The leader., 1899-09-20

existence. A nest of pop bottles is a
treasure trove and the remnants of a
time-worn stove are klondike gold
mine.
Yet, no matter how high or how low
the scale, the members of the human
family are much the same. The stock
broker watches the rise or the fall of
the railway shares. and the Spectator
in the wheat-pit notes the price of
cereals. SO the rag-picker will squint
his shrewd eyes if you offer him an
eighth of cent less for his rags than
the market warrants and shake his
head with the decision of a millionaire
trader. They all have the same thing
in sight-the dollar.
The lines are as finely drawn among
the rag-pickers of Chicago as they are
in any class of society. The aristocrat-
ic rag-picker owns his own horse and
wagon. 1t may be rickety wagon,
but it is wagon; and il may be a very
bony horse, but ii is horse. 1t gives
him rank, and he looks down with con
tempt on the more unfortunate folk
who are pOking around on foot The
one with horse has an assistant-gen-
orally his wife-whO gathers up the
odds and ends. The others go around
with baskets and bags and do the best
they can.
The secret of a rag-picker's success is
persistency. The remuneration is small
for the work, and ii requires an enor-
nous amount of rags, bottles, paper
and iron to make IA small showing in
money. But there are men who have
risen from this great army of grovel-
ing plodders until they own establish
ments of their own and buy from the
men with whom they formerly worked
side by side in the alleys. 1t is the old
story of the six men left on a desert
island with an equal amount of money
and one having it all within year told
over again. The thrifty one saves pen
ny by penny and finally makes profit
on the work of his fellows.
You see, it's just like this" said one
of the rag sellers, who is running a
secondhand store in connection with
his junk shop; Its just like this: Ny
wife and | began ten years ago picking
up things in the alleys. We got bags
full of paper and rags, and old iron and
east-off bottles and the like. We kept
right at it and we saved every cent we
could. Pretty soon had enough to buy
horse and wagon. Then it came lit
lie easier. Then | got another rig and
hired man TO work for me. In that
way, you see, made money off of what
he made. Soon after that | started a
little junk shop of my own, and bought
stuff from the rag-pickers and sold it at
a profit Finally l saw there was de-
mand for secondhand furniture and
household goods and went into that"
There are something like 300 junk
shops in Chicago where the rag-pickers
may sell their wares. schedule of
prices is arranged and is closely ad-
hered to. If junk shop dealer does not
keep posted in the prices he will soon
find himself out of business. If he does
not pay as high a price as he ought to
the rag-pickers will not sell TO him, and
If he pays too much they will crowd in
on him till he is loaded up and forced
TO the wall by his lower-priced and
keener competitors. So ii is as much of
business as selling wheat or doing
anything tina. requires business meth
DDS and training.
The rag-yickers come from all ranks
In life, but the prevailing nationality is
italian. In fact they have nearly
monopoly of the business in Chicago.
And they are very Jealous of any en-