The Opelousas courier., 1892-03-12
4 BIG CITY'S PAY DIRT
EolsTUNES MADE IN NEW YORK'S
STREET SWEEPINGs.
4 Privilege Worth Over 500, 900 q
Year-Aii Army OF Rag PicAers
-Garbape Pier DweIlers.

4 Privilege Worth Over 100000 q
Year-An Army OF Rag Pic&ers
Garbage Pier Dwellers.
The s~weepings Of the New York
streets support at least five hundred peo-
PIE. They are lodged, fed, clothed, ed
ucated and furnished amusements by the
drift from the street. The mud of the
city is pay-dirt to them. They make
more than the average gold-prospector.
You ask ''howT'
Years ago New York used to hire men
to ''trim" the barges of the garbage
feet, so that they wouldn't capsize or
become w~aterlogged, or founder when
they dropped out from Sandy Hook to
fill up the Atlantic Ocean. 1t costs
the city something to get its little navy
ready to leave port.
By and by came along some men who
said there was valuable brass in the clty's
dust pile, and fine nuggets Of coal, and
precious bottles, rich rags, priceless old
shoes, and bones that were not to be
sneezed at. They offered to trim the
barges for nothing and board themselVe'
if the city would let them pick out al
the odds-and-ends which they consid-
cred valuable. The offer was accepted.
It was thought strange that they should
work without compensation at what had
hitherto been paid for.
The city's sweepings was a gold mine.
Other men grew jealous of the privilege
of working for nothing, and offered to
pay the city if it would permit them to
trim the barges, and fish for the valuable
debris from the ash-carts. New York
was only too glad to sell its broken glass,
old iron, WORKOUT rubber shoes, battered
tin cans etc., and it put this money III
its pocket, and let the people who paid
for the privilege shovel the sweepings.
Two years ago a contractor paid Silly
a week, or $5S, 604 a year, for the right
to fish in the city's garbage-piIe. The next
contractor who bought the privilege paid
$l502 a week, or SIS, 104 a year. The
last contractor paid S1737 a week, OF
the SUN of 500, ga a year.
The city's navy has grown, and it now
comprises for~ty-nine mud-scows of the
most modern build and the most recent
improvements. None of then can &c
TWENTY-FIVE knots an hour, and none are
armor- plated, but they are not surpassed
in number and style by the navy Of an.
other city.
A big fleet OF twenty two of them pu
to sea every morning and return to port
every evening. They excite the admira.
ton Of everybody, end are known as TIT
,sblack squadron" The city own
twenty one garbage piers, from which
they sail,
One hundred and five men from sunny
Italy earned their living by sorting the
garbage for the contractor, who paid
800, 900 for the privilege. AS they all
have large families it was estimated that
the bric.a-brac on the mud scows sup.
ported 500 man, women and children
besides paying $90,224 a year iuto the
city treasury, and affording q handsome
profit to the contractor. 1nasmuca al
the men trimmed the scows, performing
work which would have cost the cit!
$1,000 a week, or $50, 600 a year, tn,
garbage heap poured into the lap Of New
York S142, ga a year. Few silve
mines in the West pay such dividends
Nineteen piers in New York City hav'
people living in them. They are tn
garbrge piers, and the people who hav'
snapped their fingers at the enemen
houses and live rent-free are the Italian
gentlemen who trim the garbage boats
Their little homes beneath the piers ar
furnished with bright bits of carpe
taken from the garbage heap, and witt
various odds and ends which they hav
found there. Little pictures aiorn tn
walls; there are chairs and tables, ant
each little home has a cheerful stove ant
q singing tea-kettle. There are no piano
and portieres as yet, but doubtless the
will come after awhile.
The ~ianitors of the large Office build
ings of the city enjoy a great revenue
from the unconsidered scraps of pape
which are thrown on the office floors
These scraps are gathered up, put init
bags and sold. Some j~anitors receive
$500 a year each from the sale of thi
waste paper. Old newspapers brin.
twenty-five cents a hundred pounds, 0
$3.50 q ton. Ordinary book paper aut
fine book paper bring one cent a pound
or $40 a ton. Scrap paper sells for ont
fourth of a cent a pound. During tt
Civil War it brought ten cents a pound
or forty times its present price.
It is estimated that at least 1000
men, women aud children in New Yor
City draw their daily bread from the ash
barrels. They start out with bag an
hook at 2 o'clock in the morning
whether in the soft, moonlit nights
summer, or the bitter, cold nights
winter.
Every ash-barrel on their route is ez
plored by them. No rag, bone, piece :
iron or lead escapes them. They gath
the rag in the street as it flies. BY hal
toll each earns from fifty to seventy-iv
cents a day. There are hundreds of IA
shops and junk shops in the city whic
buy aud assert the rags.
It is estimated that not less than Is,
900 people are engaged as rag picker
junk dealers, clerks, bookkeepers, gar
bage-pickers, contractors, etc, in mall
ing a living out of what the people
New York throw away. It is elaine
that sc, 1000 people derive their Twin
from the dust heaps and ash-barrels of Il
city.-Nep York Journal