Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1895 — Picking Up Half-Burned Cinders. [ARTICLE]

Picking Up Half-Burned Cinders.

New York Sue. One way in which the children of the poor in the outlying northern district of the city contribute to the general family fund is -by picking up coal and half-burned cinders which they sell to the little corner groceries. It takes a long time to get a basket or sack full of these, and a load so heavy that a child can scarcely carry it for only 5 cents. Sometimes the fuel thus collected is used for heating or cooking In the homes of the little collectors,

! but generally it is sold, for wood is j the fuel mostly used for cooking by the very poor, and fires for heat are indulged in only in extremely i cold weather. In such a winter as this has been, for the mos.t part, i fires wouldn't be considered neces- , sary. Most of these children are Italians, little weazened brown mites who dart about in the search with I wonderful agility. This coill picking ' is by no means free from danger, as I trains run with great frequency, , and it was only a few days avo that a little Sicilian girl was struck by an I express train and instantly killed.