Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1886-10-06
FOUND IN THE JUNK SHOPS.

Old Books and DTagaxines-Tin Cans.
A great many queer and ancient
things find their way into the junk
shops, Just as valuable tableware often
finds its way into the ash barrel Of the
best regulated family. In a Canal
street establishment the other day the
writer was shown portion OF an an
cient silver service, several of the pieces
of which were pounded almost out of
shape; the metal resembled old pewter,
but it was the solid silver. 1t had been
picked out from pile of old metal In
the paper sorters' room autographs, pho
tographs, old newspapers, letters, ETC.,
form no small portion of the pickings.
Remarkable stories are told of lucky
finds in refuse heaps by junk dealers
and their employees, aud at the paper
mills. 1t is said that the papers relating
to the secret correspondence between Je-
rome Bonaparte and Miss Patterson, of
Baltimore, and the subsequent negotia-
tions between the Bonaparte and Patter-
son families, were found in the waste
paper of the old warehouse of the
brides father. In this way the entire
history of this interesting affair was
made public, and formed the subject of
book published some years after.
Not long since, indorsed checks to the
amount of $500 were found among
the waste paper Of Boston bank. The
writer has in his possession Richmond
(Va.) newspaper The Whig), copy of
the last one issued incident to the SUR
render of that city to Gen. Grant; also a
copy of a paper which contains an ac-
count of the Boston massacre, the cor
respondence relating to Washington's
campaign, both of which he found in
pile of old paper stock. An interesting
find was that of copy of the old Web
ster's spelling book--the genuine article.
1t has come spelling its way along down
the aisle of two-thirds of a century to
these later days of spelIing-books that
are fearfully and wonderfully gotten up
by wonderfully constituted school COM
mittees. Probably this old institution
got into the rag-bag by mistake or was
conveyed from some antiquarian book
store. The back of the cover is of coarse
linen cloth; the sides are of layers of
brown paper, with an outside finish of
their blue paper. The leaves of the old
book suggested bleached straw and
Stacked lime, with bit of sulphur
added to give it finish.
A peculiar class of book-hunters haunt
the large junk-shops in search of rare
or odd books and the popular monthly
magazines. These genteel chiffonnieres,
if they may be called such, occasionally
strike valuable finds in old literature
which costs them at the rate of cents
per pound. Another class of buy
ers look up the monthly parts of magar
zines, and upon completing the sets dis
pose of them usually to the Cornhill
second hand bookstores. These buyers
often tackle pile of old paper stuff that
keeps them busy for week or longer,
and it is often the case that their labor
is unrewarded. The law Of compensa-
ton seems to be factor in the old junk
business, for many get a good living
from other peoples waste, and some
even get rich out of it.
Even the old tin cans, which were
formerly condemned as useless, and
millions of which have been planted in
the Back Bay district of Boston, are now
utilized, and the metal sheet made from
them can be japanned, or timed, or gal
vanized, or treated in any way that the
material from the original ore is treated.
Out of the iron are made buttons, shoe
lace ends, show cards, telephones, cleo
trio lights, and Ietter-boxes, small ware,
etc. There are parties in Boston who
make the collection of old tin, tin cut
tings, and old tin cans regular busi-
ness, and make money out Of it. The
material is sent to New York, where It
is utilized. So the utilization of tin
plate cuttings and the recovery of the
tin has grown out of the same channel
of scientific thought and experiment
that long ago took the rags from the
dunghill and converted them into sheets
of paper Boston Herald.