, out of the city, and the contractor divides
every load into six parts, as follows: Soil, or fine dust, which is
sold to brick-makers for making bricks and to farmers for manure;
brieze, or cinders, sold to brick-makers for burning brick; rags, bones
and old metals, sold to marine-store dealers; old tin and iron vessels,
sold to trunk-makers for clamps; bricks, oyster and other shells, sold
for foundations and road-building; and old boots and shoes, sold to the
manufacturers of Prussian blue.
Sometimes, much more valuable things than these are found, and the
reader may remember the romance that Charles Dickens made out of a
London dust-man--"Our Mutual Friend."
It is in sifting the different parts of a load that the men, women and
children, are employed; they are as busy as ants; mere babies and
wrinkled old dames take a part in the labor, and all of them are so
covered with dust and ashes that they are anything but pleasant to
contemplate, though, as a rule, they are useful, honest, and
industrious members of society.
"Dustie" is what the Londoners familiarly call the dust-man, and only a
few know in what ignorance and poverty he lives.
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