The times., 1899-02-26
MEN Who LEVELED
THE SNOW MOUNTAINS
Curious Composition of the
Shovel Brigade.
Enlistments Into The Army of La
bOrer5 Caused by Necessity.
Pride Cast Aside in n Struggle for
Temporary WorL-Incidents of
the Storm's Aftermath

The street cleaning brigade whi.h la
bored to make the streets of the District
navigable last week. comprised some-
thing over 1000 men. These men were
hired on the moment, in the time of the
city's need. and the inducement of sl.25
per day attracted a strange and interest
ing gathering OF men. who were members
of the brigade.
The two thousand -and-odd who COM
posed the brigade included men varied in
color. men of high and low degree. the
unemployed artisan and the professional
man compelled through necessity to jump
at the chance to earn s1-25 per day.
The brigade toiied long and thoroughly
and the toll resulted in hundreds of ter
ribly blistered hands and weary backs.
glance at the long lines of tolsrs showed
that while the bulk of the brigade was
colored, sprinkling of white men, whose
clumsy efforts with the snovei showed
that they were strange to such toll, cou.d
also be discerned.
Victims cf Dire Need.
These victims of necessity seemed not to
care much whether or no they cleaned
streets or looked on, so that they obtained
the desired S1.25 per day, but the watch
full foreman was the bette noir OF their ex-
istence. and they will ever remember their
labors with the brigade. Here were clerks
broken down business and professional
men, and weak kkneed youths-all victims
of dire necessity:
These touched shoulders with the raw
boned iaborer and the burly negro, and
even with men whose language was
strange, and the contrast was barely no-
ticed in the hard labor of the day. Here
were men who had known luxury linked
with men to wfiscr, labor was birthright
and none saw and none made contrast.
a gang working on Thirteenth Street
contained about fifteen negroes and FIVE
white men. One of these latter was garbei
in fashionable clothes. which barely showed
the rust of need. He looked respectable
and worera high white collar and white
shirt, while the perspiratiOn rolled from his
forehead he also possessed q short light
overcoat, which showed little wear and his
efforts to handle a shovel gracefully were
actually pitiful. He worked hard, harder
than the hardened laborers at his side. and
yet the results of his labors were small.
He was but one of these forced to this by
necessity.
CouGhed oftener Than He sho.eied.
On New. Jersey Avenue, close to the Bal
tiinorc and Ohio depot, was another case.
Here a pale, lank c0nsumptive. hedged
about by powerful careless Iaborers. made
effort TO earn the needed sl.25 per day
with the others. Efe was seized with ter
rible spells OF coughing every few mo-
ments. and, as the foreman afterward told
him. he spent more time in coughing than
he did in shoveling.
Then another ease on Pennsylvania Ave
nue. might have attracted attention An
aged man with gray hair iabored weakly
with the toi!ers. He was plainly suffer-
ing from his eXertions. and several times
staggered beneath the weight of 4 shovel
full of Snow. Time and again he rested
upon his shovel and painted, only to return
to his labors at the approach of the fore
man.
There were number of veterans of the
late war who served with the District
regiment employed with the street cleaning
brigade. Some. OF these seemed pleased at
the opportunity to earn little money. as
they had been unemployed since they were
mustered out One of them, on being ques-
toned as to how he liked the ordeal, cX-
claimed: oh. it's tough work. but it's
better than no grub and Sl3 per month.
Lawyers :,T=t. College Men.
Probably never since the indignant citi-
zens of Boston formed a street cleaning
army and Voluntarily cleared the city
Of Snow several years ago. has such a
polyglot and cosmopolitan array OF msn
ever been gotten together to clean streets
as the brigade organized in tli5 city. 1t
is an actual fact that some of these work
ing over the results of the storm were
capable OF arguing a case in court. There
were at least one dozen co leg graduates
in the list and the number who were
as proficient With the psn as they were
clumsy with the shovel was remarkable.
Necessity is the father OF enTironm Mt
as well as the mother of invention, and so
came the street cleaning brigade. In years
to come many prominent citizens may re-
member the great storm of 1893 because
OF the blisters and aching backs earned
by them through necessity whi-e m mber5
- Inrir IL.