Anonymous

“ There is no eclat connected with this subject—but it is the ministering to the very humblest class, who are visited in their filthy wretchedness and obscurity, with a desire to free them from sorrows which are unknown to any other class of the community.
Too much cannot be said of the liberality of this country, and yet no effort is made to support an Association which labours to free helpless infancy from broken-hearted sorrow, and to protect mature age from a disease generally fatal.
The Society is literally dying for want of support ”

“ A good machine, in the hands of a person who well understands the use of it, will not meet with one chimney in a thousand that it cannot effectually sweep. Several persons of this description, who have served their time as chimney-sweepers, are employed in the use of the machine, by the Agents of the Society for Superseding Climbing-boys. ”

“ Some years ago your machine was introduced into the Middlesex Hospital, and your Committee has heard, within these few weeks, that the Secretary of the Institution caused a quiet experiment to be made in that house, after the Board had ordered the adoption of the machine. It was so managed, that neither your Agent nor the old chimney-sweeper knew that the two systems were to be compared, and it is stated by the Secretary, that the chimneys were found so clean, that the boys were literally unable to bring down any soot, after Day, another of the Society’s Agents, had swept with the machine. ”

“ A bricklayer might here observe, “Admitting you can sweep chimneys with the machine, how would you core them?” More effectually and with greater facility than boys can possibly do it. Chimneys that are straight, or nearly so, do not require coring, and the rubbish that falls on the diagonal part of the flue, where the angles are obtuse, can easily be dislodged by a stiff brush attached to the machine, and introduced into the top of the chimney. ”

“ The plan adopted by the climbing-boy to ascend chimneys is, by pressing his feet, back, and knees against the sides of the flue, by which means he propels or hitches himself up by degrees, having one arm above his head, holding a brush, and the other arm by his side, as described in B. At C the boy is represented as putting his brush out of the top of the chimney-pot, but generally he rattles it with his brush, to satisfy the parties below that he has been to the top. ”

“ A case of revolting cruelty has been brought home to Needes, a chimney-sweeper at Bath, who was convicted before the Mayor of such grievous ill-treatment, as that wretched race of beings is alone exposed to. The child was discovered lying in the street, with his head so cut as to require surgical assistance, and he was proved by the surgeon’s certificate to be too ill to leave the Hospital, when his master was brought up. ”

“ His face being covered with a climbing-cap, and being completely enclosed in the soot beneath, his breath is stopped. In this dreadful condition he struggles violently to extricate himself, but his strength fails him, and in a few minutes he is gone for ever.
Many instances have occurred of boys being thus suffocated in chimneys, or burnt, or smothered in the rubbish, while attempting to core a chimney; others have been killed by falling from the tops of chimneys. ”

“ This outlay of money was severely felt, and it was an expense the trade would not have incurred to “protect their customers” alone. If their object had been a straightforward one, they would have protested against the adoption of the plan promoted by the Fire-offices; they would have declared that, in THEIR opinion, it was the abandonment of a safe method, and the adoption of a fanciful and dangerous substitute; but they would not have taxed themselves for a headstrong public. ”

“ The value of religious instruction, and the imperative duty of all constantly to attend the services of religion, are too self-evident to require an enforcement here. But why those who are so kindly disposed, should prefer ministering to these children in their wretchedness, to freeing them from the wretchedness itself, is a mystery hard to be understood. ”

“ This is a most extraordinary testimony, and, if true, would show a total abandonment of principle on the part of your Agents, and the servants of the Hospital, and brings to mind the vulgar adage, “Surely if the old woman had not hidden in the oven herself, she would never have looked there for her daughter.” Probably Mr. Bentley is not at church when that beautiful characteristic of Christianity is insisted on in these words, “Charity thinketh no evil; and charity hopeth all things.” ”

“ That employing children in this trade, subjects them in after-life to the disease lectured upon separately in the hospitals as chimney-sweepers’ cancer, and which disease only befals those who are thus employed.
These grounds led to the formation of the Society. It was at first supposed that it would only be necessary to offer a premium for the production of a machine capable of sweeping, and that it would be instantly adopted by the existing race of chimney-sweepers. ”

“ Some persons have an idea that a round brush will not sweep a square flue, but in the annexed diagram, the diameter of the brush B B is compared with the chimney A, which clearly shows that the whalebone of which the brush is composed, is forced into every part of the flue, and being repeatedly thrust up and down, must sweep it effectually. ”

“ People are beginning to see this in its right light, and having ascertained that the trade of the common chimney-sweeper is upheld by deceit, these men are now met at every point with distrust and suspicion. Necessity compelled your Committee to set up honest men to work the machine fairly, and by this means a way is opened for the total abolition of the revolting practice of employing children in this business. ”

“ The determination of the common chimney-sweepers above alluded to, continues to the present hour in full force (see page 9) ; and no man, during the last twenty years, has ever been found to use the machine faithfully, if he retains a single child in his service for the purpose of sweeping chimneys.
Your Committee would now enumerate some of the transactions of the year that is gone by. The first cheering result of their labours is the having obtained the work at the India-House for your Agents. ”

“ But an appeal of a very different kind is made to those who have ample funds at their disposal, who are known to put aside large sums every year for the purposes of Christian charity, but who have never made this Society glad by their benevolence. ”

“ At right angles, or when they are nearly so, an opening should be left six or nine inches square at the angle: and when the chimneys are finished, the core can be extracted in five minutes, which a boy would not be able to accomplish in several hours or days. It has frequently occurred, that a boy could not succeed in clearing the chimney of the core, and an opening has been made for that purpose at last. ”

“ SOCIETY FOR SUPERSEDING CLIMBING BOYS.
Your Committee has great pleasure in announcing that the present year has been characterized by a degree of success more than equal to the experience of any former years. ”

“ It has frequently occurred, that boys have, either through fear or inattention, got into the form of nose and knees together, as described at E; sometimes they remain in this cramped and painful position for hours before they are liberated, being totally unable to extricate themselves. ”

“ Encouraged by this success, an application was made to Timothy Curtis, Esq., then the Deputy Governor of the Bank, begging him to appoint Glass, one of your Agents, as the chimney-sweeper to that establishment. In answer to this, the Deputy Governor directed, in the handsomest manner possible, and with a frankness which always characterizes his movements, that an experiment should be made of the comparative efficiency of the two systems, in the presence of the Clerk of the Works. ”

“ I am enabled to inform you, that the machine has arrived, and answers very well. Not wishing to have one of the chimney-sweeping fraternity, we have selected a respectable man, who appears to manage the undertaking very well. He is already feeling some of the trials of the business, in the persecuting spirit of the chimney-sweepers; but having the Mayor of the city as his patron, we hope we may proceed without much opposition.”
Your Agents are constantly employed in One Hundred and Ten Government and other Public Buildings, and in Eleven Banking Houses. ”

“ Your Committee would state that the Agents of the Society are exclusively employed in the houses of Fifteen Noblemen, and that the Society is gaining most exceedingly upon the good opinion of the community in general. ”