THE DUNE DIN CHIMNEY SWEEP.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1133, 16 December 1873, Page 2

THE DUNE DIN CHIMNEY SWEEP.

[OTAGO DAILY TIMES.] One meets some " queer fishes" in their ramblings, but perhaps the most singular piscatory specimen we have met in the course of our wanderings, was in the person of a well-to-do Dunedin sweep, whom a member of our staff encountered yesterday. This professional purifier of dirty and smoky chimneys claims for himself the honor of being the tallest and fattest sweep in the business, and certainly we cannot dispute his right. In the course of a conversation he remarked : " Lor' bless ye, sir, I see some funny things in the hearly mornin'. I meet a swell a-going 'ome at 4 a.m., with a crushed 'at, dirty boots and collar, and he ain't too particular to say good mornin'; and by way of hincluding me by hisself, as a prowler of the night, he axes me to have a drink with him, to keep it dark, and when I comes to sweep the chimney at home not to say a word about seeing him. I meets him in the middle of the day with his boots cleaned, his hat brushed, and he don't know me. Bless yer life, sir, if my old woman sees me coming home with clean face and hands she takes the hot joint out of the oven and stews up the cold mutton; but if I'm pretty black like she rushes out and buys a shoulder of lamb. It's a queer life, mine, sir. One day I was in High-street, and hears a beautiful bird singing in a public 'ouse. I goes in to see wot bird it was as was singing, and it turned out it was a blackbird; but when he sees me a bigger blackbird than he was he stops singing and gives me the place of honor, so I must be pretty black sometimes when I can stop a blackbird warbling! "