Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1920-04-08

used az good cough medicine after
the kernels are turned into white pow
der. In many small villages this white
powder is a very popular, convenient and
cheap medicine for the poor people as a
remedy for coughe
Another waste material put to use by
Chinese in different towns of each prov
jnce are oyster shells. They are in great
demand for the manufacture of Chinese
lime. One picul of such shells (about 1873
pounds) costs approximately 80 or 80 cents.
In many towns where there are many
Chinese restaurants one will see scav-
engers packing shells of this kind into
bamboo cases. In the front corner of
Chinese houses in villages, especially those
near coast cities. big baskets are always
seen They are put there by scavengors
as refuse boxes.
When full, they will pick out FISH shells
and even broken pottcryware for every
thing has a market value in China The
broken bowls and cracked potterywarc
Ia broken into small particles and after
ward sold to masons for making founda e.
ton Of strong walls, after being mixed
with cement. Many pretty houses in big
seaports. such as Shanghai. Canton, Foo
chow etc, have the walls made of brok-
en- potteryware mixed with cement. ono
hundred catties cost about 30 cents which
| means the upkeep for two days of poor
| family. In big towns there are hundreds
| of such scavcnEers who make n living
| upon the collections of the waste mate
rails.
Another interesting collection of waste
| material in Shanghai alono has brought
not a small amount of money to many
,,,I
! collection of cigarette ends. After filling
| a tin Of about two inches in diameter and
four inches deep it is brought to a for.
| eign or native tobacco factory, which
will buy It for five or seven cents The
tobacco factory will manufacture it into
cigarettes and thus make good prof
out of the material which it buys at 9
| cheap price.
! So far as the frugal!ty of Chinese /.
concerned nothing is wasted in China
| and even the dirt of the street cost.
money when It is carried to a farm
yard where farmers will buy it and turr
| it into fertilizer. Prices of dirt vary II
| their kinds and the ash of burning wooC
| from cooking stove of a Chinese family
has a good value. 1t brings q good amour
| Of tea money to the house boy of a bis
| Chinese family who sells It to gardner
| for fertilzing flower plants When a pc
| culiar cry is heard the house boy seem
| to understand that an ash buyer ha
| come; Immediately a big quantity of kit
| chen dirt and stove ash. which he ha
stored up, Is brought to the buyer. Thirt,
pounds Of the waste material of this kin,
cost about 10 or Is cents
During the last few years the deman
of waste foreign magazines. pamphlets
| newspapers, etc, has been exceedingly
great among the hawkers who buy diff
ferent kinds of very old foreign maya
zines nearly at one-thrd of what the
icost originally. Their use probably Is t
make soles for sandals for the poore
classes of Chinese to wear in place O
shoes in good weather. If the waste mag
aZineS contain some war pictures the
will be applied to better use than max
ing of sandal soles. These people are to
poor to get themselves educated and the
do not know how to read and write an
the best way for them to get some know
edge of world affairs seems to bethroug
the medium of the pictures in some for
eign magazines. Many scavengers bu
such things from the house boy Of som
foreign residents