The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-01-03
"MR. WASTE PAPER. !"

In shabby it'll, house, in shabby
little street, ! call it q street simply
out of comp!iment-it being in reality
only on alley that had startod out to be
a street and finding itself too narrow ly
half hal stopped at the end Of two
blocks aud never gono any further
lived shabby old man, called by his
ncishbors "Mr. Waste Paper" and by
rude boys and girls of the nci ,hborhood
"Old Mi,er' and "Qncer Eyes"
He bought and sold waste papcr, and
al tho four rooms ia his house-he was
tho only one in the street that occupied
a whole house and was looked upon with
great respect on that account--in fact,
thiak if ho had only rented a room or
two like the rest of tho inhabitants h,
would have been "Waste Paper John"
instead OF 'tMr. Waste Paper"-were
almost filed with it.
Oac, indeed, the largest, was filled
to the very cciing, o,ly narrow path
way being left in tn, centre like a
small valley between two steep noun
tains.
A deep drift like snow lay upon the
floors of two Of tho other room, and
hu dreds Of books from which the COW
ers had departed forever, old maya
zines, used-up led ,ers, torn hand bills
and circulars, were stacked along the
walls and in the fourth room, where the
old man ate and slept, all tho fur litu-e,
with tho exception of tiny stove, a
gridiron, saucepan and tea-kcttlc;
was made of paper. O.tomars formed
out of newspapers laid neatly one upon
tho othor, bed built of sonc twenty
largo bundles of coarse lrown paper
with an old "Webstcr's U ab.id ged ;
for pillow; atable made by placing
six big account books on the floor, six
moro on tho top Of them, and so on
until enough had been used. All leg
less, Of course, but serving Mr.. Waste
Paper as we'll as though they had any
number of legs.
Yru never saw such queer place in
your life, and never heard such a con-
tinual rustling and cracking as the
furniture kept up, and v,ry likely you
never met such very odd old mar.
One shoulder was little higher
and one leg little shorter than the
other; and he hal one black eye and one
blue one. AID whoa he was good.
natured he looked at You with the blue
one, and when he was cross he looked at
you with tho Ii OK one, aud l dom t
thiak there could ever have bccn two
more expires i've eyes in the who'e worl
one could look so cross and tho other
SO kind.
Well, nobody in Sam strcet-that is
what they called the ambition, alley,
a ter old Sam Junkmar, who | uilt the
first house there fifty years ago-knew
anything about Mr. Waste Paper, ex-
cept that he ha lived in that four
roomed hou'e fo- the lat ton years, aud
that the only person that he was at a
friendly with was Mr.. Dot, tho kid
glovo c.caror, who liv.d next door,
and who boiled the water for hi.
tea on summer evenings, when b, had
no fro at home.
Mrs. Dolls children, Amos and
Cherry, likol the old man very well,
for ho useI often to give th,m pretty
pictures Which he cut from the picture.
papers which fell in hi, possession,
and, moro rarely. penny or two; but
the other Sum street childrea called
him ''old mi'er," because he gave then
nothing, aad because they heard ,heil
fathers and m others say: Waste Pap Il
has good sum OF money in some bank
or other, you may bet, for his beer
buying and selling for ten years, and
never had days sickness, and wear
ing the same old clothes, summer and
winter, and not chick or chi d, or
dog, or cat to look a'tcr, and ncve
asking anybody to have drop OF bee
or pipo of baccy. HIS q reg lar ole
'niser, that's what he is
But the old man paid no attention t,
the rude boys an l girls, exec, t to turI
his back eye on them once in Will
when they became too annoying, lu
passed his time whcl at home readin;
something from his stock in trade, OF
with eyes half closed ia deep though
about what no one but himself eve
knew, whom ono bright. warm May day
he csmo slowly into his livins-roor
from the street, carrying heavy ba
on his shoulder.
He placed tho bag upon paper otto
man, sat down on the paper bed bssi |
tho paper table, wiped his face with
handkerchief, ara then opened the ba
and tumbled the contents out upon tn
paper carpet.
| He had bought them that morning o
a school teacher who liv.i at the othe
end of ths town, four mi es sw Y, an
they consisted of sole copy books. Oh
srsmmsrs Biographies, arithmetics