The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-05-04
wAsTesAsker oLeANINcs.
Shey Have . Considerable Commercial
Value, Taken In Their Entirety.

Value, Taken In Their Entirety.
Down In u cellar at IL City Hall place,
almost within stones throw OF the bridge
entrance one may see six or seven Italians,
men and women, sitting cross legged on
the floor picking away at immense piles Of
paper in front of them, throwing .
piece here and handful there, not saying
much, but just pick, pick, picking all day
long. Big bales of paper are stacked up
against the walls all around them, and the
only light that reaches the place comes
through the dirty panes of glass In the
door and from a Pickering gaslight in the
rear of the place.
The writer in moment of curiosity
went down the rickety stairs into the place
the other day. The man sitting on the
floor near to the door looked as If he might
be the boss.
"what are you doing hereS" asked the
visitor.
Waste pape," was the laconic response.
This was encouraging, but still rather
indefinite.
''Oh, you buy and sell waste paper"
yentured the inquirer.
Eyes, replied the Italian, who by this
time was gaining assurance, seeing that
inc NlSltDT WOTt nO DTdSS DutJOnS VI
department badge.
"Bigga build all around, 4" replied the
merchant with sweep of his hand.
A glance at the piles of scrap paper Oh
the floor supplemented this explanation to
wonderful extent. There were letter
heads of well known law firms, crumpled
and torn legal documents and circulars
| nd latS xuithnnt t,nrnhar A few
miles of ticker tape tangled up with the
rest made up the mess which this thrifty
merchant had collected from the "bigga
build all around, - and was now engaged
in sorting with his several assistants.
The big piles have to be gone over al
most piece by piece before they are salable.
The white letter paper is put in this basket,
the brown paper in that one. Here is a
| pile of trimmings from a book bindery,
and over there is the resting place OF part
| of the circulation of every Newspaper In
| town. This last named pile Is almost
| worthless, for since the manufacture OF
news paper from wood pulp has been per
fected old newspapers have little or nc
| value.
Some idea of the size of this waste paper
business may be gathered from the fac
| that one of the down town Office buildings
which has no newspaper Office in 1t to swell
its output, has from 400 to 500 pounds o
these scraps to dispose of each week. Tn
dealer i'm City Hall place has no monopol!
of the trade, but does perhaps n little NOR
than his share. The janitors and agent
of buildings arc only too glad to dispose o
their waste paper in this businesslike AM
systematic way.
1t can hardly be said that the sale o
waste paper is source of revenue su1ll
cient to cause sleeplessness among the own
ers of the big buildings, yet it makes
small addition to the earnings of the jan
itor which is very acceptable. The insur
ance companies, moreover, have clauses IL
their policies forbidding the accumulation
of waste paper, and are very strict as t.
their enforcement
1t is seldom that anything of value
found i'm the waste paper. One might sur
pose that pens, knives, or possibly none
and checks, might be picked out of tn
contents of hundreds of business men
waste basekts, but such is not the CASE
New York Tribune.