Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-06-13
Rags and Rar.Pickers.

AS0oo SAAN o~0AS~ .I|.
Ordinarily when we think of rags we,
think Of something that is utterly,
worthless and contemplate, of some
thing that beggars are clothed in, or
perhaps that beggars have cast away.
Hamlet could think of no more con-
a%ppellation for his uncle
than that of "a king of shreds and
patches'-a king made of rags-and
Lear says:
Plate sin with gold
And the strong lance Of Justice hurtless
breaks;
Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw doth pierce
But as Lord Palmerston defined dirt as
''matter in the wrong place." SO rags
are only rags while they are scattered
about. Collected together, sorted out.
and baled, they become merchandise Of
great and yearly increasing value. Bv
the census of 1880 there was in the
United States G92 paper mills with an
aggregate capital of nearly $50, coo, 600.
They employ $4,000 hands, q third of
whom are women, and pay in wages
nine millions Of dollars. They use in
the manufacture of the best qualities of
paper 200, 900 tons of cotton and linen
rags, $4,000 tons of which are imported,
the remainder being gathered in this
country. The value of these 200, coo
tons Of rags is owe twenty millions of
dollars. The beginnings of this vast
wealth may be seen by those who ''brush
the dew Off early morn from Chicago
sidewalks, in those prowling women
and children who, with lag and basket,
carefully search the streets and cutters
for the tlotsam and jetsam of the pre-
ceding day. The next grade above
these are the itinerants in wagons, who
90 from house to house with the cry of
''rags to buy"
Seeking information in the interest
Of the Hera'd readers, the reporter
called on one OF the most extensive
rag dealers in the city. .sThere is fully
a million dollars invested in the rag
business in this city. There are seventy
five or eighty places, large and small,
where rags are bought, sorted out and
sold to the paper-makers or wooden
mills. There are at least 1900 men,
women and children who search the
streets or go from house to house for
rags and paper. We buy from them,
paying a cent a pound for paper and
from one and one-half to two and me-
half cents for rags. We send these
rags to Il sorting-room, where we en-
ploy women to sort out the different
kinds and qualities. The linen is the
best quality. Then come every Kind of
white cottonss, then the colored: Those
that are mixed goods of wooden and
silk with cotton are separated. Silk is
of no use whatever. One would up
pose that would be the most valuable,
but the reverse is the case. No means
has got been discovered of working silk
over for any purpose. The wooden rags
we sell to the wooden mills, where they
are ground up and made into shoddy.
The cotton and linen rags and the paper
we sell to the paper mills. We pay our
women for sorting two and one-haif
cents a pound, and they carr from 81
to 50 a day. Ten dollars a week is q
good average for them. The rag pickers
and gatherers make about. 81 o day,
but in such times as these, when people
are moving, a good deal more. This is
a harvest time for them, for people
throw away vast quantities of papers
and old rags.
"The rag pickers manage to save a
good deal OF money. Many of them
bring in their collections every day, but
draw no money till Saturday, then, il
their account don't amount to $40, they
will bring money enough with them and
get us to pay them a ten dollar bill,
giving us the difference. They like to
get hold OF a ten or a twenty dollar bill.
These they never break exceptfrom the
direst necessity. Then they go on till
they get q hundred dollar bill. They
are very saving.
"1ou will see, too, if you look at ii
right, that they are very valuable mem.
beers of the community. They produce
wealth. Out of mere rubbish and re.
f2se on the streets they pick out very
nearly if not quite $1,000 of value
every day. That's no small matter.
OF course they pick up other things be.
sides rags. Many is the silver coin they
find, and you may be quite sure they
wouldn't pass a pocketbook by. But
they gather iron, copper, glass, bones,
old rubber shoes, and in fact every
thing that is not in a positive state O
decay. all of which we buy from then
except bones. These they sell to the
fertilizing factories.
The people engaged in this way arr
mostly Poles, Bohemlans, Italians, anc
some Canadians. Altogether there
are at least 10000 people in Chicago
dependent directly or indirectly for :
living upon the rag business. That il
to say, that many people are supported,
and more than supported, by what
most people consider rubbish, ane
which is generally thrown away. L
might be a very good text for tht
preachers; it certainly is for the econ
om;st.
"Then, too, you must remember tina,
this rag rubbish is transformed into
pure, white paper, and is made the
means of disseminating and preserving
the wisdom of man. Think there car
be no doubt, sir, that the rag-picker il
q valuable member of society. Good
day. sir. "-.CAacago Herald.