The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1897-02-20

according to Plcayune correspond
ent, she has at the very least Sl0O.0oo'
and every penny Of it is drawing H.
terest at four per cent.
Mother Carpio never touches cent
Of the income, except to reinvest it.
She works as regularly now as she ever
did, giving fifteen hours day. from
2 o'clock in the morning to 5 o'clock
in the evening, to her beloved task.
Ragpicking is her delight. She could
not pass an ash barrel without roklus
her scrawny, dirty fingers into the
mass of rubbish ii her life depended
on it.
She came to this country when she
was twenty years old. She is sixty
five now, and at one time, perhaps,
she was pretty and pleasant to look
upon. Italian girls, in the first blush
of womanhood, are generally attrac-
tive, but il Mother Curpio was ever
Young and handsome, Father Time
has wrought some wonderful changes.
The word of her neighbo1s is the au'
thority for her being sixty-fve years
old. She looks as if her years ought
to be 1855. Nodded with a fist, CHS
eled with pickaxe, describes the
physiognomy of this wonderful ola
woman better than anything else.
She has only one or two teeth lett,
but her principal meal Of the day con-
sists of pound Of raw meat between
two hard Slices of bread. When she
feels like treating herself she adds u
raw onion to this banquet, She al
| ways dimes thus ct 4 o'clock in the
| afternoon on her return home with her
bag of treasures, sorted from the ash
barrels on her route. Then she spends
happy hour sorting the stuff over.
At 5 o'clock she goes to bed and gets
up at 100 a. NJ, SO as to be sure to
have the first pickings. She eats some
thing before going out at 2 o'clock,
and unless the barrels yield some
dainty morsel attractive to her pecul-
iar palate she does not touch food IN
til / in the afternoon.
Mother Carpio cannot weigh more
than nincty-five or 100 pounds, but
she can carry bug filled with $50
pounds of stuff with ease and carry it
for several miles, too. Her figure is
tit companion piece to her face. Long
vcors al carving heavy burdens upon
her back and Of STOPPING over ash bar
rels have curved her spine. Now II
would probably give her acute physi
cal pain were she to stand upright
Her head is always bent toward the
ground. In her youth she may have
been five feet tall; to-day she is no.
much more than four feet.
She lives in two rooms in what il
known as the New Ragpickers' row
located in the rear Of the three tene
ments at Nos. l66, 163 and ITO Mul
berry street. These hoHses are eacl
but five stories in height, yet som
700 people live in them, including ~
ragpickers. OF these latter fifty ar
boss ragpichers, who employ four o
five men and women each TO do tn
work. Mother Carpio would be tn
greatest boss Of them oil, but she pre-
fers to go out each day and gather he
own riches.
, Two rooms are an unusual luxur
, for ragpicker, but this is Mothe
Carpio's only extravaganza. besides
she has nephew, Antonio Bonnacio,
young man Of twenty-five, who We
;, born in New York city, and is more {
al American than an Italian. Il
,, neighbors say that he would like I
be sport, but he is q sensible youn
, man and he picks rugs oil day. H
old aunt thinks he is fine young maj
who loves his calling, and every ce.
. of her money will go to him when ST
= dies. When that happens Tony wi
lay aside his bag, his hook, his ragge
, clothes, his industry and parsimon
, and enjoy the world as q young ma
= = with On income Of $4,000 o year gel
!. orally does.
: II may seem remarkable that Motl
! er Carpio should accumulate so mue
J, money in such an humble calling, b
- when tho secrets of the trade O.
y known it will be seen that the prof
4 were large. They are not large to.de
- The golden times of the ragpicker o
n passed, because the city sells the pri
r ilego of sorting over the refuse
"a great contractors, and the business
h worth half million year.
~ A ragpicker does not pick for IN
It only, but for everything, from char
payne corks and pieces Of fat to bu
dies of love letters, false teeth, arI
fetal eyes, birds, dolls, toys, music
instruments, medicine bottles, &C.
c. legs, shoes and clothing, wigs, bits
lie ribbon and string, all, Of course, mo
a. or less used.
s. Mother Carpio, it is said, has foul
!: everything in her long career but
a. coffin. She found skeleton one da
o. and at another time human leg I
a. which some young medical student h
}; been operating. She sold the ske
}; ton, but the leg was loss. She /