THE LAST OF THE CLIMBING BOYS.
The Last of the Climbing Boys : an Autobiography. By George Elson. With a Preface by the Dean of Hereford. (John Long. 63.)—Most men who have passed middle life, especially those who were born and reared in the Midland Counties, can remember that when they were young the sweep was always accompanied by a little boy, who climbed up the chimney inside with a brush and a scraper, which he waved out of the top of the chimney, if it was too narrow there for him to put his head through, as a sign that he had done his work. Not only so, but sweeps figured largely in the nursery literature of the time, which frequently contained references to boys being stolen by, or bought by, sweeps for the purpose of climbing chimneys. One such ran somewhat as follow —
" Little Tommy Torment Did man) cruel things He caught the rites to play with,
And then pulled off their wings. Mamma was very angry,
And sold him to a sweep :
And now up chimneys dark and drear Must Tommy Torment creep."
But the sweep literature culminated in that great classic, "The Water Babies," which has made Tom and Grimes household words among us, and which will perpetuate the memory of what is now a trade of the past, all chimneys being now cleaned by machinery. It is, however, always of interest to be able to regard any subject from the inside, and we are pleased that the author of the book before us, who followed the profession of a sweep, boy and man, for a considerable part of his life, should have given his own experiences to the world in book form ; and, apart from the main subject, he has succeeded in producing an interesting and readable book. He was born at Northampton in 1833. the son of a hawker; and he and his brother followed a vagrant life for some years, not unfrequently leaving home for weeks at a time, and supporting themselves by any odd jobs they could meet with, till they fell in with a sweep, who initiated them into his business. Into the details respecting the work of a boy in sweeping chimneys, and discussions on the structure of chimneys, and the causes and treatment of chimney fires, &c., we cannot here enter. Suffice it to say that from being a chimney- sweeper's boy Mr. Elson afterwards became a master sweep, a teetotaler, a reformer, and the secretary of a Mutual Instruction Society at Teddington. But as he grew older he found the business of a chimney-sweep too trying, so he set up as a shop- keeper for a short time at Hereford; but he did not long continue that employment, but engaged himself as shampooer in a Turkish bath, and swimming-master; and from this took to mas- sage; and at this point our author, having worked himself up to a position of comparative wealth and independence, parts company with us. He met with many adventures and many curious characters in the course of his life, and anecdotes about all sorts and conditions of men, and general observations on its various incidents (including the Turkish bath), lend great variety to his pages.
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