The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-11-19
IN THE SWEEPINGS.
VALUABLEs FOUND AFTER THE
SWEEPERs HAVE PASSED.

Occasional Valuable Finds and Toll
tale Letters.
From the Washington Star
Its an i'll wind that blows nobody any
good" And it must be an exceptionally
| third rate sort Of refuse dump that does not
yield in its scraplngs the merest pittance, at
least, toward the living of some one of the
! scores Of unfortu hates who generally
frequent those necessary adjunots Of a great
city. Hundreds Of people, white and black.
young and old, rollicking, dirty>faced brats
and squalling picksninnies, almost every
day of the 365 afford both trouble and
! amusement to the inspectors appointed TO
look after the city's dumping ground for
street refuse, while searching out the odds
and ends OF rags, bones, paper and what-not
that go to swell the hard lined Golfers of
the junk dealers aud make correspondingly
plethoric ln smaller ratio the pockets of the
dump scrapsrs.
And what stories Of municipal wire pull
ing, loss, misery. filth and general wrsckage
could not the contents of Washingtonls five
big dump grounds tell if spsech were tem-
porarily impaired TO thema How many
finds" would there not be in response to
lost" advertisements in which the printers
tyre was long ago pied and the proof sheets
destroyed, without material benefit to the
6dvertiser9
WHEN STREET SwEEPERs WORK.
Wsshington's street sweepers gen.
orally begin their work when every
body else has gone home except
newspaper men and the police. They
generally finish when Founders" stagger
up the avenue. and, unless there should be
storm, Night Inspectors T. C. QuantrelI
and Howard L. g. a
some new experience to their rapidly grow
ing stock, which has been compiled in some
years OF supervising the big brushing
machines operations. Many a gallant, in
immaculate rsiment and polished toot-gear,
has emitted genuine homemade Anglo-
Saxon oaths at the dust raised by the
sweeper and deposited all over his out
fit while coming from some swell dance or
reception.
Take nice, warm, moonlight night"
said Inspector Key worth to Star reporter,
land somewhere about 1 O'Clock perch
yourself in doorway along the avenue,
say between sixth and Fifteenth streets.
Wait for the sweeper to come 10 the course
of its work and see if you don't experience
big surprise within two minutes after the
machine has gone by. If you are a man of
pretty wide acquaintance it is just dollars to
doughnuts you will find more than one man
whom you know very well following that
pile OF dirt which the sweeper has pushed
In line from cross street to cross street.
Why, young man, I have seen dozens of
department clerks coming along the
asphalt it the wake of the sweeper
and stirring the mass around with their
canes like the small boy hunting for cop
pers in puddle when he knows there were
some dropped there, What we're they
hunting forl Why, valuables of any kind
money. lost papers, jewelry and the
thousand and one things that are daily ad-
Vertised for in the Star as lost No, they
weren't necessarily looking for anything
they had lost themselves; and department
clerks are by no means the only pa irons of
the sweepngs whom | have recognized
among the s-archers after bit of sudden
aud possibly unexpected wealth. What are
these mon dong on the street In so undigni-
fed manner at that time of night2 Human
natured, human nature; and il only goes to
show that we're all alike and 'on the make.
FINDS IN THE swEEPINGs.
''In city of this size" continued the in
spector. lit is natural to suppose the search
ers could generally secure a go)d deal of lost
| property of a valuable sort, but when they
do 1t is equally human nature that they
should keep their discoveries to themselves.
or course we see comparatively few of the
finds, but once in while some lucky pedes-
TRAN along the dirt heaps can't suppress his
exultation and we get glimpse Of a stray
SO bill or gold watch that The original owner
has lost and nine times out OF ten will never
| see again. Undoubtedly finds Of this latter
| character are among the rarities and money
constitutes most of the finds. Personally
know number of such running
can recollect was made near
| the corner Of Ninth street year ago last
July. A young man employed Ia tae treas
ury, and whom | knew by sight as one of
| the regular searchers, picked up we'll
glled pooketbook after four or five other
searchers had passed the same spot. hap
| pened to be standing on the curb at the
| moment and was naturally interested in
the find. The discoverer opened the black
leather receptacle in my presence, and it
| contained nearly 5000 in bank notes. There
was nothing about it to show to whom the
property belonged. but the owner adver-
| tised for it next day, and the young man
afterward told me that the original DOS
SCISSOR, who proved to be a resident Of Chi
cago on visit to Washington, was so re-,
| joiced at the recovery of his lost wealth
that he counted out 500 to the finder for
| hls luck and honesty combined.
TELLTALE LETTERS.
"More than one blackmail case had its
origin in the street sweeper, too. l have
seen some of the searchers PICK up lost let
| tiers with as much avidity as il they had
been treasury notes of big denomination,
and in at least che cese now before the dis
trlct courts the plaintiff IN a divorce suit
| secured the thread Of evidence against his
faithless wife through letter which the CO.
respondent in the case received from her
and then lost in the street. 1t was found
by some INSCRIPTIONS follower of the
sweeper and sold for IS to the injured hus-
band. who had suspected something Of the
kind before, but was not certain until that
tell-tsle letter fell into his hands. The case
l refer to involves parties who are we'll
known in Washington, and the beginning of
the suit for divorce created a sensation when
brought some time ago."
AT TIE DUMPS.
A district regulation long ago located the
principal city dumps at Twenty seventh
and n, Twenty-fifth and n Seventeenth
and B and Twenty-eighth and NJ street
northwest, Delaware avenue and First and
Sixth and NJ streets southeast The dump
down near the fish commission waters in
mainly used for the dirt ana snow cleaned
from streets in slushy weather and the re-
manning four are generally made the re-
cipents of ''pay dirt" Here the city teams
and store wagons, and all other sorts of
vehicles from the regulation cart to the
nearest approach to the Virginia creepern
Washington boasts Of, haul their oargoes of
rags, splinters, common street speepings and
waste paper, and the dump Inspector sees