Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1890-02-08
RAGPICKERS OF PARIS.
FRANK LESLIE WRITES OF
THE CHlFFONNlERS.

strance scayengers Of the Streets Of the
Grea, French Capital-Their organiza-
ton and Their Work.
M. RoufT, dealer in diamonds, lost fine
large pearl, weighing 1875 grains and valued
at $4,000. Heinmediately put posters up on
all the walls Of Paris offering handsome re-
ward for itsrecovery. Several weeks elapsed,
when poor woman called on the commlssary |
of police in the Rue Montmartre and handed |
the lost pearl to that official Her name was |
Gautier, She was a chiffonniere, or female |
ragpicker, by trade, and had found the pearl |
in a heap Of rubbish in the Rue Lafiitte. She |
lived in q small wooden shanty in the Rue du |
Ruisseau, poorly tenanted street belonging |
to a quarter known as Les Grandes Carrieres,
SO named from the "large quarries" on the
northern slopes Of Montmartre, where the
city formerly got much Of its fine limestone
for building.
The new law that forbids housekeepers
placing their rubbish in the streets over night
has been sad blow to the corporation to
which this poor, honest woman belongs.
Some compensation has, it is true, been Of
fered 5he.n by the tolerance Of the police,
who close their eyes to the Infringement Of
the regulations in the narrow streets which
are lined with shops and warehouses. They
have each their own concierge, who permits
them to forage at Gaybreal; among the rub
bisl brought down by the servants from up
stairs.
They have a longer days work now. For
merly they started out at 10 at night, and at
or 3 in the morning, when the carts made
| their rounds 10 Lad disappeared FROM the
.ttters NOW they must remain unGl the
| scayengors appear on the scene, or at least
until the boxes Of rubbish have been emptied
into the comEo-, In placed on the edge Of
! the curb by each concierge
The have the worl- Of sorting 70 do when
they get back from IL. '' carly morning task
Of collecting tho refuse Some sell it to a
boss or trieur tsorteI), as ho is called, who
stays ut homo and does nothing else He sits
in his room like a gentleman and there quiet
~ assemblies, examines and separates the diff
ferent articles picked up by his work people.
He then sells the material to buyers of vari-
Gus sorts.
The business is anything but O lucrative
one. Parisians, however, throw away every
year more than 800 goo tons Of stuff, which
the ragpickcrs collect and sell for upward of
100000 francs, or nearly 100000. The
daily returns amount in all to more than TO-,
900 francs (si4,0G0, but there are 40, 600 men
and women to share the sum between them,
so that each gets an average Of franc IS
centimes, or less than IS cents. Two hundred
pounds of waste paper cannot be sold for
more than a couple of francs, WOODEN rags
are only worth cents a pound, cotton 3
cents, and bones at best fetch l franc So cen
times, or 81 cents, per hundred weight.
A man working steadily all night-for they
still ply their trade on Il small scale despite
the edict Of the prefect-may earn, if he has
a fair amount of good fortune, fronk 9rty to
sixty cents, but not more A silver spoon
does occasionally turn up in the rubbish, but
pearl of purest orient hue-well, SO tc
speak, never. Besides, every member of the
corporation of ragpickars is bound under
severe penalties to deposit any valuable hi
may find at the nearest police Office Eacf
has a card or ticket with q number inscribed
and number corresponding with that OF
the card is fastened to the hottie or basket
Ragpickers, moreover. have always beer
noted for their industry and honesty.
The ''new lawn | have alluded to was de
cree enacted by NJ Poubelle, project of tn,
Seine, requiring every concierge to previd
have it ready for the dust carts on thei
morning rounds. 1t came into force Jan Is
1884. The evident effect, if not the object
Of this regulation was to check the chiffon
nier's occupation, and to give the dust con
tractor monopoly of the refuse On sani
tary grounds the project may have beel
/ right, but policy required moderation evei
in a question where the health of so large
! oif Davis 10 ,o1 Foe 0f e,,J
denly reducing SO large crowd of homes
servants to downright beggary was mis-
take
Public opinion, which in France, as il
- other countries of a similar high degrce~o
civilization, is the supreme ruler, spoke up i
q favor of the ragpicker and against tina
= = minor sovereign known as the project G
=, the Seine Many deputies also humanel
$, Joined in the protest, SO that the now immor
Of tai NJ. Poubelle was constrained to offer PAL
,o tial excuses for his action in the matter am
+ promised that the utmost tolerance should b
II exercised by the authorities il behalf of thi
ar particular and-as Re admittcd-"most hor
= orable" industry. The ragpckers were i
sr future to be allowed to turn out the new dus
n n boxes, SO as to be able to rake over the cor
i tents.
- | will conclude this article about ras
pickers by relating the story of a poe
woman, Nine. Vanard, who arrived at con
potency by collecting orange peel, an
thereby not only helped herself, but CAV
occupation to Others She became a ric
person, great patroness of art and regl
lar habitue of the opera. Her husband VIZ
in business as a distiller of spirits and e
sences, such as are used by perfumers an
dealers in liqueurs. She gave him as niue
assistance as she could. He, however, dice
whereupon she tried for some time to carr
on the distiIlery alOne, but without success.
Talking over matters one day with I'll
keeper Of a restaurant where she used to tai
her dinner, she was much struck with a +
mark that he made, to the effect that thel
was fortune to be realized by some clevt
person in the orange and lemon peel whic
was daily thrown away by the garcons
the cafes
She took the hint and pondered over
The next thing she did was to sell her stoC
q in trade and become a sort of amateur chi
j fonuiere, with this difference-that the o.
ject of her quest was orange and lemon pc
only. She struck up business relations wit
the limonadieUS and the various walters wi