The traveling trades in the service sector were practiced by men, women and even children. These valiant workers, small and large, offered to take charge of chores that were onerous and often boring. As a sign that such services are still appealing:  most of these trades still exist today.

The chimney sweep has been hard at work in the St. Lawrence valley for more than 300 years. In the time of New France, numerous regulations made it obligatory to clean chimneys in cities on a regular basis. When soot, accumulates on the chimney walls, it can ignite and start fires.  The chimney sweep was easy to recognize in the streets.  He was generally small and covered with soot. For this reason, the chimney sweep was commonly called “Mr. Soot” or even “Savoyard” since, in France, a large number of them were recruited from the Savoie.

In New France, starting at the age of 13 or 14, the sweep learned his trade from a master. At that time, hearths and chimneys were large. A small man or a child could easily slip inside to remove the soot with a scraper or broom. To avoid being asphyxiated, the chimney sweep would cover his head as best he could. He would wear long clothes and knee pads but often worked barefoot, which made it easier to climb up the chimney walls. Occasionally, he would use a rope to protect him from falls. The sweep's work was difficult and he was often subject to certain diseases such as tuberculosis.

In the 19th century, wood stoves replaced fireplaces and the chimneys were smaller.  As a result, the chimney sweep’s techniques changed. In order to scrape the walls of the chimney, he would use a pine tree pulled up and down with ropes and equipped with a counter-weight. He could also use a metal chain that he would turn or a chimney sweep's brush. To prepare for his arrival, the chimney sweep would ask his clients to abstain from using the fireplace one day in advance. And while the women would take care to cover the furniture and the dishes, they had to wait until after the sweep had left to wash their floors.

Like the chimney sweep, the laundress was also around in the time of the French régime. For example, around 1660, Marguerite Bourgeoys and her companions did needlework and laundry in order to earn their keep. This was very useful in a fledgling colony where there were few women and few clothes, as well. In a similar manner, in the 19th and 20th centuries, women offered laundry services to middle-class families and certain hôtels. The laundress would pick up the dirty laundry, wash it and return it clean, folded and sorted, in large wicker baskets.

The laundress would work along the river shores, during the good weather, with a large cauldron.  Washing clothes was long work that involved several steps. Before clotheslines came into use, the laundress would spread her clean laundry out wherever she could, even using shrubs and fences. In the 20th century, laundresses had a place when they had all the equipment they needed: large wooden barrels, a cradle, a place for a fire and clotheslines.

While the young girl learned to wash clothing, the young man, for his part, was initiated into the art of cutting wood for heating. After making a saw and a sawhorse, he would learn how to split a log with an iron angle, how to remove a blade that was jammed, and how to cord wood in order to protect it from water. At the age of about 13, some boys became sawyers. They would go from house to house, offering to chop firewood, carrying a sawhorse, a saw and an axe with them. Their clients included widows and elderly couples, among others. Several sawyers would later go to work for logging operations.

Other young men offered to remove snow from entrances and off roofs. Towards the end of winter, when snow and ice was coming loose and threatening to fall on passersby and injure them, removing the snow from roofs was a necessity. When working on a roof, this tradesman would use a broom, a scraper with a very long handle and a wooden hammer to break the ice. He would often ask a colleague to stay on the ground and warn him when passersby approached.

In the 19^th century, the shoe black, for his part, would be a young boy who frequently was not “lucky” enough to find work in a factory. He would set up business in a place with a lot of traffic, such as a market or a station. Dirty and poorly dressed, he would carry a brush, black polish and a box on which his clients were invited to place their feet. In the 21^st century, this trade is more often practiced by adults who rent space inside buildings and make seats available to their clients.

Traveling tradesmen who provided services had to work very heard.  Working along with them in the streets, other people offered a multitude of objects and goods for sale.  To learn more about traveling salespeople, we invite you to return on January 6, 2009.  

Sources

POMERLEAU, Jeanne. Métiers ambulants d’autrefois. Montreal, Guérin littérature, 1990, 467 pages. 

PROVENCHER, Jean. C'était l'hiver: la vie traditionnelle rurale dans la vallée du Saint-Laurent. Montreal, Boréal, 1986, 278 pages.

SAINT-LAURENT, Agnès, et al. L'art de vivre au temps jadis: tout le savoir-faire de nos grands-parents. Montreal, Sélection du Reader's Digest, 1981, 384 pages.

SIMPSON, Patricia. Marguerite Bourgeoys et Montréal, 1640-1665. Montreal, McGill-Queen's University Press, 1999, 269 pages.

With respect to the small chimneysweeps, the site of the Assemblée des pays de Savoie provides some interesting information. See, for example, the text by Monique Dejammet, Les "hirondelles d’hiver" (http://www.sabaudia.org/v2/dossiers/petitsramoneurs/public1.php).



Back