Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1875-02-21
Chimney-Sweeps.

common thing in New York to see mites
of boys following their masters in the
street, or issuing from the chimney tops
with their peculiar wall. Some of them
were not more than ten years of age; and
they looked so wretched that when a
child was ill-behaved its mother or nurse
would threaten to give it to the chimney
sweeps.
In Germany and France, small boys are
still employed in cleaning chimneys. In
Great Britain law has been passed for
bidding the practice; but less than fifteen
years ago the sweeps or climbing boys"
were very numerous; and can remember
seeing bit of lad crawling out of one
of the tallest chimncys in London.
Until the reign of James the First, the
houses were built only one story high,
and the chimneys were swept from the
floor. The Scotch fashion of multiply
ing the stories then came in, and twice
or three times a year boys were sent up
to sweep down the SCOT.
There was once famous highwayman
who had been 'climbing boy" and l
think he was the only one of the tribe who
ever became notorious. At all events,
we do not hear more about them in histo-
nv from the time of James the First until
about the middle of the last century,
when Jonas Hanway called public atten-
ton to their condition. Hanway, you
must know, was one of the great philan-
thropists of his day, and was the man who
first carried an umbrella in London, a
performance which exposed him to the
jeers of all the impudent little bakers and
butchers boys in the city. No doubt he
looked rather queer as he trotted along
in the rain with the new-fangled thing
over his head, and some folks thought him
utterly crazy. But he was wise and
good man, living a life that most of us
might initiate to. advantage.
When climbing boy" came to his
house, one day, Hanway was struck with
the poor fellows woful face, and asked
him how and where he lived. The an
swers that were made excited the philan-
thropists sympathy, and, through public
prints and the benevolent societies with
which he was connected, he drew atten-
ton to one of the worst kinds Of slavery
that ever existed. The "climbing boys"
were mostly the children of. dissolute pa;
rents, who sold them to the men chimney
sweeps for few sovereigns, or, in Ameri-
can money, fifteen or twenty dollars.
The novices had the greatest dread of
ascending the chimney for the first time,
and there are several instances, of I'M
doubted truth, in which the little fellows
were violently thrust in by their masters
and driven up by a fire lighted under
them. This seems too horrible for be-
lief, but it was sworn to by master
chimney-swee before committee of the
British House of Commons. The same
man declared that he did not use his own
apprentices in that manner, and that
when the chimney was small and the boy
hesitated about ascending, he simply
used stick or his fist
Sometimes the beginner was instructed
at the house of his master before real
duty was required of him. An older boy
would follow him up chimney and teach
him how to climb by pressing the knees
and elbows against the sides of the flue.
1t was a most painful operation, and the
skin would be torn from the child's arms
and feet before he had nearly reached the
top. BY striving very hard he would
probably succeed, but not until he had
tumbled down several times and alighted
on the shoulders of his stouter compan-
ion, who always kept himself firmly fixed
in expectation of such mishap. Every
time he fell he had to begin anew, and,
no matter how sore he was, his master
forced him to reach the top.-St. Nich-
OIaS