The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1907-06-28
CRAZY ON SCRUBB|NC
Holland Has a Continual Per.
Torrance In Cleaning.
ITS STREETS WASHED DAILY.
A Land Whore the Pumps and the
eesoms Never Get a Rest-Drinking
10 the Only Purpose For Which Sim.
pie Water 10 Never Used.

6o0oM0 Never Get HeSe-Orinkin0
10 the Only Purpose For Which Sim.
pie Water 10 Never Used.
Life in Holland is one eternal spring
housekeeping. Dirt is discouraged in
the very germ, and cleanliness Is the
patron saint of the country. Scrub
bling brushes are exhausted by the mil.
lion, and water is wasted by the seas
ful in the everlasting crusade against
the unseen enemy. A writer from
Utrecht, describing her experiences for
the New York Sun, says:
I am alone, for my husband is hus-
Ting somewhere in Germany, but
do not scream, do not feel the slight
est alarm or resentment, for l have
learned in three months residence in
Holland that such face is not likely
to be that Of burglar or rufian OF
lunatic, but Of a window washer,
whose occupation never ceases-not
that he is engaged at the top of STEP
ladder cleaning windows every minute
Of the day. but when the already i'm
peccable panes have been soused and
rubbed and polished there is something
else for him to scrub, be 1t floors, door
handles. the front Of the house, the
sidewalk or the stones Of the street.
Scrubbing is incessant In Holland.
When this man falls down from sheer
fatigue, another will take his place
and scrub spots wherein dust has had
no time to gather since the last scrub
bling.
1t Is a mania for dustlessness that
possesses the country, which is so
damp in winter that dust cannot FORM
and result is the daily realization of
legendary Spotless Town. This is no
fanciful fight Of an irresponsible pen.
It fills New Workers. heart with envy
and despair to see the way these peo-
pie take care Of their streets.
At 8 o'clock every night. twenty-four
men assemble in front of the hotel,
which Ia near the corner Of the Vry-
burg, each in preposterous wooden
shoes and armed with huge bosom of
tough twigs with long handle. They
stand in line at the curb and talk
and laugh uproariously like a lot of
grownup children just out Of school.
Meantime an immense barrel on
wheels drawn by horse rolls along
the very middle Of the street, pouring
out generous food Of water. Imme-
diately behind it come two revolving
brushes, also horse drawn, that con-
vert the dirt into fine mud and push
It In general way toward the gut
tiers.
Then comes the second water wagon.
no mere overgrown barrel, but an i'm
mense tank, from which water spurts
In compelling floods toward each curb
and such foods! The pioneer barrel
made an American street sprinkler
seem like toy, and the second water
wagon equally outdoes the first In the
torrential volume Of its deluge.
All this Is but preliminary, for when
the second water wagon has passed the
twenty -four men get busy, and the real
work Of cleaning the street begins.
They form in V, the apex just behind
the water wagon, the arms extending
to the curbs,- and they operate their
besoms with appalling vigor, scraping
up every minute particle oftdirt that
escaped the revolving brushes and
sweeping it into the cutters.
With every stroke at least one in the
brigade gets drenching from his
neighbours bosom, but they are indif-
ferent to that-its all In the nights
work apparently-and as they hasten
onward there is a rhythmical clump-
clump Of the wooden shoes and a
swish-swish Of the besoms positively
inspiriting.
Last Of all comes the commander of
the brigade. He marches well within
the arms Of the V, unprovlded with a
bosom, clapping his hands to establish
the rhythm of the sweeping and en-
HANGING the hand claps with stentorian
shouts Of command that surely could
be heard mile away.
Thus he drives the wedge forward.
keeping the brigade up to its work,
never letting 1t get so far behind the
water wagon ludI Tue uOOU Will nave
lost its force to carry of the refuse,
for there is no following scavenger
wagon. The dirt, coming to the gut.
tiers while the food is at its height, Is
Carried away and lost somewhere in q
canal -sS1r1F p, '~-'S-'1''-+;' -.
>This is only one Of several similar
bgfgades that work all through the
night until every street in the city has
.bsen flooded and scrubbed, and wher
morning comes the highways and by
ways are cleaner than pebble strewr
beach at low tide.
This incessant cleaning in Holland
gets on the nerves and becomes {
nuisance. Think Of walking apprecia
lively along one of those spick ant
span sidewalks and suddenly havin,
to hold up your skirts and wad'
through running water, all because I
man or a woman has begun to delug
the front Of house from a hose at
tached to a hydrant.
Once past the food, you may b
startled until you get used to 1t by al
extraordinary biped, headless and arm
1na. ov,nrO1nO no cIuvo ri from az, oy,A,