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Show DESERET NEWS, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER Living 6, 1977 Man Do-- It Weddings Dear Abby Theater TV Today Comics What's Doing Music Like a character out of Mary Poppins, Larry Hempsall (above in his spiffy, but sooty, top hat) does his "routine" (left) atop a Flint, Mich. , rooftop. Looking like sooty Fred Astaires, Prior to 1800, they hadnt thought of a pole with a brush on the end. So they sent little kids up a chimney naked to clean it out chimney sweeps are cleaning up By Rosemary Armao LANCASTER, Oliio (UPI) Dave Barrett gave up his social work job last year, took a k training course, bought a top hat and two suits with tails and became a - chimney sweep. 'v v a s vl - v;-- a- i - Barrett, 26, is one of only about 100 men in the United States plying a trade made respectable by British dependence on coal heat in the 19th Century. s The energy shortage and revived interest in fireplaces is making the trade lucrative again. Barrett, in a Ford Bronco, loaded down with the ladders and wire brushes of his craft, travels to about 10 homes a week these days. Each chimney takes about two hours to clean and brings in $40. With a wiry beard, rimless glasses and hands black from ingrained soot despite d Barrett borax scrubbings, the looks the stereotype of a sweep. It's an image, he says, that brings homeowners out with their Instamatics while he is atop their roofs. A little kid came out while I was on a job today. It was one of those high slanting slate roofs that you look down and know where youll end if you slip. And this little kid kept looking up and saying You sure it's OK? I told him I was sure, but the more he was talking An Ohio University graduate, Barrett was top-hatte- t 1 vK. '' r it 1 - ... Dave Barrett gave up social work job to take up sweeping. not too happily working on a country drug abuse program and maintaining, with farm his wife, Mary, a heated only by wood burned in a Franklin stove and a pot belly stove. That got him thinking about wood. Then last summer he helped a friend fix a roof and on that day hanging off a slate roof, Barrett knew what his next job would be. After much looking he found out about and contacted a Connecticut sweep with the trade name August West who was willing to take apprentices. After six weeks, Barrett returned to work up with an artistic friend a logo (a bow-tie- d d sweep with brush) and some snappy advertising lor his new business (Ill clean your flue so Santa can get through.) Convincing people who had never worried about the inside of their chimney that they needed his services was difficult. Barrett begins work on a chimney by covering furniture and rugs with drop clothes and carrying in his brushes and vaecuum system. Then, working mostly from the roof down and a little from the fireplace up, he cleans out the soot. I dont want to give away all my trade secrets, he said. He is getting rid of the soot by filling in a sewage ditch on his farm. When it is full, he says he faces a disposal problem. His new line of work has sent Barrett to the history books where he has learned that the image of the gentlemen sweep began in 1800. Frequently they were not little enough and got stuck. To get them out mastersweeps would either pour water on them from above or light a fire below. Many children died and chimney sweeps got a bad image, he said. Reform laws around 1800 torced masters to provide children with at least one bath and one change of clothes a week and a real bed instead of bags of soot. Records indicate there was a high incidence of cancer among the cliildren, apparently as a result of contact with the soot. Barrett said this is why he uses a vacuum in addition to the traditional brushes. He also is considering a respirator. Black lung disease I dont need, he said. long-handle- reason does exist for cleaning out Barrett explains. If used often, fireplaces should be cleaned once a year so fires dont start. Creosote (an oily wood A soot, distillate) builds up and that is real flammable. It could destroy a home. Some of the chimneys Im seeing havent been cleaned in 60 years. In fact it takes me longer than it should to work on them. That cuts into my profits somewhat. Christian Science Monitor News Service photo Followed by a pack of energetic and V a -,L. .. .v ' Mi Stevens booljof lists worst insurance risks the Following ore the United States. The figures are the number of extra deaths per thousand. in For example, for each 1,000 lumbermen insured there w ill be 6.18 more annual deaths than expected. Some of the extra death figures are estimated, due to the scarcity of statistics. As a base rate for comparison, the death rate is about two per thou: and per for all U.S. men aged 25-2- 9 year. Astronauts, 30 (estimated). 2. Drivers of Gold Cup hydroplanes, 25 (estimated). ;. Drivers of Indianapolis race cars, 25 (estimated). 4. Drivers in Grand Prix auto race, 25 (estimated). 5 Aerial performers (without nets), 8 (estimated). 6. Professional prize fighters, 8 (estimated). 7. Lumbermen and woodchopinirs in the Pacific 4. ($1 million). ($50,000). The legs of dancer Fred Astaire 5. The ($500,000). area, 1 1 -- riskiest and most memorable One oi a series 1. Mass., a former insurance salesman, is joined by his year-old daughter Becky on Saturdays. Ken's company averages 20 chimneys a week. curious youngsters, Larry Hempsall sets off to clean out another chimney. The insurables 10 Ken Hinkley of Williamsburg, crossed ($650,000). eyes of comedian Ben Turpin 12. Actress Julie Bishop took a seven-yea- r policy with Lloyd's against gaining 4 inches around the hips or waist ($25,000). 6.18. 8. Professional divers (helmet or skin), 6. The ice ($250,000). 4. 9. Electrical power line constructors, tower erectors and linemen, 3.44. 10. Steeplejacks, 2.78. (Source: 1967 Occupational Study, Chicago Society Actuaries.) 1. The San Francisco-Oaklan- Ray 7. Comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello: against disagreement between them, for a period of five years ($250,000). of MOST MEMORABLE INSURED .ARTICLES 8. The legs of actress Betty Grable 9 Washington, D.C., shopkeepers against failure of to arrive for his 1949 inauguration 3. ($250,000). Harry S Truman Bridge ($40 ($200,000). million). 2. skates (five pairs) of skater Sonja Henie The Titanic ($3,019,400). The voice of N.Y. Metropolitan Oiiera star Rise 10. The nose of comedian Jimmy Durante 1 Ixich Ness monster: its capture and delivery alive ($1 tO.OOO). 13. The Scottish Tailoring Mercery Co. of Sydney, Australia, took a policy from Lloyd's of Izindon against "death caused by accident due to the falling of a Soviet satellite ($22,400). of 14. The special elasticied wool trousers (four pairs) flamenco dancer Jose Greco ($1,920). 15. Talking myna bird in cookbook promotion ($500). (From "The People's Almanac Presents The Book of Lists, published by William Morrow & Co., Inc. Copyright (c) 1977 by David Wallechinsky, Irving Wallace and Amy Wallace. Distributed by New York Tones Special Features.) I |