The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-06-24
BUYING OLD BOTTLES.
Once q Paying business. hut Its Best
Days Arc Over.

''Therc are thousands and thousands
OF dollars invested in the business" the
jolly-faced man said iraprcssively, ex-
plains the New York Sun. The Jolly
faced man was bearded Irishrnan,
with bit of the brogue to his speech,
q brawny-built fellow with lots of fun
in his nature, and he wns STOPPING over
big bag filed with bottles, picking
them out and setting them in neat rows
on the floor. lie worked away in n very
wilderness of bottles of all sizes and de-
signs and colors. They were ranged in
boxes heapcd one atop the other nearly
to the ceiling. They danglcd on hooks
from the rafters, they lay on their sides
piled in pyramids against the walls,
and outside in the street were more Of
them in truck awaiting storage in the
proper rookery. 1t was one of tho old
bottle storage houses of which there
are perhaps score or SO in tho big
town. This particular storage house
was on the west side of town, in q
thickly populated quarter, where the
small boys have plenty of fun watching
the men pile up the bottles.
The jollyfaced Irishman was one of
the men who make it n business to buy
up old bottles, and he began an enter
tanning chat about it by giving his visi-
tor right off Il proper conception of the
capital invested in it.
st is department Of the junk trade"
he added, but several hundred thou
sand dollars are invested in it, aud it
gives employment to about three hum
dred men all told. These three hun
drcd include Americans and Irish and
hebrews and Italians. Without wishing
to indulge in any race prejuliccs want
to say right now that what we claim to
be the recent decentralization of this
business is due to the advent of the lie
brcws and the Italians, especially the
latter. 1 remember ten or fifteen years
ago, when the business was in the
hands of the Americans and Irishmen.
that the profits were easily three and
four times us great as ut present. 1
myself was then able to earn ut one
time forty dollars week, and have
plenty of time after one o'clock in tho
afternoon for recreation. never
worked then later than one O'Clock.
The Americans and Irish who arc
engaged in the business conduct it by
means of push carts, and make Il tour
from house to house, collecting such
bottles rs the occupants have for sale.
They have regular customers, upon
whom they can count from month to
month for the best grade of bottles.
Bottles arc worth all the way from two
to thirty-siX cents IL dozen. Tho highest
price Is paid for German whitc-wine
bottles. Ten years ago the prices, rs
remember, were three times as much cs
this, but competition and n variety Of
other causes have brought the business
down so that the man is lucky who can
make anywhere like decent living at
it.
1--WE keep bottles in store to await
the demand that certain seasons nro
sure to bring. Clarct bottles are Just
now in demand, for it is the claret- bot
Ting season. Alc bottles arc also in
demand. They arc used to bottle ale
that comes to this country in casks.
Understand that though the bottle is
used again for this purpose, the label
never is. That would be fraud. Tho
bottles when collected and resold to the
bother arc first boiled and then washed
out with shot until they are perfectly
clean. These bottles are bought only
from Legitimate bottle stores, whose
canvasscrs, or house-to-housc buTcrs.
never handle oil bottles. medicine bot
ties or any of the other dump grade of
goods"
The jolly-faccd junlzman stopped over
and picked up two champagne bottles.
"a good bottle in its time may serve
many men," he added. "Here's a proof.
Here's champagne bottle that, as YOU
sec by the label, has changed to bur-
gundy bottle. This other has become Il
beer bottle. Germans arc great for
bottling beer in champagne bottles and
in white-wine bottles for the use of
their customers. Champagne bottles
turn up again rs bay-rum bottles, too.
Apollinaris bottles come in the
market again filled with kumyss.
and thus the TRANSFORMED ton goes on.
1T may surprise you to hear it," the
iolly-faced man added suddenly, but it
is fact that there is regular holiday
trade for old bottles, too. In the Holt
days all the quecr-shaped bottles and
those with the wicker work around
them arc in active demand They are
used for decorative purposes. Some of
them make mighty handsome orna-
mcntS, too There is II fair transient
trade also in all seasons for the man
who keeps the bottlc-storagc house.
Every day in the week somebody is
sure to want an old bottle for Some pur-
pose or other, and they come to the
storage man because they can get the
old bottle cheaper than new one;
There isn't much sense in pay
ing new-bottle price when IN
old bottle will answer your pur-
pose just as well. Old bottles are