raziers (for whose purposes coke
would do as well;) and the next sort of cinders, called the _breeze_,
because it is left after the wind has blown the finer cinders through
an upright sieve, is sold to the brick-makers.

Two other departments, called the "soft-ware" and the "hard-ware,"
are very important. The former includes all vegetable and animal
matters--everything that will decompose. These are selected and bagged
at once, and carried off as soon as possible, to be sold as manure
for plowed land, wheat, barley, &c. Under this head, also, the dead
cats are comprised. They are generally the perquisites of the women
searchers. Dealers come to the wharf, or dust-field, every evening;
they give sixpence for a white cat, fourpence for a colored cat, and
for a black one according to her quality. The "hard-ware" includes all
broken pottery pans, crockery, earthenware, oyster-shells, &c., which
are sold to make new roads.

The bones are selected with care, and sold to the soap-boiler. He
boils out the fat and marrow first, for special use, and the bones are
then crushed and sold for manure.

Of rags, the woollen rags are bagged and sent off for hop-manure; the
white linen rags are washed, and sold to make paper, &c.

The "tin things" are collected and put into an oven with a grating at
the bottom, so that the solder which unites the parts melts, and runs
through into a receiver. This is sold separately; the detached pieces
of tin are then sold to be melted up with old iron, &c.

Bits of old brass, lead, &c., are sold to be molted up separately, or
in the mixture of ores.

All broken glass vessels, as cruets, mustard-pots, tumblers,
wine-glasses, bottles, &c., are sold to the old-glass shops.

As for any articles of jewelry, silver spoons, forks, thimbles, or
other plate and valuables, they are pocketed off-hand by the first
finder. Coins of gold and silver are often found, and many "coppers."

Meantime, everybody is hard at work near the base of the great
Dust-heap. A certain number of cart-loads having been raked and
searched for all the different things just described, the whole of it
now undergoes the process of sifting. The men throw up the stuff, and
the women sift it.

"When I was a young girl," said Peg Dotting--

"That's a long while ago, Peggy," interrupted one of the sifters: but
Peg did not hear her.

"When I was quite a young thing," continued she, addressing old John
Doubleyear, who threw up the