“What mode do you adopt to get the boy to go up the chimney in the first instance?—We persuade him as well as we can; we generally practise him in one of our own chimneys first; one of the boys who knows the trade goes up behind him, and when he has practised it perhaps ten times, though some will require twenty times, they generally can manage it. The boy goes up with him to keep him from falling; after that, the boy will manage to go up with himself, after going up and down several times with one under him: we do this, because if he happens to make a slip he will be caught by the other.
“Do you find many boys show repugnance to go up at first?—Yes, most of them.
“And if they resist and reject, in what way do you force them up?—By telling them we must take them back again to their father and mother, and give them up again; and their parents are generally people who cannot maintain them.
“So that they are afraid of going back to their parents for fear of being starved?—Yes; they go through a deal of hardship before they come to our trade.
“Did you use any more violent means?—Sometimes a rod.
“Did you ever hear of straw being lighted under them?—Never.
“You never heard of any means being made use of, except being beat and being sent home?—No; no other.
“You are aware, of course, that those means being gentle or harsh must depend very much upon the character of the individual master?—It does.
“Of course you must know that there are persons of harsh and cruel disposition; have you not often heard of masters treating their apprentices with great cruelty, particularly the little boys, in forcing them to go up those small flues, which the boys were unwilling to ascend?—Yes; I have forced up many a one myself.
“By what means?—By threatenings, and by giving them a kick or a slap.”