Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-05-22
Rags and Rag-Pickers.

Rags and Rag-Pickers.
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.
temptuous appellation for his uncle
than that of ga king of shreds and
patches 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
it.
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. By
the census of 1880 there was in the
United States e92 paper mills with an
aggregate capital of nearly Soo, COS. 000.
They employ 5000 hands. third of
whom are women, and pay in wages
nine millions of dollars. They use in
the manufacture of the best qualities of
paper 2OO,0 tons of cotton and linen
rags, $1,000 tons of which are imported,
the remainder being gathered in this
country. The value OF these 100000
tons of rags is over 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 tag and basket,
Ill or ond for
for the fiotsam 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 Herald readers, the reporter
called on one of the most extensive
rag dealers in the city. There is fully
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 / 800 men,
women and children who search the
streets or 90 from house to house for
rags and paper. We buy from them,
paying a cent pound for paper and
from one and one-half to two and one
half cents for rags. We send these
rags to our 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 cottons, then the colored. Those
that are mixed goods of wooden and
silk with cotton are separated. Silk is
of no use whatever. One would sup
pose that would be the most valuable,
but the reverse is the case. No means
has yot 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-half
cents pound. and they earn from 81
to 81 day. Ten dollars week is a
good average for them. The rag pickers
and gatherers make about 81 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.
1.-The rag pickers manage to save a
good deal OF money. Many of them
bring in their collections every day, but
draw no money TIL Saturday, then, if
their account don't amount to $40, they
will bring money enough with them and
get us to pay them ten dollar bill,
giving us the difference. They like to
| get hold of a ten or a twenty dollar bill.
These they never break except from the
direst necessity. Then they go on till
they get hundred dollar bill They
are very saving.
.You will see, too, if YOU look at it
right, that they are very valuable men,
bers of the community. They produce
wealth. Out of mere rubbish and re-
fuse on the streets they pick out very
nearly if not quite Sl,0C0 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 pocketbook by. But
they gather iron. copper, glass. bones.
old rubber shoes. anu in fact every
| thing that is not in u positive state of
decay, all of which we buy from them
except bones. These they sell to the
| fertilizing factories.
The people engaged in this way are
mostly Poles, Bohemlans, Italians, and
some Canadians. Altogether there
are at leds6 lo.uJU people In lineage
dependent directly or Indirectly for a
living upon the rag business. That is
to say, that many people are supported,
and more than supported, by what
most people consider rubbish. and
which is generally thrown away. It
might be a very good text for the
preachers; it certainly is for the econ
! ON st. e,t
"Then, too, you must remember that
this rag rubbish is transformed into
pure, white paper, and is made the
means of disseminating and preserving
! the wisdom of man. think there can
be no doubt, sir, that the rag-picker is
q valuable member of society. Good
day. sir. -Ckicago Herald.
A Spanish woman ''broke up the
l 80 nr-nor iron, Nouy