Broom

“ So far as I have it in my heart to use my new broom for the cleansing of my home and the comfort of my fellows, my new broom may be a means of grace to me and them; but, so far as I view the new broom merely as a possession, and irrespective of the service in which it should be worn out, my pride in it is bad as bad can be. ”

“ Broom′-corn, a species of plant resembling maize, cultivated for its seed and its spikes, of which brooms are made; Broom′-rape, a parasitic plant found adhering to the root of broom, clover, &c.; Broom′staff, Broom′stick, the staff or handle of a broom.—adj. Broom′y, abounding in or consisting of broom.—To marry over the broomstick, or To jump the besom, to go through an irregular form of marriage, in which both jump over a broomstick. [A.S. bróm; Ger. bram.]
Broose, brüz, n. (Scot.) a race at weddings in Scotland. ”

“ BROOM, the Common, or Spartium scoparium, L. an indigenous plant, very common on sandy pastures and heaths, and requiring no particular description. When growing of a large size, the broom deserves a place among our flowering shrubs, on account of the profusion of its gold-coloured blossoms. Its use is very extensive, not only in domestic economy, but likewise in the arts, and in medicine. ”

“ In the first place, turn the broom every time you notice a tendency of the latter to become one-sided, then the broom will wear to a stub and still be of use. In the next place, do not swing the broom up in the air with each sweep and throw the dust up in the clouds, but so sweep that the end of the stroke keeps the broom near the floor or ground. ”

“ And the roots of the broom are their food. 5They are driven forth from the midst of men; They cry after them as after a thief. 6In the clefts of the valleys must they dwell, In holes of the earth and of the rocks. ”

“ I think myself that the thing might be managed with several pails of Aspinall and a broom. Only if one worked in a really sweeping and masterly way, and laid on the colour in great washes, it might drip down again on one’s face in floods of rich and mingled colour like some strange fairy rain ”

“ In Bombay, some old Hindu woman, to cure a child affected by the Evil Eye, waves salt and water round its face and strikes the ground with a broom three times; and among the Bani Isrâîls of Bombay, when the midwife drives off the blast of the Evil Eye, she holds in her left hand a shoe, a winnowing fan, and a broom.129 In Italy, the broom is an old Latin charm against sorcery. The Beriyas, a gypsy tribe of the Ganges-Jumna Duâb, drive off the disease demon with a broom. In Oudh, it is said, when a broomstick has been done with, it should always be laid down, and not left standing. ”

“ I am sorry to say that John Broom's fitful industry was still kept for his own fancies. To climb trees, to run races with the sheep dog, to cut grotesque sticks, gather hedge fruits, explore a bog, or make new friends among beasts and birds—at such matters he would labor with feverish zeal. But so far from trying to cure himself of his indolence about daily drudgery, he found a new and pleasant excitement in thwarting the farm-bailiff at every turn. ”

“ Broom in hand, his trousers rolled above his knees, and his shirt flying open at the neck, his face glowing with the exercise, the late typewriter salesman darted in and out among the other scrubbers, leaving the spot he was working on to pounce upon any fresh space of planking sluiced by the water. Getting in everybody's way, tripping himself with his own broom, hopping like a cat in a puddle when his toes were jabbed by the bristles, he displayed three men's energy and accomplished the work of a one-armed boy. ”

“ There is no broom-cutter that lives in the west,
⁠but calls at this fair Lady's room, room, room,
There's money, meat and drink, boys, what do you think;
⁠there's no trade like the making of broom, green broom,
⁠Where's no trade like the making of broom. ”

“ It was as if a big broom were being lightly brushed along the ground, and now and again there came the rustling of branches. The Frenchman told himself that it was probably some animal which had padded in from the mountain-side. ”

“ The evolution from the flag-straw [79] broom used in cabins of the South to the ones now completed and labeled, creates the sensation of the girl-world in the trades school. The wonders brought out in the theory class in connection with broom-making were marvelous. Broom-making has come to remain with our other girls' industries.
Work in the Laundry presents another aspect to the onlooker, and he doubtless decides on the spur of the moment that all is drudgery here. Girls are then assorting countless pieces received on Mondays from students and teachers. ”

“ It was a part of Gram's household creed, that the wood-house and carriage-house could be properly swept only with a cedar broom. Brooms made of cedar boughs, bound to a broom-stick with a gray tow string, were the kind in use when she and Gramp began life together; and although she had accepted corn brooms in due course, for house work, the cedar broom still held a warm corner in her heart. "A nice new cedar broom is the best thing in the world to take up all the dust and to brush out all the nooks and corners," she used to say to Theodora and Ellen ”

“ The Juliana and the Bridget were fighting for the broom!
I comprehended the situation intuitively. The kitchen-cleaning, for which the Fiend had been “set,” had reached a point that demanded the broom, and that subtle, attractive affinity, which my friend’s genius had known how to produce, but had not learned to regulate, impelled the unerring automaton towards the only broom in the house, which was now in the hands of its fellow-automaton, and a struggle was inevitable. ”

“ The inside of the building, his immediate surroundings, looked almost homey after seeing that monstrous, endless city outside.
He skirted the table with its still-humming machine and walked toward the door that led to the other room. A picture hanging on a nearby wall caught his eye, and he stopped. It was a portrait of a man in unfamiliar, outlandish clothing, but Broom had seen odder clothing in his travels. But the thing that had stopped him was the amazing reality of the picture. It was almost as if there were a mirror there, reflecting the face of a man who stood invisibly before it. ”

“ John Broom preferred flowers even to china cups with gilding on them. He gathered nosegays of daisies and buttercups, and the winning way in which he would present these to the little ladies atoned, in their benevolent eyes, for many a smashed teacup.
But the tramp-baby's restless spirit was soon weary of the drying-ground, and he set forth one morning in search of "fresh woods and pastures new." He had seated himself on the threshold to take off his shoes, when he heard the sound of Thomasina's footsteps, and, hastily staggering to his feet, toddled forth without farther delay. ”

“ How light was my step, and my heart, O how gay!
⁠The broom blooms bonnie, the broom blooms fair;
Till Phebe was crown'd our queen of the May,
⁠When the bloom o' the broom strew'd its sweets on the air.
She was mine when the snaw-draps hung white on the lea,
⁠Ere the broom bloom'd bonnie, an' grew sae fair;
Till May-day, anither wysed Phebe frae me.
⁠So I ne'er will gae down to the broom ony mair.
Sing, Love, thy fond promises melt like the snaw,
⁠When broom waves lonely, an' bleak blaws the air ”

“ They carry their brooms, not under the left arm, but upon it, as they would children, upright between the arm and the side, with the heads in front of the shoulder. One, and one only, of the brooms is invariably held in the right hand, and this is elevated with the sharp cry of 'Buy a Broom?' to any one likely to become a purchaser, till it is either purchased or declined. ”

“ He’s quitted for ever the shovel and broom.
The shovel and broom, the shovel and broom,
He has quitted for ever the shovel and broom.
I got for my partner, Paulina, the daughter,
Of Master Mount saddle, the Angel Inn groom,
Her red lips and plump figure made my mouth water,
And I fell in love, as ve valtzed round the room.
O, sich a creatur! my eye, vot a creatur!
A partner so fit for a knight of the broom,
The shovel and broom, a knight of the broom,
A partner so fit for a knight of the broom. ”

“ A pleasing way to use a broom is to lean upon the wall and not do more than make any one who is the one welcome. This if it is pleasing is pleasing and working is industry. That does not change everything. Intending to remove the dirt does not destroy the variegated color. The color is not a stain. ”

“ Useful and extensive as is its use, the broom does not compare in variety and wide application to the brush. The human body, cloth, leather, metals, wood and grains, everything that needs rubbing, cleaning, painting and polishing, meets the acquaintance of the brush. Nearly a hundred species of brushes might be enumerated, each having an especial construction for a particular use. ”

“ Cotoneaster microphylla.—Quite hardy either as a bush or on a wall.
Cytisus albus.—No garden should be without this beautiful Broom. C. præcox, the Cream Broom, is a dwarfer but no less beautiful variety; it is very pretty grouped with a few plants of C. purpureus, which flowers at the same time. Another fine Broom is the red and yellow variety of the Common Broom (C. scoparius andreanus) . The Brooms will grow anywhere, but prefer an open place in full sun. They [Pg 169] should be cut hard back after flowering, and if the young seed-pods can be picked off so much the better. ”

“ She will have to see for herself that the broom is hung up or stood on the handle instead of on the bristle end, that the brushes and dust-pans not only have their nails or hooks, but are kept on them when not in use instead of being thrown into a corner of the kitchen and kicked about by any one who finds them in the way. ”

“ A rack to hold a large and small broom, dust-pan, and brush, should measure three feet long, three inches wide, and be made out of a seven-eighths-inch board. Bevel the edges and place four brass hooks in the front, as shown in the drawing, from which to hang the broom, dust-pan, etc.
Brooms should always be dampened and put away, handle down, according to the advice of an old broom-maker, who claims that by so doing the straws are kept from becoming brittle and the broom lasts much longer. ”

“ The broom-millet was grown most successfully on the estate. The stalk had been cut up and consigned to the silos by the ton. Thousands of bushels of the seed, much like sorghum, had been deposited in the poultry-farm granary. The broom fibres—oft blessed by all who ever possessed a foul pipe—were now being manufactured by old folk and children into an article superior to any "American broom." The fibre was quickly gathered together by hand, and bound round with fine wire worked by a spindle. ”

“ To dream of brooms, denotes thrift and rapid improvement in your fortune, if the brooms are new. If they are seen in use, you will lose in speculation. For a woman to lose a broom, foretells that she will prove a disagreeable and slovenly wife and housekeeper. ”

“ When any such group containing White Broom is planted, it should be remembered that the tendency of the Broom is to grow tall and leggy. It bears pruning, but it is a good plan to plant some extra ones behind the others. ”

“ To be sure we were glad to go, and he did as he said he would, and explained every particular, even to the cost.
“The broom-corn comes from the West,” he said, “though a good deal grows in the Mohawk valley, and the largest broom establishment in the United States is at Schenectady.
“It often grows, if thriving stalks, ten or twelve feet tall; it can be cultivated here, but not so profitably. It comes in large bales, weighing anywhere from one hundred and fifty to five hundred pounds. Where I buy mine in Boston it costs me six cents a pound, though the price varies. ”

“ When I approached the buggy, he took hold of one the lapels of my coat, bent over, and said with the utmost seriousness:
“No man ought to take the road without a brush. A good broom-brush is the world's greatest civilizer. ”

“ For tools, he needs a good, new, fine corn broom, a wide bristle sweeper (a ten or twelve-inch paper-hanger’s smoothing brush will do) , a good duster, a sharp tool to pick out corners, a two-inch chiseled brush for corners. A sprinkler only turns dust to mud, to dry in a few hours and become dust again. When you have swept the floor with your broom and dusted your wood-work and gone over the floor carefully with your wide bristle brush to take what you brushed from the casings and what the broom left on the floor, look at the air across this ray of sunlight ”

“ Should drop a tester in a shoe,
And would sleep without pinching, come
Quickly to me, and buy a broom,
That will effect the thing you mean;
'Tis a new broom, and will sweep clean.
Come, buy my broom, maids! Maids, did I say? Sure, there are none i' th' city; or, if there be any, they have forsworn my custom. All the brooms I have sold to-day would not sweep half the ground I have gone; and the money I have got will scarce buy ale enough to moisten my mouth after one cry. Sure, all the city are turned dustmen, and the whole corporation are of the company of Grobians. ”

“ I could not forbear saying to myself, 'What a sweet family walk, or one for lonely musings, would be found under the shade!' but there probably the trees remain little noticed and seldom enjoyed.{88}
301. 'This flowering Broom's dear Neighbourhood' (l. 378) . p/
The Broom is a great ornament through the months of March and April to the vales and hills of the Apennines, in the wild part of which it blows in the utmost profusion, and of course successively at different elevations as the season advances. ”