A STEEPLEJACK’S LIFE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4976, 19 May 1926, Page 2

A STEEPLEJACK’S LIFE.

MUSCLES OF STEEL & NO NERVES. ; SOME CLOSE CALLSI UP ALOFT. ,To be a successful steeplejack a man must have fingers and muscles of steel, and no nerves to speak of. In addition, he must be a, veritable jaek-of-all-tra,des. He has to be a mason, a mechanic, a copper worker, scaffolder, carpenter,, and [painter. He must also learn, slating, gbldleaf. laying, spidering, Bign-writing, and the principle of clocks. He must do all these things, which most other workmen do on the ground, hanging suspended in mid-air. So writes Mr W. Larkins in his, newly l published book, “Steeplejacks; And Steeplejacking.” Nevertheless, he hastens to add that he would not have followed any. other occupation for the world. But then he has been accustomed to it from childhood. He comes from a family of steeplejacks 1 . ’ His first climb was undertaken .at the early age. of seven, when, he played truant from school and clambered to the top'of a, 140-foot; chimney on which an elder brother , was working. Tha sequel to this, his initial attempt at steeple jacking, was painfiil in the extreme. His father gave him the hiding of his life. I,t hurt, but the hero-worship lavished on him by his scfioolfellpws made amends. At seventeen he started climbing for a living, a : nd he has. been‘at it ever since. For some thirty-odd years he has risked his life 'almost daily, and yet during the whole of that time he. has only received a few bruises. He has, though, had dozens of nar- , row escapes. On one occasion, for instance, one of .two men with whom he was working on the top of a 150-ifobt shaft at Deptford suddenly took leave of life: senses and tried to throw himself down .the mouth of the chimney. .It. was only after a fierce . struggle thii.t Larkins and his mate succeeded in overpowering him. Once Larkins, all but fell, from the top of the Nelson Column o.wing to his feet slipping on an inch-thick layer of greasy soot with which the platform htat supports the statue was covered. He made the mistake of supposing that thip: platform was flat, whereas it is, bevelled, with a, sharp slope outwards. The result was he. slipped downwards till his feet and legs hung over the edge. He only managed to save himself—he was lying on his back at the time —by using his elbows ajs: brakes. All the author’s adventures aloft, -however, have not been so excitng as this. . Some, indeed, have been almost la,ughable, a.s, for instance, when, in response to an urgent telegram from the vicar of a church many miles from London, he, travelled down post haste with visions of a steeple on the point of collapsing. On arrival he found the vicar’s wife in hysterics, and her pet cat perched aloft near the top of the chur'ch spire. Of course fie was able to retrieve, the too venturesome pussy, a,nd duly received his fee.

On another occasion hei wap given the job of getting rid of a swarm of bees. The insects had .taken possession of ■ the tower of a church, and had succeeded in making things decidedly unpleasant for the Worshippers.

He undertook the job light-hearted-ly enough, but found it a much tougher proposition than he anticipated. The bees, left undisturbed for so long, fiercely resented .the presence of a human being, and attacked him. Ih the end he hafl to postpone the job until night, when the insects had retired to rest. Then his task was a comparatively easy one.