
pend s30,OOo,OO0 every year for rags
the business of one street-W orti
street,-reaching $2,OOO,OOO. There
are 1000 rag -pickers in this great city
the most of whom are Italians-de
scendants of the Caesars, the Catalines
the Ciceros and the other great cali
thumpians of ancient Rome. These
industrious but extremely filthy som
of noble sires, take nearly $1,OOO,OO(
worth of rags annually from our gutter
and ash-barrels. They dress in rags
and not putting too fine point upon it
they live on rags. What they picl
up they sell for one to three cent
per pound; and for the better grades
of woolen rags they receive as high a
90 cents. While Boston import
cotton rags the bulk of the trade is il
New York; and here we have a mum
ber Of heavy capitalists who owe thei
success in life to the careful use O
what their less thrifty neighbors hav
thrown away. One Of them is build
ing in the upper part of the city
magnificent mansion, which will cos
nearly 100000. 1t has already bee
christened the "Ragman's Palace" !
will not be SO grand as the house tina
Vanderbilt; but the owner will hav
the satisfaction Of knowing that Will
his is built on rags, the other wa
erected on greenoacks, which are onl
rags in q new form after all.
wOMAN's PLUCK AND PERsEvEE
ANCE.
Visitors to New York rarely fail t
spend few minutes in Printin
House Square, to admire the Time
Ruildino. to wonder at the disnronoJ