JUST JUNK

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 426, 23 June 1904, Page 8

JUST JUNK

WHEN the South street man wae asked: "What is junk?" he concentrated his attention on it for a time, and said: "Junk is anything and everything that is supposed to be worn out and useless, but really isn't. It is stuff that, having lived one life, comes here and begins another. For instance, here are these ship's sails. They've lived their life aboard ships, they've been all over the oceans, and now they are to settle down on land.' * ,j "What will they do?" "' "Be useful as coverings for builders' materials, or for wagons and their goods, or they may go to sea again on small schooners." . "What good is this old,rope?" "Some of that is bought by vessels. Such as is too far gone for such use goes into paper stock." "Well, now here's an old Spanish bell, big and fine toned. Where die you get that and what will you do with it?" "That is from a Porto Bican church. It was brought in as old metal; for the tongue was out. Still, it was •asy to put a tongue in, and so the fluty was saved." "And which of our officers stole a church bell?" "It wasn't stolen. It was lying in a storehouse there where our .troops gotfito Porto Kioo. It had hung in the belfry of a church that had been torn down, I think." "What use is this rusty old chain?" "There are some boat6 i that buy nothing except second-hand material, so those ohains sell to them. When they are too rusty they go for old iron." "What sort of people buy these lamps and lanterns?" "Those are ships' lanterns. Wealthy people buy them for curios." "What is the difference between junk and antiques?" "Ah! You'll have to ask the Fifth avenue 'art dealers' about that itfany and many a battered bit they get from us for a song and sell for a fancy figure. But you're in the wrong shop to learn about junk. Go 'round and see. the man in Front street. He's got the greatest collection in New York. This place is half 6hip chandler's." 9' "Junk, sir; no, sir, this isn't a junk shop. Far from it, sir," said the man in Front street. "A junk dealer is a man who goes about in a small boat and buys cast-off things from vessels. Junk dealers have to obtain licenses, and the police can search their places at any time." .. ; "Well, what would you call this es»tablishment?" ?■• The Front street man thought for awhile before he replied: "I would carl it a curio emporium." ■ ? } "So! And may I. ask what in,~th£ ws&id you do with guns that are as c*t Matd as rusty as these in a curio emporium?" "Those are not so bad as they look. They can be cleaned up and will kill just as well as they did during the eivil war." "Who buys them?" ..._'•: "All sorts of behind-the-age peor pie. Take one of those guns into' the mountains of Virginia, an It will be modern. They're still using flintlocks there. All through bouth America and Africa there's a sale for such guns, and in many parts of Asia, too. I sold 200 of them last week to a man in the China trade. His firm has eight ships, and they're arming the crews against the pirates that now infest Chinese waters." "But some of these are rusted to pieces." "Well, they either serve as curios or as old iron. When they're too bad for n«ything else, they are melted down aK« begin life over again." "What guns are those with the long bam-**?" "Ainl'o. Notice the broad butts. They seem senseless, but there's a Erood reason for them. 'They're made like that so that the weapons won't sink in the sand when being loaded. This weapon with" the enormously thick barrel is an elephant gun. It weighs 25 pounds, and is made so thick in order to lessen the force of the recoil from the heavy charge of powder. You see that it's in perfect condition. A man rushed in'with it the day before yesterday. I didn't think anything of it; wouldn't even give him two dollars. II he would leave it with m? an\«;ow. Well, that gun turned o'.it to be the .very wcaejon a Montclair (N. J.) man was