The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-06-26
PROFITS OF THE JUNKMAN.
why Hts Business IL Peculiarly sensa-
tive 10 Financial Changes.

tFrom the Cleveland beader.)
you wouldn't think it." said vet
eran junkman, .bnt my trnde Is really
the BEST barometer OF business. You see,
it Is this way: When new things, espec-
tally new materials, are low priced and
of sluggish sale, nobody is going to the
trouble and expense Of working over old.
found that out first after the panic of
'73 had been making money right
aion ever since l started ten years be-
fore, and had about pretty well anything
that came TO hand, from worm eaten
calfskin to rusty village cannon. 1t
was sort of nofnadic business. went
to biggish towns lying along the rail
roads, stayed in them one month or six,
ana bought whatever anybody weuld sell
me ut the rate of 80 cents a cartload.
Then hired a shed somewhere, sorted
my stuff and shipped 1t. Ny chance Of
profit lay in knowing just where to send
each sort of 1t.
why, In the matter Of scrap iron
alo ne I had fourteen different markets.
| Ca stings-pot metal, as we called them
| went to the furnace closest at hand, there
| by saving freight, since they were not
merely heavy, but bulky. sheet an
wrought iron went to the roofers, or
rather the galvanizers; chairs, big and
| little, TO the makers Of irUn rods, and
iron filings and turnlngs to the smelters
OF gold and silver. The sinelters, indeed
are bound to have them Tor some part II
| their chemical reduction. just what l
don { know. 4 do know thai they would
pay for clean bright turnings and filings
something more than $40 u ton. Now
and then ! struck factory town that
had for years been dumping such filings
among its waste. Then l usually also
| struck d i,argain-say 50, fer the whole
| lot,-dug IL out, cleaned, and sold 1t, II
| not at full rates, high enough 10 make
me feel like 1 was working gold mire.
1T was something the same way with
cid brass, old copper, zinc aud lead
Zinc, though. was a fzsr'ity. Maybe you
don { know ii, but zinc hardly never W sars
ont la the ordinary st nee. Ii roiatizes-
that Is to say, evaporatss, In many surts
of use--so when it Is done there is moth
ing left of 1t. But the other metals stood
me In from one to ten cents n pound,
aud their average cost to me was less
than quarter of o cent. Rags were
nearly rs profitable, for wood pulp was
then in It's infancy, SO they were still the
most considerable source OF white paper
stock. Wooden rags, nsw er partly worn.
L sold to the shoddy mills which ground
them up, mixed them with u little new
NO1lt AMI spun tItth dStils Via U1Ai ttt'ts
| went to the felters, old books and papers
to the makers Of paper board. Hides
and bones-l lodged them unless the
dodging was likely to spoil "a trade-l
sent to a man in the city, who paid
freight ON them, and paid me whatever
he chose for the lot. dare say he made
a big pratt, hut l could well afford to
let him have 1t.
In the fall of '73 had about 500 tons
Of stuff here and there, and was confident
OF doubling my profits here next year.
Pretty soon i discovered how much l
had reckened without my host. First
my old iron lay dead on my hands-l
could neither sell nor gave away any
thing btrt the filings, and they Wen.
down 10 "A quarter of the old price. Brass,
VIII ,ch had been steady al to 10 cePts a
pound, wouldn't fetch 4 cent; copper
declined to Ia cent; and lead Went 50
low il would not pay carriage, much less
freight. II hal been wise l would have
made bonfires of whatever would burn,
and lett the other stuff lying, but had
the faith OF inexparience. For two years
l paid rent and Wages trying TO work off
that stock. Then / saw l had TO make
an end of 1t or it would soon make an
end of me and my bank account Well
when ths books were kAlanced they
showed n loss of So, 00o-rartly ON stock,
but more through the expense Of trying
to carry 1t over into better times.
"A short boom--what L call prosperity
fiufry-hardiy affects the trade. Things
have got to go up and stay up, and seem
as though they mean to stay still longer
lake iron. for example. The trade IN 1t
has been brisk now for two years, but Ii
is only within the last six months that Ii
has been worth while to deal largely in
scrap iron, though scrap iron Is u sort
Of staple. In cities copper and lead, es
peciaily lead pipe, are In n degree except
Ions to the rule. Plumbing you UNDER
stand, accounts for the demand for lead
pipe, and the wonderful development of
electricity keeps copper of any sort way
up, even without TIA King account OF the
Copper Trust. On the whole, though,
you may accept it as fact--it takes very
good times for man to make more than
a meagre living in handling the waste
.arsl.asts Of lixina known tenhnicallY as