JUST JUNK

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 445, 27 October 1904, Page 8

JUST JUNK

WHEN the South street man m asked: "What i* Junk?" he concentrated his attention on it for a time, and said: "Junk is anything and everything that la supposed to be worn ont and useless, but really Isn't. It is stuff that, having lived ©n* Ufa, oomts here and begins another. For instance, here are these _»bJß> sails. They're lived their life aboard snipe, they've been all over .the oceans, and now they are to settle down on land." "What wfll they dor - "Be useful as coverings for bufld* fcra* materials, or for wagooa and their goods, or they may go to sea again on small schooners." "What good is this old roper" "Some of that is bought by vessels. Sueh a* is too far gone for snch use goes into paper stock." "Well, now here's en old Spanish bell, big and fine toned. Where did 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 easy to put a tongue In, and so the duty was saved." "And which of our office j* stneo a church bell?" "It wasn't stolen. It was lying in ft storehouse there where our troops gain to Porto Bico. It had hung in the belfry of a church that had been Corn down, I think." "What use is this rusty old chain?" "There are some boats that buy nothing except second-band material, so those chains sell to them. When they are too rusty they go for old Iron." "What sort ot people boy these tamps and lantern*?" "Those are ships' lantern*. Wealthy people buy them for curios." "What is the difference between jus* and antiques?" r '"Ah I You'll have to ask the fifth ajynue 'art dealers' about that. jusny 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 Vound and see the man in Front street. He's got the greatest collection in New York. This place is half ship chandler's." "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 snan who goes about in a small boat end buys cast-off things from vessels. Junk dealers hsve to obtain licensee, and the police can search their places at any time." "Well, what would you call this e*> tabhshment?"

The Front strset man thought fer awhile before he replied: "I would call it a curio emporium.'* "So! And may I ask what in the wastd you do with guns that are as oil asd as rusty as these in a curio emporium V "Those are not so bad as they look. They can be cleaned up and win kill just as well as they did during the civil war." m "Who buys themt"

"All sorts of behind-ths-age people. Take one of those guns into the mountains of Virginia, an it wffl 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 sight 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 Cor anything else, they are melted down aad begin hfe over again."

"What guns are those with the long t>an*3s?" •

"Aasb. Notiee the broad butts. They seem senseless, but there's a good 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 she day before yesterday. I didn't think anything of it; wouldn't even fjive him two dollars. He said he would leave it with me anyhow. Well, that gunssturned out to be the very weapon a Montclair (N. J.) man was

Ilookiag far. He'was delighted with when I charged him sl2 L • paid) ..the five dollars on account t« bind "the bargain. He's going .t mount it on a stand in his hall, an<! I whin people seem to have any doub abotit iiis stories of hunting big gaiiv j in Africa he can show them the elet phant gun. j "This cannon here I believe v> be i the oldest in the country. It is made : of fine bronze, and the date on it is j 1631. We got it from Porto Rico." j After duly admiring the old canI nontherewas a tour of discovery that extended all over the warehouse, where, heaped up from floor to ceiling, throughout the five stories, was I what at first appeared to be the most amazing aggregation of rubbish ever assembled under one roof. This first impression was hardly I accurate, however. In spite of cob- ' weba and dust and the presence of a vast quantify of utterly useless things, the place was full of treasures. Bales and boxes and packing cases full of sea stores of ell sorts that had never been opened were scattered all about. "Thej' don'* know what they've got," Raid the solitary salesman of the establishment, who acted aa guide, referring to the proprietors. "They throw these things in here sny old Trey and then forget about them. They're too busy downstairs making heaps of money to think about tfcem.]' Confusion was everywhere absolute. Not the least attempt at classification had been made. Here wan a gun carriage in sections; a pile of old uniforms; a packing case three-quar-ters full of army caps; a mass of Japanese lily bulbs that had spoiled; a quarter of a ton of soap; a great .quantity of shoe blacking; a box of white hats, such as are used in the Bavy; boxes of tinned sausages, more ■boxes of jams and jellies; crates of pruit that had dried and mildewed; peaps of boots that had never been jrorn and probably never would be, so compactly had the spiders bound Jhcra with their cobwebs. A mound is books was on one of the floors, a Snound of photographs on another, and in a little room by themselves a collection of paintings, some very mil framed and some not framed at s>ll. Of course, one of them was "an «ld master." This collection was spoken of with awe by the salesman.

"They're all masterpieces," he said. **That big one there's a Van Dyck." As the exploration extended the Stide quite lost his bearings, end the scoveries were as real to him as to the reporter. "What's in this barrel?" he queried, Striking a match and peering down at some shining black stuff. "Oh, yes!" he exclaimed, suddenly recollecting. "It's gunpowderenough to blow the whole place to kingdom some." Heaps of loos* ammunition were encountered at various points, and as there are several cats, to say nothing of rats, roaming about, an explosion would not be very suprising under the circumstances, the cartridges ."being of the detonating variety. "Why don't you establish some kind of order here?" asked the writer, wiping away a veil of cobwebs i6W. Nad fallen about his face.

"No time," said the guide. "There are only three of us in this big place."

"I'd never rest till I found out what I had and arranged it after a fashion, the clothing in one place and the provisions in another, «uid so on." "Then you wouldn't make so mueh money as the boss," responded the guide.

"But {here's sueh a deal here that's absolutely going to waste."

"There's plenty more where it came from."

"Whsre did It come from?" "Government auction sales, mostly; then sheriffs' sales and private auction sales. There was a fire at the navy yard not long ago, and everything in the building was sold at auction. Some of the goods were damaged and some were not injured at all. The government doesn't stop to look it over very elocely, I reckon. It cleans out and puts in new goods. Then, when a warship has been cruising for five months or bo, and arrives in port, all the stores she has remaining are condemned and sold at auotion.

"All sorts of things some to us from the government. For instance, we bought 80,000 swords not long sgo that had been stored at Governors island ever since the civil war. We had lively competition in buying them, too." **" "Where will they got" "Men belonging to secret aoeieties will use them up. They're in fine order, and in spite of competition putting the price up we'll make a good thing out of them."—N. T. Times.

Supports Dr. Koch's Theory

Prof. Baumgarten, of Lubig, says a Berlin dispatch to the New York Times, supports Dr. Koch's theory that boriu( tuberculosis is not communicable to human beings. Prof. Baumgart*n describes a series of experiments made by Dr. Rotikanaky 20 years ago, when patients suffering from incurable tumors were inoculated with bovint tuberculosis germs in the hope that one disease might combat the other. Not a single patient was infected with tuberculosis. Dr. Bauingorten believes that bovine and human tuberculosis are not essentially different-but-that the bacilli stiff r modification in the bodies they

inhabit. Lnkc.rari.i. F"--t Golfer—He doesn't play very ivel.. but he says he's too busy to ;jivc i.jiv n ore time to pra-'ice. ' S'. ■•■'.'■ ■ =:. • ' :.! Well, : .i a rau no-: •" M'l Ic ':is busi- •• i?- :■■ sck.