The Cook County herald., 1898-07-16
THE TRADE IN OLD BoTTLEs.
. New York FirA That na.dles aalf :
s}S lrulion : Day. ESs $58Sf

- NeW 10rk EirA That An1d1eS KALI .
Million Day.
From New York Sun: Almost half
million old bottles are handled every
day by = single firm IN New York city.
4 Most Of them are wine and beer bottles.
but there are also hundreds OF bottles
used for catsup and other table sauces.
The mineral waters furnish ! large
proportion vof the full number. None
OF these bottles is washed or cleaned
by the firm that collects them. but
! they must not be old and 'gummy" or
they will not be accepted. They are
shipped all over this country, and a
good many OF them are sent back to
Europe. Those reshipped across the
water are mostly ginger ale bottles
sent to Ireland, some beer or ale bot
ties sent to England, and wine and
liquor bottles sent to France. OF course
these are re-employed. 81 The dealers
here say that the French bottles are
the best made. The English come next,
the American next. and then the Ger
man. Comparatively few bottles are.
lost in transit, either on board cars
or in the collecting wagons. When a.
wagon is loaded with cases Of
"empties" the driver puts q straw
wrapper on each Of the corner bottles
at the end of the wagon. It doesn't
seem as IT this would be very great
protection, but it does serve as
slight buffer in case of passing rubs
and knocks. The bottle shops of New
York are not especially picturesque,
but in New Orleans there is one which
has Eecome noted It is visited by
most tourists, many of whom carry
away some squat, queer-shaped liquor
bottle by way OF souvenir. "The Bot
tie Man of Cont Street" owes his fame
to Mrs. M. e. M. Davis, one of New
Orleans literary women. Mrs. Davis
lives only block or two from the
haunt of the bottle man, over in the
old French part Of the city. 4, When
Eugene Field visited there several
years ago Mira. Davis took him around
to Cont street to see the bottle man
and his treasures. Field and the bottle
man were mutually delighted over the
meeting. The shop is great high
sort Of shed, reaching from the street
back $50 feet into the block. It is
piled with stack on stack OF crates
full Of empty wine bottles, while from
the ceiling hang rows of dusty demi-
Johns and jugs. There are shelves
occupied by a medley of quaint cor
dial bottles, bright green and blue, pot
bellied, flat-sided, eccentric, freakish
things. Field delighted in these
shelves, and used to poke around in
the dust and the shadows hunting up
new shapes, which he carried of to
add to the miscellaneous lot of stuff
he shipped home from there But there
was one bottle with which he was es-
pecially delighted. It was brilliant
blue in color, with very long, thin
neck and fat body, pressed into a
four-sided shape, In the middle of
one side was a seal, stamped in the
glass. Every visitor in Cont street
now I g radays = hears about Field s visits,
and is permitted to gaze upon-or pur-
chase-one of the Field bottles. After
his return to Chicago Mrs, Davis wrote
the poem, <'The Bottle Man of Cont
Street. aad sent it to him. Field re-
piled in his usual happy vein, and
these autograph verses are among Mrs.
Davis treasures today.