The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1891-09-03


there's more romance in the interior
than in many more pretentious places,
and one may see there the little things
that tell the ups and downs Of life and
tho changes Of fashion and sentiment
that come with years.
In this pile there is an assortment OF
baby clothing, delicately stitched, over
which some prospective mothers fingers
no doubt worked for hours, her mind
filed with thoughts Of the little one
that was to gladden. her home. The
baby came, grew out OF its little dresses
and maybe now wears trousers, and its
clothes are here to make wipinR rags or
to be worked up into paper. Or posi-
bly, the little one died and never wore
the dainty garments. They are old
fashioned, which suggests that perhaps
the mother kept and cherished them
for years till-mayhe she's dead too,
and the garments falling into the hands
OF those who knew not the prospective
Joys and mortal sorrows OF the mother,
have sold them for pittance because
they took up room.
In that pile is little steam engine.
4 close inspection showed that it is not
like ordinary engines in fact, shows it
is like no engine ever built before or
since. 1t is the working model OF some
would-be inventors ideas. He had
hoped to make a new and better ma
chine than the world had known, but
he failed--maybe he dieu before it was
completed. Who can knowthe anguish
OF the man, who conceived this little
machine, when he saw it fail. But it is
in the hands OF the junk dealer now
and will soon pass again through the
furnace fires and become what it once
was; understandable iron to play part
OF usefulness in the economy OF the
world.
a BIBLES LITTLE STORY.
In that pile lies a German Bible. It's
covers are ancient and tile print is big
and bold. A glance at the title page
shows that it was printed in Germany
fifty years ago. No doubt some early
emigrant, seeking home in this west
ern cline, brought it with him to cheer
him in his departure from friends and
home; to give him strength for daily
trials; to guide his footsteps in the
right. He followed its precepts and by
diligence and economy laid by a
competency He's dead now, and
his children, discarding the mother
tongue, have bought mn English
Bible with steel engravings and
keep it in glass case. viii it be con-
suited as frequently as thefnger marks
and well worn covers of this old one
show it was?
Beside it in the pile is book OF
ancient prints. The subjects of the
pictures are women wearing broad
sKirted dresses and hair combed low at
the temples, and men with. straight
silk hats and high stocks and collars.
Here and there are landscapes that are
considered very ordinary in these days
of photography and reproduction. The
book was fine fifty years ago, but times
have changed and the place it occupied
is now filled by something new and
probably gaudy.
People don't seem to have generation
for old things any more, and the junk
shop clearly shows that this young,
pushing, crowding world replaces
antiquities with that which is modern,
very rapidly. -.
GLOW much are rags worth now"
asked an INTELLIGENCER reporter Of w.
NJ. Clemans, the South street junk
dealer, yesterday.
RAGS ARE AWAY DOWN. y
"Rags are away down now. There's
nothing in them any more. Wood
pulp is taking their place in the manu-
facture OF common paper, and rags
enter into the manufacture OF none but
the very finest qualities OF writing and
book papers. The pickers pay from n
quarter to half cent n pound for them
and we buy them mixed at ninety
cents a hundred pounds. We sortthcm
and dispose OF them in graded lots
Hard rags, which includes old clothing,
such as coats and trousers, sell, bAled,
for forty cents hundred; colors, that
is cotton goods scraps and dress goods,
bring sixty-tive cents, and blue calico
and what is known as "blues" bring
81 IS a hundred.
"Where do you sell your rOgs?"
"They all 90 East. The best kinds
are made into paper, and common rags
and colors go into roofing and carpet
ielts. Fair wooden rugs sell for S. n
hundred and are used in making shod-
dy clothing and cheap carpets"
~ see some rubber shoes in the cor
ner there; what comes OF them?"
"Ihey bring cent and n quarter n
pound. They are used in making rub
Der hose and gum boots, and that's the
explanation OF so much bad hose and
so many rotten gum boots. We buy
bones, too. They are sorted and clNssi-
fed, the better qualities going to the
sugar reiineries where they are used in
the manufacture of graduated sugar,
while the others are made into bone
dust for fertilizer"
"How about old iron?"
"Iron is away down. Good wrought
scrap is only worth half cent while
cast is worth only half that much. Cop
per brings five cents pound and zinc
quarter OF cont. Tin and galvanized
iron are OF no account at any price and
are not handled. Oldrope is separated
from the other things we get, andis sold
to the paper makers, who use it in -four
sacks and MANILA paper"
"In the way OF old iron, what particu-
lar articles are the most Common?" !,
"0ld stove plate and horse shoes are
the most common, but we get every
conceivable thing that's made OF iron.
Bicycles, velocipedcs, wire fence, tele-
graph wire, flat irons, iron fences, mod
cls0f inventions, toys engines, parts OF
wagons, ladies' curling irons, corset
Ia