HARD CORE AND SOFT CORE. 285 



the yard. He pays the sifters himself, and makes his own 

 profits out of the paper, rags, bones, glass, iron, metal of 

 all sorts, string, and corks. 



The contractor has the hard and soft " core " and the 

 coals and cinders. The " hard core " consisting of broken 

 crockery, earthenware, oyster-shells, &c. is sold for road- 

 making, but is now frequently unsaleable, and has to be 

 got rid of at a loss. The "soft core," consisting of all 

 sorts of organic matter, refuse from fish-shops, green- 

 grocers, c., is sold for manure, and the veritable "dust" or 

 soil, which is as fine as gunpowder, is said to be especially 

 useful for cultivating marsh lands and clover, and was at 

 one time so much sought after by farmers that ship-loads 

 of it were brought from the North. Some of it is also 

 bought by the brickmakers to mix with clay. 



Rags are not sorted in the yard, but sold in the lump 

 to a Jew. The largest cinders and the coals are bought 

 by laundresses and braziers, the smaller called " breeze " 

 by the brickmakers, who use them as fuel, to burn between 

 the layers of bricks. 



In some yards the sifters are allowed to take wood, 

 corks, and a daily quantity of cinders, as their perquisites, 

 the allowance of the latter being so liberal that little 

 markets are frequently held at the entrance to the yard, 

 where the poor of the neighbourhood come to buy cheap 

 fuel. In some places the women are also allowed pill- 

 boxes and gallipots, and any crockery that can be matched 

 and mended ; and they may also appropriate the skins 

 of dead cats. Cat- skins are worth from 4d. to 6d., the 

 highest price being given for white skins. They are 



