The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1900-02-16
NOTHING GOES 10 WASTE
Refuse Matter Turned Into
Handsome Products.
THERE ARE MILLIONS IN II
Rags and Tags Of Beggars Into Dainty
Billet Doux-A Great Industry in
New York and Its Profits-Seen in
Easements.

WIN di6 ihS SNN' ~
Easements.
Nothing in New York goes to waste"
said 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-
lied. 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 note on superfine paper of
beautiful tint, with a monogram on it.
1t may have been beggars shirt, met
Rmorphosed into billet-douX. The ele-
rant 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 a decade ago. Its 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 Harp
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 cid
teapot or an Anticipated ice pitcher
brings thirty times as much, ounce for
ounce, as do these literary treasures.
1.-The business of preventing old cop
per pots and old pewter spoon, cd
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 it
keeps busy a hundred firms. Then the
volume of business in these seeming
trifies was a few hundred thou and
dollars a year. Now it is about 2O,00O,-
900.
Some of these firms, which occupy
dark little Easements, have a capital
Of from $4,000 to 100000. They handle
ten or more tons of old metal and old
paper a day Sometimes twenty tons Of
old paper go out of place in twenty
four hours. l have received in one day
thirty bales of old commercial ledgers,
weighing 1000 pounds to the bale. That
Is fifteen tons of old accounts. The en-
tire trade handles thousands of tons
of old metals and old paper eve;y
year."
What are old metals WORTH"
New sheet copper brings from 40 to
50 cents pound ingot copper, II cents:
old copper, Is cents. You see old copper
brings almost as much as ingot. We
pay Is cents pound for britannia ware
also. 1t 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 Is cents a pound. Pewter
lasts well, and we often get quaint
English pewter pitchers that are fifty
years old. Old lead is cents a pound.
Old tea lead, from china, 3 1-2 cen S;
old type, 5 cents; old zinc, 1-2 cents;
old tinfoil, cents: old electrotypes and
old stereotypes are from 8 to cents
All these old metals are melted down
and used over again.
"Old account books, diaries and COM
mercial ledgers bring a cent a pound,
and are made over into writing paper
"Old newspapers bring S. ton, or
one-quarter of a cent a pound. They
are turned into pulp, made into paper
and go through tile press to be born
again as newspapers. Perhaps the
newspaper which originally was DEM
ocratic becomes at it's second birth Re-
publican.
when people move, about the first
of May, we get many curious articles
Of metal ware from them, as we'll as
many old hooks namnhlets and news-
papers. Most of our metals come from
factories; most of our magazines from
dealers.
1.-THE secondhand book dealers call
now and then and explore our stock.
They carry away any raHe old book
or curious old pamphlet which they
chance to find. They get them for a
song, ust as we got them by the pound,
and sell them 70, what they will
bring"