Bone-grubber

More than half of our modern scribes, and particularly the dramatic portion of them, are little better than literary bone-'''grubbers, pickers and stealers of unconsidered trifles,—men who, having no brains, live by spinning the brains of others, and give themselves credt for originality.

The bone-grubber generally seeks out the narrow back streets, where dust and refuse are cast, or where any dust-bins are accessible. The articles for which he chiefly searches are rags and bones—rags he prefers—but waste metal, such as bits of lead, pewter, copper, brass, or old iron, he prizes above all.

If anyone believes that rats are not used for human food, he must change his opinion. In Paris the chiffoniers or bone-grubbers eat them.

While you were there father died. As you know, he was a bone-grubber; the only property he left me was a hooked stick, a bag, and a horse’s skeleton.