PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 225 



These are instances of the utiHzation of waste, which 

 are not quite so commendable as some of those I have 

 mentioned. The orange-peel is collected in some of the 

 minor theatres and places of public resort where a good 

 deal of this fruit is consumed : and sold, it is said, to the 

 marmalade manufacturers. 



The " Cincinnati Gazette" announced one da}- that pure 

 essence of coffee is now made in that city out of the 

 "cheapest, dirtiest molasses." The molasses are boiled, 

 cooled, and when hard, broken and pulverised ; ground 

 rye is then mixed in, and a small box of the mixture 

 labelled " Pure Essence of Coffee" is sold for 80 cents. 



The dregs of cofTee have been bought up in some of 

 the Cafes in Paris, mixed up into paste with flour and 

 water, shaped into berries, and then roasted and sold. 



My subject would not be complete without a short 

 reference to that extraordinary class of waste collectors, 

 the Chiffonniers of Paris, where they form a pecuHar 

 type almost unknown elsewhere. They are a species of 

 night birds of the human race; they sleep by day-light and 

 spring out of the earth when twilight sets. Armed with 

 hook, lantern, and basket they wander silently, solitarily 

 from heap to heap, collecting cabbage leaf, rag, broken 

 glass, anything, everything. They are as a colony most 

 interesting to study. There are Categories of Chiffonn- 

 iers. One class, the ".sedentaires," have their own 

 private clientele of customers, their rubbish is reserved 

 rubbish, and out of it they make about five francs a night. 

 Many of the others are lodged, boarded, and employed by 

 master Chiffonniers, who buy from them their produce, 

 sort out the rubbish into divers departments, and send it 

 off to different industrials. An idea may be formed of the 

 importance of his trade from the fact that it is known that 

 every Chiffonnier collects nightly at least four lbs. of rags. 

 In 1872 the census showed that there were in Paris 22,500 

 individuals who live by collecting the refuse of the rest of 



