The daily sentinel., 1901-10-28
PARIS CHIFF0NIERs.
THEY FIND THEIR OCCUPATION Is
NOW GONE.
The Inauguration of Municipal System
of Rubbish Collecting Does Away With
the Dust Bsns ut the French Metropo-
lis-4O,OOO Persons Lose Occupation

A great outcry Is being made in
Paris at the abolition of the dust bins
and the Inauguration of a municipal
system Of rubbish collecting The noisy
protest comes from 10000 "chiffoniers''
who will be thrown out of employment
by the Introduction of modern sys-
TENS of sanitation. For many, many
generations the chiffonier OF Paris has
been one of the institutions of the
French capital; but now he must go,
10000 strong as he is. "Ragpicker" is
our word for "chifronier," but in real
fty the chiffonier devotes but a small
part OF his energy to picking up rags.
In the refuse bins from which he gath
ers his treasures he delights more to
dnd old sardine boxes or tins in which
canned food once reposed. From the
tin the little toys are made which de-
light the hearts of the children and
are sold on the boulevards for a cent
apiece; and from the solder are man
ufactured little toy soldiers. Old tin
cans are the chiffoniers' staple COM
modify, but he gets from the bins an
other article of profit when he picks
out pieces of broken china. Broken
china would seem to be particularly
valueless, but it is sometimes a verit-
able gold mine to the chiffonier. All
pieces with lines, flowers or other or
lamentations in gold on them are
carefully set aside and taken to a COM
pany which deal solely in this article
Of commerce. The gold leaf is care
fully removed from the shards by melt
Ing of, and carefully collected. An
appreciable amount of gold which
otherwise would have been lost to the
world is thus collected in the course of
a year. and the company which buys
the broken pieces from the chiffoniers
pays good dividends. The waste paper
collected by the chiffoniers is sold to
establishments where 1t is cleaned, and
then pressed into pulp, to come out
papier-nache. All sorts of useful ar
ticles are made of this, boot buttons,
especially, being stamped out in enor-
nous quantities by machinery. Toye
are also made OF 1t. Whisps of hair.
which are common enough in the dust
bins, are eagerly collected by the chif-
foniers and the discarded locks may
eventually come back in the form Of
wig to the very man who sighed as he
saw them come out under his brush
and comb Bits of cloth are sent to the
paper mills and may reappear at the
house from which the servants threw
them with disgust in the form OF my
lady's perfupoed note paper. Odds and
ends of food are taken to feed the live
stock with which every chiffonier's
house is provided. Sometimes even
meal for himself and his family is thus
provided.
honesty of the chiffoniers, who, when
they find anything of value which has
been thrown into the dust bin by mis-
take, are said always to bring 1t to
the Prefecture Of Police instead OF ap-
pronriating it. However, in spite OF
his honesty and in spite Of his vigor-
GUS protest, the chiffonier Is doomed,
and this army of forty thousand will
have to find some other mode of max
ing a living 1t speaks well for the
stability of the French government
that it is able to throw forty thousand
men out of employment in Paris lat
one fell swoop" without creating Sc
rious disturbance. That number of
men suddenly thrown out of employ
ment by an act of the government
might lead to disorders in any city and
in Paris it would have meant revo-
luton not SO long ago.-New York
Press.