April 2, 1863, Daily Mississippian (Jackson, Mississippi)
We are offering to pay the heavy price of eight cents a pound for white rags, delivered at this office, as will be seen by reference to a special notice in another column. If every housekeeper would keep a rag bag wherein to preserve the “scraps,” an immense benefit would secure to the country. The rag bag should become an institution in every household. Paper, for Government printing, business and private purposes, is not only in great demand, but bears an exorbitant price. Nothing would tend more to increase its quantity and cheapen its price than the general institution of the rag bag. Let every scrap of cloth, rope and thread, refuse cotton, and all waste material of which either cotton, flax, or hemp forms the fibre, be diligently saved, so that the material may be sold to the paper mills, and paper will become abundant and be furnished at reduced rates. Let the rag bag, then, be the order or the day.