St. Landry democrat., 1885-12-19
FORTUNES IN FlLTt1.
yaluables Found by Sweepers in the Street
Prerequisites OF the Trade.

yaluables Found by Sweepers in the Street
Prerequisites OF the Trade.
eyes, sir, that's rich dirt; mighty
rich,'' said an old street-sweeper, as he
leaned on the handle of his broom and 4
contemplated the pile of black dust
brushed up long side of the curbstone.
1t was early in the morning and he was
nearly through his work of following be-
hind the big sweeping machine, when he
stopped to gossip with the Stor man.
Eyes, | suppose it is, said the scrlJe,
sticking his cane into the black pile and
thinking of garden patch.
':It's richest along the avenue, partic-
ularly near where the all-night saloons
are. It's the drunken men, suppose.
You see they are sort of loose and don't
care.
''It would make a very good fertilizer,
I guess said the scribe, "but don't
see why drunken men should make it
any better.
''Oh! that amt the sort of rich Imcan.
I mean rich in money. That dirt's
worth-well, you can't tel how much
until you look it over Its full of money
sometimes. l reckon the average
sweeper can make about two hundred
dollars year in addition to his wages
by looking it over carefully as he goes
along with his work. You see, it's this
way. There's an awful sight of money
lost on the street every day and night,
particularly in the night. Folks mostly
|, lose dimes, nickles and pennies
and don't know it. Sometimes they lose
iewelry and sometimes they drop larger
sums of money and never find it. When
all this gets mixed up in the dirt and
is swept up in piles it makes it very rich.
We always look out for that and find
lots of things. We find dimes and
quarters, any number of pennies and %
great deal OF iewelry. Sometimes the
/ iewelry is very valuable. We frequently
| find rings, cuff buttons, links of watch
/ chains, charms, all sorts OF trinkets and
shirt studs, and sometimes they are dia-
monds. The avenue is the richest route, as
/ I have said, and it's worth something to
be put on it. We 90 to work at midaight
| and work until after daylight, and we
| find nearly everything that lost after
dark. Men who are out very late at
night drunk frequently, lose large sums
OF money and very valuable jcwelry.
/ They never know where they lost it,
and when they get sober they just give
it up for gone and don't try to find it.
A few nights ago / found q very hand
some gold watch on the avenue. One
night last week one of the men found
s4lO in roll near the Navy Yard, and
the next night found $105 in roll on
the avenue These are extraordinary
finds, but it ain tsuh rare thing to find
large sums as You may think. y
''Do you ever find the oWnersP'
ssNo. We amt got time to look for
owners. We work in the night, and we
amt anywhere in the neighberhood
where the owners are in the daytime.
We can't afford to go looking around
for an owner for everything we find.
| 'Wasn't an owner found for the four
hundred and ten dollarsp"
s.No. Nor for the watch, nor for the
one hundred and five dollars either
what do you do with all you find?,'
keep it. It's our profit ain I
had no very good luck on this trip. ]
ain't found anything but small change
and few little trinklets, and reckon
I'd better go on with my work. y
And he went on, watching the dust
very carefully as it piled up in front OF
his long-handled broom = Washington