Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1893 — The Ragpickers of Paris. [ARTICLE]

The Ragpickers of Paris.

The wealth of Paris is so boundless that the rubbish and refuse of the city arc worth millious. There are more than fifty thousand persons who earn a living by picking up what others throw away. Twenty thousand women and children exist by sifting and sorting the gatherings of the pickers, who collect every day in the year about 1200 tons of merchandise, which they sell to the wholesale rag-dealers for some 70,000 francs. At night you see men with baskets strapped on their backs, a lautern in one hand, and iu the other a stick with an iron hook on the end. They walk along rapidly, their eyes fixed on the ground, over which the lantern flings a sheet of light, aud whatever they find in the way of paper, rags, bones, grease, metal, etc., they stow away in their bask?ts. In the morning, in front of each house, you see men, women, and children sifting the dust-bins before they are emptied into the scavengers’ carts. At various hours of the day you may remark isolated ragpickers, who seem to work with less method than the others and with a more independent air. The night pickers are generally novioes; men who, having been thrown out of work, are obliged to hunt for their living like the wild feasts. The morning pickers are experienced and regular workers, who pay for the privilege of sifting the dust-bins of a certain number of houses and of trading with the results. The rest, the majority, are the coureurs, the runners, who exerfcise their profession freely and without control, working when they please and loafing when they please. They are the philosophers and adventurers of the profession, and their chief object is to enjoy life and meditate upon its problems.— [Harper’s Magazine.