Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-04-06
HE chimney-sweep, as a rule, IS
y a happy-go-lucky sort of rascal
applying the word rascal in
its poetic and not In it's literal

SenSe) he travels about the
country much the same as the itinerant
tinker who mends pans and pots and ket-
ties, and is one of those fellows who eats
four meals a day sometimes, and at
other times goes four days without eat
ing.
What may turn up next day does not
worry the chimney-sweep. Something is
bound to turn up, he knows; so if his
stomach is full, his heart is light, and
his voice like the lark as he carols the
chimney-sweeps song
At dawn in the morning
Before break of day,
With my broom in my hand
am vending my way rr
Through the streets and the alleys
To the housetops of Butte, Il
And jump down its chimneys
All covered with SCOT. ~
This bit of verse Is succeeded by a
warbling melody like the Tyrolean
echoes, which nobody could render SO
we'll as Emmett in his play Of Cousin
Fritz" and by a minstrel in the old
Hooley company, many years ago, in
the Chimney Sweeps Refrain If the
sweep is not warbler, he will place the
cornet to his lips. and then you hear
ing from the skies. concluding with
''Halle-lal-la -lahoo!" delivered in a loud
but melodious voice. In surprise you
look up and behold the merry rascal
poised on chimney like statue on the
pinnacle Of monument. Talk about
the risk that painters take on a narrow
ladder suspended horizontally five and
six, and sometimes ten stories above the
r, WITT, ha ri
ney-sweep when giddiness figures in the
elements of danger. You hold your
breath in momentary expectation of
calamity to the sweep, expecting to see
him swiftly disappear into the chimney
an act which he had not bargained for,
as descending chimneys to clean them is
not the method in vogue at this day,
at least in Butte. The rascal enjoys
your alarm, and in order to increase it
will stand on one leg like duck, ta,:e
off his cone-shaped tin hat, wave it in
salutation, and again repeat "Halle-lal-
la-lahoo!"
Now watch him. Replacing his hat
| and singing his bugle behind his back,
| he begins performance like the act of
pumping something up from the CHM
ney. Observe closer and you will see
| that both hands are clasped over a ropes
end. At the other end of the rope down
| in the chimney is a scraper and a swab.
| and these are the tools used in cOnjunc-
| ton with the sweeps elbows.
The chimney-sweep is the most gro
tesque figure in Butte. You could hardy
call him picturesque, albeit the colOrfi
man of that calling wears a cap which
| suggests a touch of the helmet as the
| cone hat of the other resembles the
chapeau of the clown. If you ask one
sweep why he appears on the street in a
garb different from other persons WHO
earn their living, he will reply that his
cone hat and his bugle are good adver-
tisements: otherwise people would not
know he was a sweep. The colored man
| gives the same reason. The latter's
name in gilt letters forms circle around
the helmet, with a star in the middle.
This he says. is just as good as sign
over a grocery store.
-.
| Passing chimney-sweep on the street
especially the sweep with the corne,
| one cannot help recalling old songs to his