The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1883-03-17

much more than half what it was few
months ago. | don't known rightly
what reduced it; some says foreign com
petition, but | don't know. I've heard
say the paper mills are not working full
time, and last spring most of them were
shut down altogether for two months.
You would hardly believe it if told you
how much rags turn over in week.
suppose there's more than a hundred
gatherers who sell all they get to me, an
besides. there's lot of housekeepers who
send me their bags as they fill them.
keep some girls workin' gradin' the rags,
an then sell to the wholesale houses.
How many grades is it? Faix, as many
as We could wag a stick at. For mixed
rags pay mostly about two dollars a
hundred When graded they're worth
from one-half cent up TO nine or ten
cents a pound.'
In another junk-store visited the pro-
prietor. an active young man, said:
"Going to write up the rag-trade,
Ell? There was a reporter for Bohe-
milan paper round here some time ago
on the same track. but ] don't think he
ever printed anything about it. Yes, it
is mostly foreigners who do the picking
very few English-speaking people
care to make profession of lingering
through dirt-heaps. The piekers are
principally Bohemians and Italians.
Altogether it is the poorest of the poor
who work at it. About one dollar a
day is the average earnings, and it
takes constant work to make that. No,
it is very rarely that people who have
money work at rag-picking. | have
heard stories of people who lived that
way and had thousands in the bank, but
| never believed them. | have been a
long time in the trade and have never
known a single case of the kind but one.
and that was cripple who had saved
$500 and carried it about sewed up in
the lining of his pants. | was well ac-
quainted with him, and didn't think he
was worth ten-dollar bill until he
showed me the money one day himself
eight single 800 bills. He went off
from here about two years ago and
never heard of him since. Yes, rags is
cheap now I've been told, and | think
there's some truth in it, that the decrease
in the price of wooden rags is due TO the
prosperity of the farmers. When they
have good crops and times are prosper
Gus they won't buy shoddy cloth-all
the wooden rags are worked up into
cloth-and as the demand for shoddy
cloth is reduced the demand for rags is
reduced accordingly. Yes. | know it
looks rather absurd, still don't see any
better way to account for it. The price
of paper rags has of course been reduced
and straw now used in the manufacture
of paper. For instance, in newspapers
there is only from fifteen to twenty per
cent. of rags, from eighty to eighty-five
per cent. or almost the whole of it we
may say, being either straw or wood
The price of rags is according to quality,
and the range is wide, as there are any
number of grades. The leading grades
are: No l whites, that is, pure clean
white linen or cotton rags; No. 2, the
same class, but little soiled or with a
yellowish tint; blues, that is, dirty
cottons. calicos and light prints; prints,
that is, dark cottons and prints, tickings,
old overalls, corsets, ETC.. cotton batting;
soft wool, that is, flanhels, socks, etc. ;
hard WOOL that is, regular wooden cloth;
cotton small satinets, that is, old silks
and satins; deafness hats; all-wool car.
pets; soft and hard back Brussels carpets;
rubbers-that is, old rubber shoes, etc. ),
yes, they are rags also, and worth four
cents pound now-and then there are
about six classes of papers. The linen
and cotton rags are made into paper and
the woolens into cloth The old paper
is made into new paper, old flannel into
new flannel, old rope into new rope, old
cloth into new cloth, old rubber into
new rubber, and old hats, too, | believe,
are made into new ones. Yes, it is a
great business. The lowest,priced rags
are about three-quarters of cent a
pound and the highest about ten cents,
the latter being the soft-wool grade
mentioned There not much for deal
ers like myself to make at the business
now, and lot are going out of it. 1t
isn't what it used to be. | don't think
there's business there's more ups and
downs in, either. Some have made
fortunes, others got beggared When
workmen get out of a job and dead broke
they often take to the country or to a
district where they are unknown and
begin rag gathering, and if they are of
a tramping, lazy disposition they may
remain at It all their days. Anyhow, if
they ever want work again they fall back
to it at oace. All they want to start
with is basket of molasses candy
or a bundle of toy balloons, and
then they parade the streets in the vii
lagos shouting: leather 'em up, rags,
hones and old from, and every child in
the village becomes rag and bone
gatherer to get balloon or piece of
candy, 1t is lazy, loafng life, and
there is livelihood in it.
II could name dozens, or perhaps
hundreds, of workmen who spend a
while every year gathering rags-kind
of half Migrants who 60 to it for change
and then their wives and children
work at it all the year round. There S
little to be made at it; if it wasn't so the
country would be overrun; as it is there S
the half too mary at it. | know a rag
picker named Russell, who was once a
wealthy bill-poster here in Chicago, and
had 10000 feet of bill-boards of his
own. Plenty of the big downtown mer-
chants knew Russell, for he used to do
the principal bill-posting in the city.
Now he's gathering rags and not worth
dollar in the world-drank it all out!
Another dealer said: g Rag gathering
is good trade for some people, you bet!
know man who began gathering with
sack, and now his wife can dress in her
silks and satins. He goes about with a
.eam and has got regular route of gen