Daily Yellowstone journal., 1885-08-02
THg KING OF THE DUMPS.
An Irish Sovereign Who RnIss In peae'
Host OF Italian Subjects.
Vark Gt,u I

An Irish Sovereign Who RaIss In Peace
Host Of Italian Subjects.
TNsy York Sun
Years ago lar &c portion of the Tenth
ward In South Brooklyn was known as
sthe Meadows. The land was barely
higher than the level Of the bay, aud was
al times over owed for mile Now It is
gridironed by streets and avenues. and
the few remnants Of the old Ionds aud
hollows are being rapidly filed In by the
ash.Cart man, the excavator. aud
the street cleaner These dumps are
frequented by rag.pickers. who ran,
sack every load taken there. For.
merely Irish. now nearly all are Italians
With them every morning is an old Irish
man, who, rain or shine. appears with a
dllapidaled rise aud a still more dilapi.
dated wagon, and remains until dusk or
until his wagon is loaded with the ilotsam
and jetsam Of the streeta He is known
as Mike. the King Of the Dumps" Ills
ragged Italian vassals and customers speak
of him as :" II SIgnor lrishamanna
" hen the reporter approached he was
chafIering with an Italian over Il piece OF
lead pipe the latter had unearthed in the
dump. 4 few coins were handed over.
and The metal was pitched into the an
Gent wagon. There nothing like hui
man nature. said Mike. Thin Eyetal,
ians are all thieves. and that's how
make my money out Of them That fell
low has got his bag full of fifty or sixty
pounds of paper and rags, and now he
finds that chunk of pipe II II was you
or me we'd have some friend
carry il home for US. But moi
much will the Eyetalian lie
wouldn't trust his own brother and so he
sells il 10 me for Il cents lie didn
know what he was selling Ii was lead
pipe. but il was lined with solid block tin.
Ill get about 30 cents for il. Them Eye
Italians sometimes find gold and silN or,
but that they never sell TO me. Every
thing else they do. One day one Of them
came TO me with q watch chain he had
hooked out Lead, no silver he said,
looked at il, and il looked very queer.
] thought ii was pewter. but II was tos
heavy. But answered ut guess and
said: No good. kind of lead lie
wanted a half dollar, but got it for q
quarter didn't know what the stuff
was, and on my way home that day
stopped in at a jewelers. store aud asked
them They said II was French meta
called platinum. and was worth $50.
have been laying for the same stuff evel
since, but ha never run across il sec
ond time
What do buy mostly9 Metals. iron
steel. lead, tin, brass. pewter. solder, 10
mato- cans, wire, and the like. Then
buy rags and paper and all sorts of odd,
and ends. one time | bought small
bronze statue of Luther, | got IL for 81
cents. aud when had cleaned IL up
sold II for ss The paper aud cotton 60
to the paper mills cloth. WORKOUT clothes,
and wooden rags to the hat manufactur.
ers; tomato.cans tin clippings, and every.
thing with tin in IL 10 man who has a
furnace in Jersey somewhere lie melt:
out all the tin and sells IL, and then he
casts what is left into sash. weights and
other cheap castings For zinc bronze
copper. and pewter there's always a good
demand, and they bring tirst-rate prices
There are lots Of new trades to-day
which use up things that formerly wer'
no good TO any one. Rubber. bone. ivory
leather, horn. celluoid. cane aud umbrella
heads. and old bottles. all pay for tn
picking OF course they don pay much
Perhaps they average 81 day. but that
big money for an old Fyetalian woman
who lives on so cents week Them Eye
Italians will do anything. They're wors,
than pig.tailed Cinnamon. Bit don't
growl much. In the old days, wher
there was no one on the dump but Irish
l made only couple of dollars day,
and was young and active Now the
Eyetalians have driven everybody out OF
the business. and it is a very cold day
when | don't make q SIS note.