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Show CROSSING SWEEP STILL FEATURE OF NEWFOUNDLAND TOWN ST. JOHN'S, N, F Feb. 4.-The child crossing aweep, a character that aeema to have stepped out of the pagea of Dickens, haa come Into hla seasonal occupation In thla colonial co-lonial capital. So far aa known, St. John'a la the only place in North America where the Inatitu- . tlun survives. The old world touch given by the young tatterdemallona and their brooms has much of the picturesque, and In a city subject . to weather conditions that make for snowbound crossings and muddled flagstones, the children . have unofficial status as a public utility. No white wing city laborer of Chicago or New York does hla work more faithfully. Unlike the municipal munici-pal employe the child crosing, tenders ply their sweeps independently independ-ently and without wage. At the end of the crossing however, the pedestrian almost Invariably finda the little one holding llieli biuoui in one hand and extending the other for alma. Payment in pennies pen-nies la given freely, but the pedestrian pedes-trian haa a problem when he finda j aeveral aeeklng to clear hla way and awaiting their payment combatively com-batively at the curb. |