Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-03-06

NOT De outside the station. The city will then
be provided with as good police station houses
as any city in the land.
THE MODERN CHIMNEY.SWEEP.
How the SOOty.Faced Small Boy Has
Been Crowded Out Of Business.
THE "REMINISCENCES OF A "swEEP'-How THE
CHIMNEY TOP-THE MODERN WAY OF CLEAN
ING FLUES.
The contraction of the modern fue has
squeezed the little chimney-sweep out OF exist
ence. The walls of the chimneys have grad
ually grown in ON him until there is no room
left He is crowded out altogether, and has
disappeared. He took much comfort in the
open-hearted hospitable chimneys Of the olden
times, and was character in his day. The
modern chimney-sweep is made of a section Of
gas pipe and a collection of old hoop-skirts and
1sJust lifted to the narrow contracted quarters to
| be occupied. When chimneys were big and
freplaces took in half log at mouthful, the
chimney-sweep was one of the features of
Washington, as he went down the street with
ms sooty face and pointed cap, nodding his
"Its my delight
On shney night,
This season of the year."
But as the chimneys have grown narrower.
the sweeps have become fatter and more re-
spectacle.
THE STAR man went out the other day to
find cnimney-sweep He had in his minds
A fattish colored man with broad shoulders
and white shirt front responded to the scribe's
inquiry.
"Here,'s was the response.
"Yes."
care you the sweep? DO you climb up and
down and crawl about In narrow chimneys
and crooked flues?" asked the reporter.
The man looked at the reporter very hard for
a moment.
II guess you are thinking of long way back
We don't climb about in chimneys now days
Mostly all the big hues gone. Sweeping
chimneys amt what it used to be. There amt
no more Tss boys They're all
just gone to the workhouse for fifteen days.
And he amt no boy now. He's an old man;
climb through the big chimneys with broom
and scraper; No; there's mighty little of that
| now. We don't use boys except in the big tiue
at the Patent Office, and they amt the kind of
sweep boys we used to have. tell you it's sort
OF dangerous work crawling through them
Patent office chimneys. One of them goes
along straight for Always, then runs a long WAYS
with the floor before it goes down again. Its
sort VI close quarters
HOW THE BOYS USED TO WORK.
ayes, the boys used to do it ALL" continued
the sweep. "There were four bosses in those
days and each had four boys. They were funny
looking little fellows, and they mostly lived in
the chimneys. They were much stricter in
those days about making folks have their
hats, that they pulled down over their faces,
and cotton shirt and pants made all one Then
they carried blankets across their shoulders.
They were curious looking, all smut, as If they
didn't belong here and had just come up out OF
the ground. The boys used to hOller at them
on the street, and they'd make faces back.
You don't see any more ofthem now. The boss
was always mighty cross with them Some
times they had mighty hard time OF it.
SaIfl "a inn ha inn .
and sometimes they'd be a little warm. Then
the boys would want to sneak out of
The Soss go would e call Ways up up s and ha
or whistle in the chimney. When the man man
blanket off his shoulders and hang it in front
OF the fireplace: They had great big flreplaces
into ns re hoy
then sweep. 'Scrape, scrape, scrape,' they'd 90.
humming all the time, humining and scraping.
They always had to sing out when they got to
the top: Hello, down there! they'd cry, as
they poked their pointed aats out OF the Chin
noses and make faces at the boys on the streets
below. The boys would sometimes throw
the chimneys. They always sang
Its my delight Of shiney night
and bursts forth with This season OF the Year,
go down! and you'd hear them scraping and
cumming inside. When they came out they'd
whites Of their eyes shining out in contrs asst
sometimes when they sighted their work the
boss would beat them. Sometimes when they
any more. Sometimes they'd get stuck In a
chimney and they'd be done for. The SCOT
wind go out, and they had to be taken out for
burial. know one little pointed hat who got
stuck in a crooked fiue: The chimney was va AN an
didn't want TO go up, but he had to stop whim-
pering and sing out. He scraped and hummed.
ed AVIS voice
they pulled him out he was full OF SCOT. and
they buried him in the Potter's field"
THE MODERN WAY.
"But the walls have closed in on them" he
added, after moments pause for pathetic emo
ton. 'The fiues are too narrow for the sweeps
now days, and the laws aren't enforced as they
used to be. There are three sweeps regularly
appointed now to do all the work of the city
I'm one of them. Most OF the works done in
"How DO you get at 1t ?" asked the reporter.
comparing his bulk with the modern Twelve
"Why, we take q section Of gas pipe have
threads cut on 1t, and fasten brush
made Of hoop-skirt wire on the end, and let It
very long rope and pull it ' up and down nave Is
mostly all the fashionable houses where it's
done now. Folks ordinarily don't think OF it,
do you make much money!"
"Somet times, considerable. We get twenty
cents story for each fiue, and 1t don't take so
very lOng. us better than the bOyS-this
| brush is The boys was lots of trouble when
they got stuck In the chimney. Sometimes
You had to whip them to make them 60 up.
We just put q weight on this to take il down.
| No THANKS FOR INTERFERENCK.-Last week
q st. Louis theater manager offered q reward to
the boy who could sit the longest on q chunck
OF Ice In front Of the theater. Twelve chunks
and about thousand boys gathered TO compete
| for the frigid honors, but the Humane society's
| omcers appeared upon the scene lust "A the
| matinee was about TO commence and sat on the
manager. One boy who went there with
| denomination In his eye and rubber lining
In the seat OF his trousers, did not thank the
ofhcious humane man tor his interference.
In the trial In New York OF the Texan Hol
| land for the murder Of Davis, the ssSawd ust'
sw1ndier. the jury last night returned verdict
The parties concerned In the iynchinr Of Il g
Mais9 a In Patrick county, Va, have been In