Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-08-22
CRAZY on SCRUBBING
Holland Has q Continual Per
torrance In Cleaning.
ITS STREETS WASHED Dali I.
A Lard Where the Pumps and the
Resoms Never Get Rest Drinking
& 10 the Only Purpose For Which Sim
Pile Water is Never Used.

5% BesonsS Mover Get Rest--DrinlSinq
10 the Only Purpose For Which Sim
pie Water is Never Used.
Life in Holland Is one eternal spring
housecleaning. Dirt IS discouraged in
the very germ, md cleanliness is the
patron saint Of the country. Scrub
bing brushes are ex hausted by the mil
lion, and water is wasted BY the seas
full in the everlasting crusade against
the unseen enemy. a writer from
Utrecht, describing her experiences for
the New York Sun, says:
am alone, for my husband is hus-
Ting somewhere in Germany, but /
do net scream, do not feel the slight
iest alarm or resentment, for Il have
learned in three months residence In
Holland that such a face is not likely
to be that Of burglar or a ruffian or
a lnnatic, but of q window washer,
whose occupation never ceases not
that he Is engaged at the top of a step
ladder cleaning windows every minute
of the day, but when the already i'm
peccable panes have been soused and
rubbed and polished therei Is something
else FOR him to scrub. be It floors, door
handles, the front Of the house. the
sidewalk or the stones OF the street.
scrubbing is incessant Id 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. Y
It is a mania for dustlessness that
possesses the country, which is SO
damp in winter that dust cannot form,
and q result Is the daily realization of
Legendary Spotless Town. This Is no
fanciful flight Of an irresponsible pen.
1t fills New Workers. heart with envy
and despair to see the way these PEG.
pie take care Of their streets.
At 8 O'clock every night twenty-four
men assemble In front OF the hotel,
which Is near the corner Of the yry-
burg, each In preposterous wooden
shoes and armed with q huge bosom OF
tough twigs with long handle They
stand in line at the curb and talk
and laugh uproarlously like lot Of
Townup 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 flood Of water. Imme.
diately behind It come two revolving
brushes, also horse drawn, that con.
vert the dirt into fine mud and push
1t In general way toward the gut
tiers. i.: "
Then comes the second water wag0h
no mere overgrown barrel, but an Inn
mense tank, from which water spnrts
In compelling foods toward each curb
ami such floods! The pioneer barrel
made an American street sprinkler
seem like a 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 ", the apex Just behind
the water wagon, the arms extending
to the curbs, and they operate theil
besoms with appalling vigor, scraping
up every minute particle Of dirt that
escaped the revolving brushes and
| sweeping it into the cutters.
With every stroke at least one in thu
brigade gets q drenching from hi
neighbor's Bosom, but they are indif
ferent to that--it's all In the night
work apparently and as they hastel
onward there Is a rhythmical elump
cInmp Of the wooden shoes and |
1 Bwisi-swish OF the besoms positiyel,
inspititing.
4 Last Of all comes the commander Q
the brigade. He marches well With
4 the arms of the Y, nnprovided with
bosom, clapping his hands to establis
the rhythm OF the sweeping and 81
hancing the hand claps with stentorla
shouts Of command that surely coul
be heard mile away.
Thus he drives the wedge forwar
. keeping the brigade up to Its worl
never letting 1t get SO far behind t
water wagon that the food will ha1
lost Its force to carry off the refus
for there is no following scaveng
wagon. The dirt, coming to the 90
tiers while the food Is at Its height,
carried away and lost somewhere 10.
canal.
This Is only one Of several simil
brigades that work all through Il
night until every street In the city h