San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-11-07
THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER.
A MOST ESSENTIAL MEMBER OF
THE COMMUNITY
His Business and His Characters
tics-The Law Regarding
Chimney Sweeping.

hapS, the eccentric chimney sweeper. Inc
latter, no doubt is the most amusing gen.
tleman of the trio, and at the same time
the most essential. His Importance and
usefulness to a community, becomes very
apparent when the cold winter season is
on hand and every house sports
one or more cracking fires. Then
comes the time when the hueS
fail TO draw with their former vigor, and
when many. time the city or town Is par
TALLY illuminated by the bright loren OF
burning chimney.
Most people have no idea as TO when or
how often their chimneys should receive
the attention of the Smutty chimney
sweeper. When the flueS are choked with
dirt, they send for the tinsmith to rem
edy the faults that he must have made in
setting up the stove, and 1t usually takes
a vigorous kick on the part of the smith
to open the peoples eyes TO the fact that
their flueS are choked with dirt. 1t is
this ignorance and even negligence which
prevents the chimney sweeperS trade
from being so very lucrative.
One of our sweepers whom we have
questioned in regard TO his profession, as
to its lucrativeness, summed up the con-
dition in the following manner:
''There are enough tiueS and chlmneyS
in the city to make man rich in a very
short time, but the average chimney is
cleaned once in six years, and the poor
chimney sweeper is never thought OF, as
long as the smoke can manage to get
through the dirt that has settled in the
fue." ..,
''How many sweeperS are there in, the
city?" was asked of hosmutted indiVid-
ual.
"There are oaly two of us in town, and
not enough work to keep us busy"
"But the city ordinance requires the
MAYOR to appoint eight-one for each
ward"
This apparent piece of information or
news to the chimney sweeper, brought
from him a violent gesticulation OF his
hands and arms, aud the anxious ejacula-
ton: Great Scott! what do you want to
do with eight men? We have little
work on hand now, but during the sum-
mer months. we don't earn five dollars.
Heavens! what should eight men do?"
Well, have we not enough chimneys in
this large town to give eight men good
fat living throughout the year, especially
as our ordinance makes IL an
offense tneable with not less than So ifthe
chimneys are not swept three times year,
January, April and September?
"But my good man." replied the Teuton
chimney sweeper, with dark Scowl, as
if despairing of convincing the reporter
of the desperate situation, 1.-THE chlmneys
are there, but we can't compel the people
going to do any good, because IL is not be-
ing enforced"
The sweeper then slipped from his seat
into the wagon box, that he might come
closer to the reporter S ear, and whispered
in most serious and confidential manner:
mo, no, young man, this thing isn't
&C rried on r ght; no, not as it should be"
Then bracing himself up, as though
| fully alive to the Importance and i'm
| pressiveness of the issue, he eXpatiated
about as follows:
ITO illustrate: In Europe we leave no.
| tice. either verbal or written, that on
such and such day we shall be there to
sweep. Punctually at the time given, we
| are on hand, do our work and receive our
| pay. If things are in such condition, II
| the owner of the house gone, and the like.
| so that we cannot do our work, the pay
| is forthcoming never the less. Here it
| is different We wait until we
get our order. When we are
| coming 1t is often the case that
the lady is just sleeping, just dressing,
not prepared. has company, come again
at a more favorable time, and so we run
several times to one house before we do
| the job. NO,0it doesn't pay" And with
| this he started to drive on, but evidently
| reconsidering the matter, he laid down
| the reins and continued: There is an
| other thing. / live so far out of town
that i'm order to accommodate the people
| in town, | put up an order box on one OF
the principal streets. Every other day
| would find an order like this in it:
"Mr. Schimmeny Schweeper - Blease
kOm und klean mi schimmeny at TT Collie
street. ANNIE ROONEY"
At first looked for the street, but was
told that there was no street in town like
that, and then looked for a lady by that
name, but while numbers of people had
heard of her, they could not tell Just
where she lived. believe that this, like
many other such orders as these, were
put in the box for joke and they came
in so numerous that had to put the box
on another street. tell you such indig-
mites to even the humbleSt city official,
would not be tolerated in the old coun-
try"
The poor, chimney sweeper then drove
off, leaving the reporter in the midst of
small but highly amused crowd, that. had
been attracted by the gesticulations and
impressive demeamor that accompanied
the talk of this humble city appointee.
THE law regarding, the sweeping OF
chimneys ought be amended so that it
requires the cleaning of flues and chin
neys once or at most twice year, instead
of three times" said a mason who has
had considerable practical experience
with the construction OF chlmneys.
''In cold climates where the people are
compelled to keep their fires intenser and
for a greater length of time, it may be
necessary to clean them as often as three
times a year, but in this section of the
country, will venture to say that by far
the largest portion Of chimneys never see
more than one or two fires between April
and June and never see one single fire
between June and September, and yet
during these two months, those unused
chimneys must be cleaned twice. This is
decidedly unjust. 1t is this feature of the