Crittenden press. [volume] (Marion, Ky.) 1879-1907, 1900-02-08
NOTHING GOES 70 WASTE
Refuse Matter Turned Into
Handsome Products
THERE ARE MILLIONS IN 1T

Rags and Tags Of Hegsars Into Dainty
/ Billet Doux-A Great Industry In
New York and Its ,Protts-seen In
Easements.
Nothing in New York goes to waste, II
said a William street dealer in old
metals and old magazines, to a Press
reporter.
''old rubber use to be thrown away,
AT present It is remelted and revulcan-
ICED. The macintosh which you wear
may be made of old rubber shoes
Your overshoes may be made OF old
rubber coats, so you may be wearing
rubber shoes on your back and rubber
coats on your feet.
1.-The rags and tatters OF the town
are turned into handsome products. A
man gets a note on superfine paper Of
beautiful tint, with a monogram on II.
1t may have been a beggar's shirt, met
amorphosed into a billet-doux. The ele-
giant stationery on which the fastidious
. bachelor writes his letter may have
been an old woman's night gown. The
edition de luxe with its fine linen pa
per, is made of the rags of a thousand
alleys. 1t Is the cheap paper on which
the newspapers are printed that has
an irreproachable ancestry. 1t comes
from the white fibre of the forest trees.
But the fine grades of paper are the
tattered raiment OF tramps and wan
derers, changed by the magic OF chem
,istry and machinery into a beautiful
product"
The basement shop of the dealer Is
piled high with old commercial ledgers.
over which bookkeepers wore out their
eyes, and with. old newspapers which
discuss the politics and news sensa-
tions Of q decade ago. It's walls shine
with old copper teapots. old brass
saucepans and battered britannia ice
pitchers. In one corner Is a heap of
old copper that glitters like Klondyke
gold. Here and there rise mountains of
old magazines.
The copper teapots and brass sauce
pans retain, In their fallen circum-
stances. an air of cheerfulness. But the
situation of the old Century and Haip--
er's magazines that stand on the shop
stairs in huge piles at cents a copy,
is almost pathetic. Though printed
eight or ten years ago. many of them
are not second hand, but new, for. their
leaves are still uncut.
Compare their prices with that of
old copper and old pewter, which
brings fifteen cents a pound. An old
teapot or an Anticipated ice pitcher
brings thirty times as much, ounce for
bounce, as do these literary treasures, I
THE business of preventing old cop
per pots and old pewter spoons, Old
magazines and old newspapers from
going to waste" said the dealer. has
grown TO great proportions. Twenty
years ago only ten or fifteen firms in
the city were engaged in It. Now 1t
keeps busy a hundred firms. Then the
volume of business in these seeming
trifles was a few hundred thousand
dollars a year. Now 1t Is about sec, O0O,-
O00s
Some OF these firms, which occupy
dark little Easements, have a capital
OF from $50. 900 to 100000 They handle
ten or more tons of old metal and old
paper day. Sometimes twenty tons Of
old paper go out of a place in twenty
four hours. have received in one day
thirty bales of old commercial ledgers,
weighing 1000 pounds to the bale. Tint
is fifteen tons of old accounts. The en-
tire trade handles thousands of tons
OF old metals and old paper every
year"
what are old metals worth?"
New sheet copper brings from 40 to
so cents pound ingot copper, II cents:
old copper, 10 cents. You see old copper
brings almost as much as ingot We
pay Is cents pound for britannia ware
also It is made of tin and lead, with
about per cent. copper and per cent
silver 1t is durable and will last a
hundred years. Britannia is about the
same metal as pewter, for which we
likewise pay 10 cents a pound. Pewter
lasts well. and we often get quaint
English pewter pitchers that are fifty
years old. Old lead Is 4 cents a pound.
Old tea lead. from china, 8 I-2 cents;
old type. cents; old zinc. 8 Ia cents;
old tinfoil. 4 cents; old electrotypes and
old stereotypes are from 8 to cents.
All these old metals are melted down
and used over again.
"Oid account books. diaries and COM
mercial Iedgers bring a cent a pound,
and are made over into writing paper.
"old newspapers bring IS ten. CT
one-quarter of cent a pound VThey
are turned into pulp, made into paper
and go through the press to be born
again as newspapers. Perhaps the
newspaper which originally was DEM
ocratic becomes at Its second birth Re-
publican. ~A+- - r-~
when people move. about the first
OF May, we get many curious articles
OF metal ware from them, as well az
many old books, pamphlets and news
papers. Most OF our metals come from
factories; most of our magazines from
dealers.
1.-THE secondhand book dealers ell
now and then and explore our stock.
They carry away any rare old book
or curious old pamphlet which they
chance to find. They get them for q
song, ust as we got them by the pound,
and sell them for what they w,li
bring"