20 ON I-HE PAPER MANUFACTURE. 



maker is one of the most roundabout conceivable, generally speaking 

 they are considered as most decidedly contraband by thrifty housewives, 

 who declare that dirt is inseparable from their stowage — first come the 

 itinerant vendors of hearth stones, glass ornaments, crockery et hoc 

 genus omnes, who in exchange for their wares are anxious to receive 

 rags and bones, soleless boots, and crownless hats, the value of which 

 no one but a Bohemian could satisfactorily appraise ; they in turn 

 convey their purchased stock to the rag shop, which is the market for 

 their miscellaneous gleanings. There, from a mass of indiscriminate 

 rubbish perfect order is evoked. Kags are sorted into cottons and linens, 

 new and old, white and coloured, the latter being again subdivided into 

 blooms and other varieties. Here also rags are first accumulated, as the 

 rag-man does not, as a rule, sell his stock, until a parcel of respectable 

 size has been obtained, when they are all cleared out and sold to the 

 merchant, by whom they are supplied to the paper maker — and so 

 exclusive is the trade that a stranger would have the greatest possible 

 difficulty in purchasing a small parcel of rags from a merchant uidess 

 he were well introduced, the owner of a rag shop usually refusing 

 to sell to any but the merchant with whom he is accustomed to deal. 

 The collection of rags is, as we have endeavoured to show, indirect in 

 its character, and the conclusion is inevitable that a large per-centage is 

 annually withdrawn from the market, by burning and other means of 

 destruction. A quasi charitable movement has been recently set on foot 

 in London, for the direct collection of rags, under the name of the 

 Rag Brigade, and we understand that it has so far been a financial suc- 

 cess, but il the quantity of rags collected for paper-making purposes is to 

 be materially increased, some more extensive organisation must be estab- 

 lished. In the Jurors' Report on Class 28, Section A, in the International 

 Exhibition of ] 862, already referred to, the following curious calculation 

 is given of the approximate quantity of rags made, collected, and 

 wasted in this country. In the year 1860 the quantity of linen and 

 cotton fabrics retained for home consumption, (which is found by 

 deducting the quantity exported from what was imported) amounted to 

 210,000 tons, thus :— 



Tons. 

 Imported of Linen, Flax, &c. . . . 145,000 

 Cotton all kinds . . . 170,000 



315,000 

 Deduct exported . . . 105,000 



210,000 



And the report goes on to state that " by taking the returns from the 

 Excise Books for a similar period, it appears that in the year 1860 there 

 were charged with duty 99,840 tons of paper of all sorts, being the 

 largest aggregate ever reached, indicating that there ought to be of 



