BONES AND RAGS. 271 



and take it away before he had even a chance of com- 

 pleting his search. The chiffonnier's principal treasures are 

 bones, rags, paper, scraps of copper, sardine cases and 

 other tins, and broken glass ; and of these, two hundred- 

 weights (about one hundred kilos) of bones bring him 

 four francs; the same weight of paper from one to five 

 francs, according to the quality; woollen rags, forty francs; 

 copper, eighty francs; tins, thr.ee francs; white glass, six 

 francs ; and green bottle-glass, one franc twenty centimes, 

 or about a shilling.* Cigar ends are also carefully col- 

 lected, and converted into Re'gie cigarettes. 



Money, jewellery, and the like, he is expected to give 

 up to the concierge, or porter, of the house opposite which 

 he has found it, and he bears a high character for honesty 

 in this respect. The sardine and other tins, of which such 

 thousands are thrown away, go to support a branch of 

 industry which is deeply interesting to the youthful part 

 of the population ; for, after being stamped into shape 

 by machines of simple construction, they reappear in the 

 form of countless armies of tin soldiers, which are sold 

 at prices so low that the manufacturer could not possibly 

 afford to buy his raw material new from the tinman. 



Rag-picking is a calling which any one is free to 

 pursue, but still the fraternity have their rules and regu- 

 lations, and are divided into well-marked ranks. Lowest 

 of all are the biffins^ or chineurs, who are half desperadoes 

 and half amateurs, people who are something else by day, 

 and go out fortune-seeking in a random, irregular way at 

 night. They are not in favour with the other chiffbnniers, 

 * A franc is worth 9^d. of English money. 



