Ways of Living

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 426, 23 June 1904, Page 2

Ways of Living

HACKNEY MARSHES, it occurs to only a email GICJF minority of our readers to wonder what becomes of the contents of London's rubbish to good account, and here and there in the outlying districts ean be seen the tall chimney of a dust destructor. But these huge appliances account for only some cf London's rubbish s' the bulk of it still goes to increase hugo dust heaps—if one may apply the word heap to a vast expanse of land, extending over many acres, which is laid over with Bubbish. One of these places is to be found in Hackney Marsh. Nature did not intend the whole of Hackney Marsh to be perfectly fiat. There are little hills and valleys, but man is improvißg on nature, and ao the valleys are being filled up with rubbish. One shudders as one meditates on what those parts of the land will be like when the last cartload of rubbish has been shot there. Will some scientist come along and purify the evil-amelliag ground, tainted with filth P Will it be turned into pasture or market gardens P Or will some con-science-less builder erect upon it some ' desirable residences' for the undoing of generations to comeP However, these conjectures are a little premature, for probably some years must elapse before even that part of the Hackney Marsh will be ' filled up." CUBIOUS WOBK. At present it is a field of industry for some dozen men who make a living out of London's rubbish. Every morning they leave their homes and go to the marsh. Their work consists chiefly in melting down all the old tins they can find and extracting the solder from them. The tins are collected in little heaps. Bach heap is surrounded with rubbish and burned. The heat melts the Bolder from the tins, and it drops down into the ground. The cinders, solder, and rubbish thus lie at the bottom of each fire. When the fire is out the refuse is collected into buckets. Each bucket is dipped into water, and the solder naturally falls to the bottom of the bucket, and is thus easily collected. Afterwards the tins are put together and sold, Such is the main industry of the men who go to Hackney Marsh to work. But there are other men who go there to loaf, and they find the marsh bo convenient for their purpose that they never j give up residence there. They live in little caves dug out of the banks, or in miserable shelters made out of old planks and tins. Periodically they are turned away for a time, but they return. Perhaps their only sin is that they have contrived to live in such a way that they pay nothing t owardß the rates. For their food they go to the dust-bins emptied on to the marsh, and as one part of the marsh is given up almost entirely to the sweepings of streets in which costers trade, it follows that these men are mostly vegetarians. They find potatoes and scraps of vegetables and pieces of bread. They do their own cooking, a neighbouring brook serves them for a laundry, and the one great necessity of a man's life—tobacco—is found by them in the streets. Every evening they make a pilgrimage to the West End of London and hunt in the gutters for cigar and cigarette ends. It is by no means an easy matter to find these men. At the approach of a stranger they flee, and before they go they pull down their shelters, leaving only a heap of old tins on the ground. If they have slept in a cave they cover the mouth of it with tins, and it is then practically undiscoverable, for the ground all about it is covered in the same way. A Hermit, There is one man, however, who lives on the Hackney Marsh alone. He has sunk lower than his fellows. Ha lives in a mere hole in the ground, scooped out with his hands. At night time he will cover the mouth of it with tins and rubbish, but he is not particular about this, He, too, grubs for his food among the rubbish, but he cooks nothing. The things that he finds among the leavings of thousands of households he eats as they a.e, lavanously. His requirements in life are few. A PREACHER'S RUSE. ' The Ottawa Herald' tells an interesting little story of how the new Methodist church, just dedicated at Ottawa, came to be built. One day, about a year ago, the Rev. Mr Nushbaum sauntered into the office of Mr Rohrbaugh, Ottawa's Cioajus. He found Rohrbaugh reading a paper, bo he picked up a paper on his own account and commenced to read. By and by he read ont loud a fictitious death notice, commencing, ' Died, at 10.30 last night, in Ottawa, Sam Rohrbaugh.' This was followed by a recital of Rohrbaugh's many good deeds. Among other things invented by the preacher, was the statement that Rohrbaugh had left as a memorial the finest Methodist church in the West. «Which of those things would you rather have said about you when you are dead P asked the preacher. 'Brother Nushbaum,' said Rohrbaugh, • I will give you two dollars for every dollar you can raise for a new church.' And thus the fine building at Ottawa came * into existence. AN OLD TRICK. In a secant velum i on the snakes of Egypt, Hippolyte Bonssac states that the trick referred to in the Soriptures of changing a snake into a rod is still practised by the snake charmers. They touch the snake at a certain place in the neck, when it falls into a cataleptic condition and becomes straight and stiff. It is then restored to its former condition by taking its tail between the hands and firmly rolling it.