The Arizona sentinel., 1885-10-31

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odds and ends in their baskets,
three or four at the same pile, sell
dom speaking to each other and rarely
! guarding BY one or two in the after
noon the rag-picker has filed not only
his bag or basket brimming tri- but
( likewise his pockets, the tops OF bis
( boOts-if boots the poor fellow has
/ the crown of his hat, the old suspender
/ which passes around his body in place
/ OF q belt the space between waistcOat
s.4u Yo,.y every .,g2Lab-e colL. ia
short, about him; and thus crammed,
! he returns home for the next part of
his work.
At home he has. if a pasSably well to
do and orderly rag-picker, an arrange
ment by which he may keep his goods
side of this modest apartment there is
row of wooden boxes fastened to-
gether-one for cloth rags, one for pa
per, one for scraps of iron, one for
bones, and so on. The boxes are large
and hold, perhaps, the results of a
weeks picking Arrived at home with
his gains, he empt;es the mess upon
the floor, and, slit ng down beside it.
asserts it and deposits each portion
into the proper box. 1t is customary
! when the rag-pickers carry on the busi-
ness as have described, for the manu-
facturerS to send men about to their
homes once or twice a week to pur-
chase what they have gathered, pay
ing them on the spot and themselves
conveying the material away. The
prices which the ragman receives are
slight enough: but at least there is
a steady demand for that which he
has to sell, and his luck. if var, ing,
seldom altogether fails him. For pa
per and rags he gets three cents a
pound; for bones, scraps of meat, veg
etables or bread, fifty cents bushel;
old boots and shoes and scraps of
leather have no set price, but are
bought usually for fuel, and bring from
two to four cents a pound; iron is SUBJ
iected to the same variablenesS, as iron
is dearer or cheaper in the general mar
ket. The active and skilled rag-picker
often makes ten or twelve dollars a
week. Such cases are, however, ex-
ceptiOral, the %reat majority of rag
pickerS receiving no more than four or
five dollars a week. As in all trades
or occupat ons. there are many grades
among the rag piohers' Unere is a
chance here as well as IN other walks
of life Tor energy, C8pac tv and indus
try TO command the highest price. The
incomes l have stated illustrate The ev-
tremes, the best class OF WOrkuen il
rag picking deriving from it as good
a living as others do in different
branches of manual labor; while the
lowest rag-picking stratum, the lazy,
the stupid, just make enough to drag
along precarious existence from day
to day, living almost literally from
hand to mouth. Too many of them
only earn their paltry pittance to
hasten 10 the low bar-rooms in the
Bowery or down by the r,ver, where
they soon make an end of it by spend
ing their last penny in drink. But
those who look upon rag pickers as a
class as degraded. dissipated, motive
less people utterly mistake them.
Humble as their avocation is they are
often found not humbled by it.
The total number of people pursuing
this vocation in New York city is esti-
mated at about fourteen hundred, of
which a considerable ma jority are
women; and it is observed that the
women do quite as well as the men.
and not seldom are the more skillful
also some children who have early been
forced by their parents into rag-pick-
ing. 1t is interesting to take note of
what becomes of the miscellaneous
materials which the rag-pickers man
age to gather in the various districts,
odd holes and corners of the great
city. Here are few of their destina-
tions: The old rags and paper, after
being sorted and resorted until the diff
ferent qualities are divided into sepa-
rate bundles, finally reach, through
the great dealers, the paper manufact-
urer; and in no long time thereafter
emerge into the pr nting offices, long
fair sheets pass through the great
creaking presses and appear at the
breakfast table as the morning papers.
OF the bones which are picked up in
the streets and picked up out of the re-
fuse barrels, the best become, after va
rious processes, umbrella and parasol
handles, snuff boxes and cigar cases;
these, too, are often turned into tooth
brushes, buttons and similar art cleS of
toilet or dress. The history of the
broken glass which is picked up in ev-
cry imaginable shape and form, in
every imaginable nook and corner,
ever repeats itself, and it is Phoenix
like, for it gets in the end to the
glass manufacturer again, who
soldiers it altogether, then twists and
turns it into old familiar shapes; the
glass blowers blow it in the dime muse
ums, and it once more reaches, under
skillful manipulation, the glories of
ornamental goblets and mirrors. cruet
bottles and decauters. What the old
iron becomes in its W dely divergent
peregrinations, after leaving the rag
picker's hands, may be imagined; it re-
turns, of course. to its manifold or q
inal uses; and this being beyond all
others the age of iron, when iron min
listers to a thousand needs of man, and
is indispensable al ke in palace and in
hovel, it is the most valuable as well as
the most frequent of the rag-picker's
gleanings. One use of it, however, is
curious. The ''Grecian bend" being in
fashion, iron was used in making the
ladies' panniers; so that the bits of old
iron gathered by the rag-picker in the
alleys have doubtless in many cases
found their way from the gutter to the
boudoir. The rag-picker in the pur-
suit of his trade is mindful of the
minutest details. There is no solitary
atom of which human use can be made
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