Proceedings of the Farjiebs' Club. 683 



is filled and allowed to stand, the odor and euTanations apparent to 

 the sense of smell are hardly noticeable. When the barges are filled, 

 tlieir hatches are battened down, and they are towed to tlie works to 

 discharge their loading. The qnantity of this foul material thus 

 removed annually is immense, not less than 48,000 loads, and reqnires 

 the employment of elev-^cn barges and of four difi:erent dbcks in IN'ew 

 York city. A noteworthy item in connection with this transporta- 

 tion of the night-soil is the cleaidiness of the barges, which is all the 

 more noticeable from its contrast with the peculiar natnre of their 

 contents, the decks being as free from dirt of any kind as an ordinary 

 thrashing floor. 



When a barge has readied the wharf at the works, the hatch is 

 taken oif, and the unloading machinery is put \\\ operation. This 

 is worked by a steam-engine, and consists of a large scoop or bucket 

 on the end of a hoisting rope, the bucket being so arranged as to fill 

 itself when simply let down into the liold, and to empty itself wIkmi 

 raised to the requisite height. The bucket lifts the niglit-soil from the 

 hold and pours it into the top of a long inclined shute. In the upper 

 part of this shute is a screen which separates the rubbish from the 

 material. This I'ubbish is of all imaginable kinds, cobble stones and 

 brick-bats, old boots and shoes, bones and broken crockery, with 

 every once in a while some article of value. These last are the per- 

 quisites of the men t)i«t find them, and on this account the post of 

 profit, though scarcely of lionor, is that of tending the screen where 

 such articles are the most likely to be seen. On one occasion the mana- 

 ger was obliged to interfere to stop a figlit that was going on among 

 some half dozen men about a gold watch that had been found in the 

 mass, and at another time the screen tender left his work and kept 

 tipsy for a week on a twenty dollar gold piece which he had picked 

 from the screen. Coins of smaller value, silver teaspoons, forks, 

 thimbles, and butter-knives, are not uncommon, and the laborer, who 

 is expected to pocket what he finds, invests his revolting occupation 

 with something of tlie interest of a lottery. 



After the material has been passed tlirough the screen, and had its 

 rubbish removed, as just described, it flows down into a large reser- 

 A^oir, where its more solid and heavier portion slowly settles to the 

 bottom. When this is accomplislied, the surplus water is drained oif 

 into the river, and the deposited matter has then sutficient dryness 

 and consistency to permit of handling and carriage in carts and 

 barrows. In this condition it is wheeled to what are termed the floors. 



