588 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Philadelphia. The difficulties to be surmounted in this city are even 

 greater than in Paris or London, because of the peculiar shape of the 

 city, and because we are surrounded by water. But this is a digression. 



It is a common belief, reiterated in the daily journals, that the 

 household and street refuse of Paris is sold for enormous amounts, 

 and that so much money is received on this account that the street- 

 cleaning service of that city is a source of revenue instead of expense. 

 This is not so. The chief revenue in this regard is derived from the 

 rag-pickers. In New York these people ransack the boxes and barrels 

 on the street, without paying for the privilege, and all that they collect 

 brings them a clear profit. In Paris, on the other hand, the privilege 

 of rummaging the dust-heaps is farmed out to wealthy contractors, 

 who employ about 7,000 chiffoniers, and have a monopoly of rag-pick- 

 ing. So far as I can ascertain, this is the only source of actual revenue 

 to the city of Paris from its street refuse, and what the amount of this 

 revenue is I can not learn. It is very hard to find out anything about 

 the municipal expenditures of that city, as it has no official journal like 

 our " City Record." 



Now, let us see what are the practical results of the methods of 

 street-cleaning and removal of household refuse adopted in Paris : 



" Street-cleaning in cities has for its aim the removal of dust, mud, 

 snow, filth, and household refuse. As regards the latter, which ought 

 to be thrown directly into the carts, municipal regulations in Paris 

 continually conflict with a corporation very jealous of its privileges ; I 

 refer to that of the rag-jjickers, who conduct a business represented 

 by nearly 7,000 persons, collecting with their hooks material worth 

 4,000,000 francs (1800,000) a year, and feeding the manufactories of 

 paper, pasteboard, lampblack, etc. We are obliged, therefore, to yield 

 to the demands of these Diogenes of the street, and to allow, to the 

 great prejudice of sight, smell, and health, the throwing upon the public 

 street, toward evening, of all kinds of refuse, to be picked over by the 

 hook of the rag-picker. They insist upon this, and they wield a great 

 power." (Fonssagrives, " Hygiene et Assainisseraent des Villes," Paris, 

 1874, p. 174.) 



" In Freycinet's opinion ('Assainissement des Villes,' p. 343), as far 

 as promptness and completeness of street-cleaning in the narrower 

 sense are concerned, Paris is in advance of all other great cities ; but 

 it is not so with the household refuse, which, in the absence of special 

 means of remoA^al, must naturally take its way over the street. Al- 

 though this refuse, intended for removal and thrown on the street for 

 this purpose, ought to he taken away at an early hour of the morning, 

 it often remains upou the street till evening, is scattered about, etc., 

 and all, according to Freycinet, because they do not wish to interfere 

 with the unhealthy occupation of the rag-pickers, who rummage the 

 mess for rags and bones." (Gotel, " Oeffentl. Gesundheitspfl. in den 

 Ausserdeutschen Staaten," Leipsic, 1878, p. 205. The italics are mine.) 



