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NEAR THE LIGHTSHIP, SANDY HOOK. UNLOADING DECK SCOWS WITH FORKS.
About twenty Italians unload the cargo of a deck scow in about two and one-half hours. In 1896 over 760,000 cubic yards of refuse were disposed of in this manner, on 1,531 scows, at an average cost of 17.9 cents per cubic yard.
become somewhat famous in these later days. Some sixteen years ago scow-trimming cost the city about $11,000 per year. The work was done by Italians, a race with a genius for rag-and-bone picking and for subsisting on rejected trifles of food. These Italians were observed by others to have a job which offered great advantages. Competition arose and continued, until in 1894, when the amount of material delivered at the dumps had greatly increased, the city received for the scow-trimming privilege about $50,000 worth of labor free and more than $90,000 in cash.
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A BARNEY DUMPER AT SEA, WITH ITS TUG.
The boat has been opened and is being towed along, the sea-way washing out the load. When empty it is allowed to close by flotation. The Department employs a fleet of thirteen Barney dumpers, which in 1896 carried to sea over 1,440,000 cubic yards of refuse, at an average cost of 13.8 cents per cubic yard.
The scows are first towed to Gravesend Bay, where they are moored to the Department stake-boat. When the tide serves, they are towed in groups of twos or threes out beyond the lightship, ten miles outside of Sandy Hook. Here they are discharged on the outgoing tide, so that their floating matter may be carried far out to sea, which is theoretically a perfect disposal. Unfortunately, the theory does not work well in practice, and the beaches of Long Island and New Jersey are made most foul with the flotsam and jetsam of rubbish and garbage that wind and tide rescue from the widely-strewn sea. Just complaint has long been loud, but happily this condition is at last being ameliorated, and is soon to cease.
The scows are of two sorts: (1) Barney dumping-boats, which open and have their loads washed out by the sea-way as they are towed along; and (2) deck scows, from which the loads are shoveled by gangs of Italians. These men accept lower wages for this rough
