The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-11-12
FORTUNES IN REFUSE.
PEOPLE WHO PAY FOR THE PRIV
LEGE or SORTING oFFAL.

An Uninviting Business which Il Mo-
nopolized by Italians in New Tork-BiR
Prices Paid by Contractors for the Con-
troll of Garbage Scows.
'sScow trimming" is the euphemism for
| q very dirty job. that of raking and pick
ing over the garbage OF the city as il is
dumped by the cartlosd upon the scows
that bear it out to sea. The rubbish has
to be showed about, of course. in order to
load the scow evenly and thoroughly, and
| the men who first undertook TO perform
this work for the privilege Of keeping any
thing valuable they found in the garbage
| got good deal of sympathy from the pub
| lie for being forced by want to work at so
| disgusting a job for such poor pay. These
men were Italians, who did the work with
their own hands
By degrees the profitable nature OF the
undertaking dawned upon the city poll
tician and he bid for the contract himself,
and needless to say secured it. subletting
| the Job to the Italians, who still did the ac-
tual work. Year by year the price has
| risen, till at present the one contractor
who has secured these privileges at all the
garbage dumps in the city pays about
4 y
| When il is considered that he employs
about 800 Italian laborers, at daily wages
averaging over one dollar each. his annual
output must exceed over a quarter Of a
million dollars. This and much more he
gets back from the rubbish.
As one thinks of the big sum he natural
| IL wonders how New Workers can be so
careless as to lose so many coins, bits of
/ iavraIrv md vaIf,abIa orsi~Iav
all this amounts to, and he imagines the
dusty and begrimed Italian pickers, as
they rake over the foul smelling garbage,
ever and anon bouncing with eager claw
upon some glittering watch. golden orna-
ment, shining pin or missing coin, and
| adding it TO the pile which goes to enrich
the contractor Be not deceived; these
windfalls are few and far between. II you
were TO look at the piles of things the
''trimmers" save from the scow, you would
probably wonder why they did not let
them go with the other dirt
WHAT IS DONE WITH PTcKINGs.
Bottles make one pile. These are sold 70
the bottling agents and those who deal in
druggists supplies. Old shoes form an
other, If there is any wear at all left in
them they are sold to cobblers on the East
cheap at second hand. If they are past
cobbling the leather itself can be macer-
ated and worked up into "leatherette," or
Feather paper" used for decorative pur-
poses. and also for purposes of deception
upon those who cannot tell it from real
leather.
Rags, no matter how dirty. compose an
other pile. These are taken to cellars in
the Italian quarter, and there carefully
picked over by women and children, who
sort them according to the material Of
which they are made. These are sold 10
papermakers Scraps of paper go to the
same place and are made into pulp, aud
again presented to the public in the clean,
white sheets.
Another particularly foul smelling heap
Is composed of bones. Think OF all the
bones that are thrown daily into the ash
barrels of such q city as New York Not
one of them is wasted They are burned
and pulverized, and are used for refining
sugar or enriehing the soil of market gar
dens, and so come back to New Workers in
the shape of early cucumbers or crisp eel
cry.
When New Workers are returning in
shoals from the country, great deal Of
housekeeping goes on, and the quantity
of material which the householder regards
as no good and so throws away increases
largely, to the great delight OF the "scow
trimmers."
OTHER BoNANZAs.
Springtime is profitable, and the dullest
season of course is midsummer. The
itinerant ragpickers, who wander about
the streets raking over the ash barrels on
their own account, also deplete the con-
tractors profits, but take it all the year
through and the ash barrels OF this big
city are steadily paying gold mine.
This is not the only bonanza that has
been discovered going to waste and IN
worked right under the eyes of the shrewd
Yankee by the simple Italian immigrant.
Look at the boot blacking and fruit stand
business of this city. Not many years ago
most of the boot polishing done in the
streets fell TO the hands Of little boys, who,
with little boxes on their shoulders, in
yited the customer 10 stand uncomfortably
on one leg in the crowded streets while
they did this work
Then the Italians took hold Of it. Com
Portable armchsirs under shady awnings
or big umbrellas invited the customer 20
sit at ease and read his paper while mus
cular man put dazzling polish on his shoes
in half the time that the small boy re-
quired. Then the Italian who first saved
enough money TO buy two chairs hired an
other man to do the polishing at one OF
them, until, in many instances, one man
owned few dozen stands Of this sort at
available corners all over the city. and pos
sibly the man who sits near you with gilt :
tering diamonds and stylish clothes at |
some up town restaurant and orders cham |
payne, while you have TO content yourself I
with beer, IS really a bootblack by profess /
sion, though he looks as II be never pol 1
isbed shoe IN his life, not even his own. !.
New YORK Tribune
Hubby's Lovely Present
A fasbionably dressed lady had Just /