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RAGS AND RAG PICKERS.
-ai/VHERE WORN RUBBERS, OLD TINS,
RAGS AND WHAT NOT GO.
Visit to a Warehouse Heaped with Pick¬
ings of *AI1 Kinds—Sorters and Their
Deftness—A Pile of Old Kul hers and
Arctics.
’Twas in my golden age of childhood
that there lived, if. indeed. she does not
yet, a bent and withered woman, wrinkled
a3 China crepe and merry as a lark’s song
Methinks tis as far back as the third time
the pussy willows purred for me when
first i heard her shrill, cheery call, “Raks,
raks/” Prom then till I was “quite a bik
geri, missey, ” old Mary was a welcome
arrival upon the domestic scene I was
■ reminded of old Mary the other day by
seeing a woman walking briskly under a
heavy sack of rags It was sunny, I was
strolling Insensibly and followed her. She
entered a warehouse heaped with pickings I
of all kinds after hesitating a moment
did the same. Things seemed novel, so
when the proprietor looked at me in rather
a surprised manner, 1 explained I’d like to
add to my slim stock of information ro
garding rags and rag pickers. Whereat
the clerk inquired interestedly. “Are you
the woman who writes?” and a rag peddler
who had just dropped in leaned up against
the wail and gazed at me fixedly, and with
much the same expression as he would
wear in viewing a freak in the dime
museum.
“Oh, it’s great business,” he remarked ,
a
—1 mean the proprietor—as he glanced
over some letters before conducting me
over the establishment, “if it weren’t for
ragstherewould.be no paper, you would
have no Bible, no romance, no—love let
ters,” be added in quite a courtly manner
Of all the queer places, that warehouse!
lclaaibered over the foot hills of rags,
separated by valleys rich with old iron,
zinc sheets, lead piping, brass wire, and
my eye tested upon Arctic mountains in
the background, perhaps l shoujd say
mountains of arctics It seemed I touched
rudely upon professional prid o when I
asked if that Immense bulk and <-* he many
bales for shipping were brought in pickers by rag
pickers. I was informed that rag
are those that go about the streets and
alleys or beg rags, which they usually sell
to small merchants Then there are rag
peddlers who own wagons and go
among houses buying what they wish,
merchants buying from both these classes,
and himself buying mostly from them.
1 asked the proprietor what under the
canopy be does with all this truck, and
was told he had contracts with large fac
tories all over the country Old metals
to paper mills, and also ropes, which are
used for manilia paper; vinegar and oil
barrels to be refilled, bits of leather and
old boots to soap factories, where the
grease is extracted for soap for my elegant
ladies white hands, old bones to sugar
refineries, where, calcined, they purify
sugar and syrup, or bones may be shipped
for fertilizing Old bottles are returned
to brewers, etc., new cloth rags from
tailors back to cloth factories, and rubber,
“gums” as the Anglomaniacs term them,
to the factory in Massachusetts
That pile of rubbers and arctics reach
ing to the ceiling did look odd. ihere
were tiny baby arctics and exasperating large scows
stranded side by side, those
run down at the-beei rubbers which peo
pie bad lost in the street and plenty which
had sprung aleak and been abandoned,
You’ve walked from many directions.
through many paths, upon feet shod
righteousuess and those lairing hold on
hell, haven t you? They present a
Ulustration of reincarnation
they will be rid of the useless parts and
the Imparity and their best parts sent to
the factory whence they will shortly is
8U6 again, shining and deprecate new throwing
1 always used to
arctics, etc., into the alleys, but now I
shall do ail in my power to assist these
rag pickers to a plentiful spring them; crop
They receive four cents a pound and for giris
besides, quite a number of boys
get employment in cutting off the rubber.
it’s queer baling them Hundmis of
them are dung into a huge box lined with
burlap Then a man ou each side pumps
on a, windlasa-r-tbis may noL be dear
i
-
enough,but that’s what it looks like. When
the box was opened, I saw the rubbers
had been pressed out of ail semblance
The proprietor took me to another ware
house where the rags were being sorted
A long room was bordered with deep
boxes in shape and size like tables, with
bottoms of sieves for the dirt to sift
through On either side stood women
rapidly sorting them, and unerringly
dinging the rags into various barrels
* They calico
round about wore gowns
reaching to their feet, and kerchiefs on
their heads, to protect themselves from
the dust They didn’t seem to bo paying linen,
any attention to whether rags were
woolen, mixed, what not. I asked one of
them how she tells “By the feeling
We scarcely ever stop to tear it. We get
so that we can tell anything by touching
it, even with our eyes shut.”
“Easy learnt? Well, for those as has
the knack Some girls pick it up in a
couple of weeks some never can learn it.
Oh it isu t disagreeable work when you’re
used to it Most rags is pretty clean.
Some, she pointed to a bin It gave new
meaning 'filthy to men’s righteousness being
dke rags.”—“A. K P.” in Pioneer
Press
Sash Weights from Tin Cans.
There is no secret about the process.
qq ie oa |y thing is to have a proper sized
f U ruace and to get up a sufficient heat,
p|j e business has developed of late, but
manufacturers say the margin of profit is
sma n it costs more to melt the scraps
ldan common iron. Chips ready for the
f ur ,,ace cost $7 a ton. Tho sash weights
produced are of a superior quality The
business is like the case of old rubber, an
illustration of the use of waste material.
pjje tin can companies and other manu
facturersof tin goods formerly dumped
b Ull dreds of tons into space, but now
these scraps are utilized, and tbeirrespon
SJ bie small boy works the ash fields to his
profit in companionship with the blithe
some goat - Commercial Bulletin.
----■
For | lecort iing an Earthquake.
of . , . ^
The model an e*r qua*
.
piece of apparatus t a
stmeted .by a f° vl ° ? e ,f f* p
tiently and laboriously o ° x . iy
o
accurate records of a
graph. 1 ro lessor Sekiya ias
shaping a long coil o copper
to represent, with tho u mos P 1 »
the tntricate path described by a shaken
of the eat th a sui ace.•
magnifies fifty tunes io gr
soiuie morion dining seven v
oiui.s and resent Res a ‘ ‘ °
, ,
and thrown t owii n
heap Numbered tags s iow i pi g
of the shock for eac i seeo < o . ^
New Orleans icayune.
Average Height of Soldiers.
u hft9 ffenerally been believed that the
pec j llctio u in average height of French
so]( j iers which followed Napoleon’s wars.
fu^lecamp^ismade , f to ti e ; mmense slauniitei thus?
all of sol
djerg the sbor tcst in Europe But, ac
cord5 ^ to a W | gh medical and military
auUj0l ty ln Ru sia , the minimum height
ol - the R u ssiail and the French conscript
js aboul equa 1 j_ five feet, while in most
othep E „ ro an countries the minimum
ran J from five feet one ino h to five feet
thr e inches.-New York Home Journal
_
A ^ ,ielmet firemeu.
A new helmet for firemen has been in
vented in Bremen It consists
of a copper mask, which is very light
The wearer’s nose, mouth, and eyes re
ceive through an india rubber tube a con
slant stream of pure air, which leaves the
helmet by an opening opposite > he eyes
and prevents the entrance of smoke.
helmet has been practically tested and i*
to be used by the Berlin firemen, it is said
-New York Surn
__
C ause and Effect.
Clubman—Tho Mormon men have no
clubs. 1 suppose?
Ea j t Man—Tbev had not until
j a ^ e jy but several clubs have been started
u -fthin a year
,, “indeed? Then the report that
are abandoning polygamy must be true.*
—Omaha World.
-
TALES OF THE TEETH
TRADITIONS, OMENS AND ADAGES
AMONG THE UNEDUCATED.
All Sorts of Superstitions Concerning the
Teeth—Charms and Other Remedies for
Toothache—KnglUli and Irish Recipes.
The Prayer Cure.
The teeth and the aches to which they
give rise have been uneducated subjects of many
strange ideas among people
Teeth have even been worshiped, and are
still venerated as relics in somo Catholic
shrines. Buddha’s tooth Ceylonese is preserved worshiped In a
temple in India, and
tho tooth of shark’s a monkey, while an elephant’s similar
tooth and tooth served a
purpose among the Malabar Islanders and
the Tonga Islanders respectively Siam¬
ese valued a monkey’s tooth so highly
that they are reported to have offered the
Portuguese 700.000 crowns for it.
There was a tradition that, from the
time Chosroes. the Persian, carried off a
piece of tho true cross from Constantino¬
ple, the number of teeth in the mouths of
men were reduced from thirty-two to
twenty three. It is needless to say that
we still have thirty-two. Teeth have
often been worn as amulets. Sharks’
teeth serve this purpose In Samoa. It
was formerly thought that a wolf’s tooth,
worn in a bag about the neck, would
chase fear away from tho possessor. The
back tooth of a horse, found by chance,
will, say the Irish, keep you supplied with
money
omens and adages.
There are many omens connected with
Infants’teeth, as well as those of adults
[f a child teetho early, it is thought in
England to predict more children. “Soon
teeth, soon toes.” is the adage, both in
that country and in Sweden if a tooth
comes first in the upper jaw it is. on the
contrary, an omen of early death, as the
child cannot survive so potent a disaster
An old work, published in 1033, tells ua
that to loose a tooth or an eye is also to
lose some friend or kinsman, or is, at
least, attended by some ill luck He who
has hia teeth wide apart Is there said to
be attended by good luck. Bretou mothers
will no t t ouc b infants’ gums, lest tho
teeth grow crooked. To aream of teeth
was a warning j? of some disaster, unless
y£m droamed t ey fell out
The period of teething being an anxious
one In childhood, it is extremely impor
tant t0 have ft over with. In Sussex,
England, a necklace of beads made from
peony root was placed on tho child’s neck
to assist this operation, and one of amber
beads was also thought powerful. It was
also said that first teeth must not bo
any animal got such a trophy the next
tooth would bo like that of the animal
finding the old one. In Nova Scotia, and
i n S0Ine parts of the United States, chil
<*ren a** 6 told that the new tooth will be a
gold one if the tongue is kept out of the
old cavity .
Folk lore is full of odd notions about
the toothache, and many queer remedies
are current for it It was onco thought to
be caused by a worm.
One of tho most potent remedies was
thought to be a charm of some kind oi
other In England this charm is a rhyme
or prayer written on a piece of in paper Oer
Verses for this purpose are current
many to this day St. Appollinus was
especially invoked for this malady in tho
Thirteenth century
^ work published The in 1593 prescribes the In
following remedy patient vessel was to
bale the sruoke from a in
herbs were mixed with live coals
u e mus t then breathe over a cup holding when
water m i xe d with wa.\ and scrum,
R was said that a worm, the cause of the
trouble, would appear in the cup.
akotheh stiunqe UKMKDT.
Nearly a century later wo find another
strange remedy “With an iron nail raise
and cut tho gum from about the teeth
until it bleed, and that somo of the blood
spill upon the nail Then drive It into a
wooden beam up to the head. After this
is done you never shall have tho tooth
in ail your life.”
i Another old writer of the same pc'riod. the
Aubrey, gives popular remedies for
s ’ ”
*
tootliacne. a &p«m«r bC wpou t#c
gibbet was thought efficacious in the
north of England, while in Devonshire it
was thought best to bit© a tooth from a
skull in a grave yard, and carry it In the
pocket as a charm. In another part of
England, an equally ghastly amulet was a
tooth drawn from the mouth of a corpse,
carried in the pocket The paw of a live
tnolo or a double nut were also prescribed
as preventive charms To dress the left
foot and leg before tho right is equally
effective
Some of. the Irish cures for the tooth¬
ache were fully as ghastly as thoso cited
above One of these empirical recipes
bids you go to a grave, kneel upon It, say
tbroo paters and three nves for the soul of
tho dead, then chew a handful of grass
taken from the grave, spitting it out.
Tho toothacho will never after trouble
you comb
Another remedy Is invoking to vow never the Creator, to
your hair on Friday, You
the afterwards Virgin and neglect the tho new moon. first, but may
two must
kneel and say five prayers on first behold¬
ing tho now moon ; rhe two jaw bones
of a haddock have been powerful In al¬
laying tho toothacho ever since tho mir¬
acle of the loaves and fishes If you wish
to avoid the toothache, say tho sons of
Erin, never shave on Sunday.— Globe
Democrat.
Stonewall Jackson and the I’rleat.
Dr. J William Jones, tho gallant Con¬
federate veteran, was standing with some
friends on Broad street bridge waiting for
the procession on Decoration day. “I
wonder, ” somo one asked, “if any body of
troops ever moved exactly on time?”
“Never,” replied the doctor quietly, “I
imagine, since Stonewall Jackson.died.”
This seemed to set tho rmninisceutai
mood and the doctor continued.
“By the way. did von ever hoar tho
closoof tho prayer umae by Father Duber .
tho bravo Catholic priest who was chap¬
lain of Ilay’s brigade? It was in New Or¬
leans, on a big Confederate day. and Father
Dubert was praying lie had Stonewall eulogized
the Confederate soldier In Gen
Jackson in particular—when ho closod
with these words “And now. Almighty
Gg^l our Father, thou knowest that when
thou mud os t up thy mind that the Ihdh Con¬
federacy should be defeated in war
found it necessary to remove thy servant, couldst
Stonewall Jackson, boforo thou
accomplish thy purpose!”—Atlanta Con¬
stitution.
A Wurm rroceeUlnjr.
Brown—What’s tho matter. Dumley?
Yon look hot (angrily)—Hot about something. 1 should
Dumley f say so.
I was around at the Eaglo just now, atul
that fool Featherly dropped a chunk of
ice down mv back Enough to make anv
man hot!—New York Sun.
A FAR CRY TO HEAVEN.
What! do*t tliou pray that the outturn) title be
rolled back on the strand.
The Hume bo rekindled Hint mounted away from
tho smoldering brand.
The pa«t summer harvi-st flow golden through
sfwbblt- lands nnk«*l and war,
Tim winter K ra y w<*ods upgaUierand quicken the
leavtw of last year?—
Thy prayers ane as clouds in a drouth; regard leas,
unfruitful, they roll;
For this, that thou prayest vain things, tis a far
cry to heaven, my soul—
Oh, a far cry to heaven!
Thou dreamest the word shall return, shot arrow
like into the air,
Tho wound in the breast where it lodges! bo
bahned and closed for thy prayer.
The ear of the dead bo unsealed till thoti whi ter
a txK)ii once denied.
white hour of lif«» bo restored, that {>aask*d
thee unprized. un<i.-*cn«*d ?
For this, that thou prayrst rund things, tby
ro(J J Uunn a far
cr y to heaveu my kouI
Oh, a fur cry to heaven f
Andcravest thou fondly the.quivering sands shall
^ b^kSb^of the waste to thy lips be
made wholesome and sweet?
And cmvest thou subtly the bane thuu bo
wrought to thy good,
As forth fmrn a poisonous flower a U-e convey*
safe food?—
For this, that thou ost t .. na*s, y p.aj.tr
pra\
,?tu \* cto^-d-niaa far cr> to
beami. my soul
uu, u f» r vry to heavyal
— Edith M. Thomas io TUe Century,