Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-03-20
THE JUNK SHOP.
It Is Very Great Factor in tile Worlds
Prosperity.

It Is a Very Great Factor in tile Worlds
Prosperity.
In certain sense the worlds pros
perity may be said to depend upon the
Junk dealers, since they are the great
purveyors for our paper mills. Our pa
per mills run our printing presses, and
the press is among the foundations OF
our civilized prosperity. In New York
City alone there are something like 200
Junk shops, wholesale and retail.
There are, in addition, about l, ITO Ii
censed iunkmen, who go out with carts
every day and collect refuse of various
kinds from door to door. The number
of unlicensed rag-pickers is estimated
by the officers of the License Bureau to
be at least 1000, number which to an
observer is manifestly much too small,
since the rag-pickers, to ali appear
ances. considerably outnu,nber the Ii
censed junkmen. Some of the junk
shops employ from fifty to eighty per-
sons in collecting, weighing, sorting,
and packing the stuff, and, at moder-
ate estimate, at least 10000 people in
this city are dependent upon this bust
ness for their livelihood. 1t is curl
GUS fact, but one which grows out of The
necessities of the case, that the whole
business is systematized to a degree
quite marvellous to an outsider. Every
description of pasteboard, rag, bottle,
waste paper or piece Of old metal has its
fixed price. In some of the large junk
shops Of this city there are no less than
seventeen grades OF wares, differing in
price perhaps by one-eighth Of q cent
per pound. In paper stock there is.for
example, No. white, which means the
trimmings and clippings of white paper
made from rags. These are mostly OBJ
aimed from bookbinders, and are worth
) cents per pound. Then comes No. 2
white. This embraces circulars, spoiled
sheets, and other similar kinds, and is
worth 23c per pound, and so on, the
prices going down to the heavy brown
puper made from ropes and book GOV.
RS, that are worth from ( to cent per
land. Old tin, rags, bottles and every
scription of junkware has the same
LISTEN of subdivision and succession of
prices. By force of experience the
weighers Of these shops recognize in
stantly the quality of the stuff they are
buying, and call out at once to the
cashier whether it is or 2-cent stuff,
or whatever it is worth.
1t is only in rare cases that the junk
man or rag-picker drives hard bargain
OF bubbles over the fraction of cent
pound. AS rule, he makes no demur
at the prices assigned. The most valu-
able stuff is the old garments, the cloth
of which, after being unseamed and
ripped, is worth from 10 to Is cents
pound to the shoddy men. A iunkman
who has lucky day and finds plenty
OF old cloth and rags, good bottles aud
the best sort of paper, it is said will be
able to make from 81 to SIS. wet day,
however will greatly diminish the prof
its. The bulk of the junkman are said to
be Irishmen, though there are goodly
number Of Germans in the business.
The unlicensed rag-pickers seem to be
mostly Italians. They certainly form
an immense colony in Crosby and Null
berry streets. They collect from the
dumps and ash barrels what the others
and more high-toned rag-pickers would
leave behind. The stuff collected by
the Italians is said to be so filthy that
most of it has to be washed before it
can be sold. So dirty, indeed, is this
junk that the best dealers do not like to
accept it of them, because the manu-
facturers declare it to be too dirty.
The business is an apparently lu-
crative one as rumors are current of
iunkmen being worth anywhere from
$50, 900 to 5000, 900, who still attend to
the details OF the businss. The bust
ness in bottles and in sheet metals is
large, the latter going to the wire man
ufacturers. Scarcely a medicine bottle
is thrown away, most Of them being
washed out and restored to the trade as
new. An East Side bottle dealer has
monopoly of his business. The Italians
sell the grease and lat that they pick UP
to rendering establishments, and it is
limited that much OF it reappears as
lard. The bones may be either ground
for manure, or the large ones cut up for
buttons and other similar purposes.
Old hats are stripped, recovered, re-
opened, and the East Side manufacturer
who buys the hat from the rag-picker
for 10 to Is cents resells it in rejuven-
ated shape for Sl.50 or 50. Old shoes
are worth anything from 5 cents up
ward, and go to the Baxter Street SHOE
makers, who use them as far as possible
in making up their new shoes that they
sell for 81 per pair.