Who are the goldsmiths, and why this most important profession was forgotten in the 21st century

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In the old days, in the evenings, carts with barrels appeared on the streets of Russian cities. The whole appearance of the man on the cart indicated that he was a very important person. No, these were not water carriers - they were the ancestors of modern sewer workers, the goldsmiths, who came to clean the cesspools. Now this profession has been forgotten, and when the word "goldsmith" is used, many people imagine a person whose work is somehow connected with gold.

In fact, in the old days, goldsmiths were really called gold miners, and craftsmen who applied gilding to wood, and even jewelers. However, it was precisely in the meaning of "flusher" that this word was most widely known.

It is believed that people who cleaned cesspools from sewage began to be called goldsmiths because they took very high wages for their work. At the same time, the townspeople could not try to somehow save money. A man refused because of the high price of one gold-miner, hoping to find a cheaper option, but in the end it turned out that other gold-miners took even more.

However, this is not surprising: they had to clean the cesspools of the townspeople by hand, collecting the sewage with a ladle. And where residents poured excrement from the windows directly onto the street, the goldsmith cleaned the streets as well. By the way, he also removed horse manure from the road. Having filled the barrel with sewage, the goldsmith set off on a journey: he had to take it all far beyond the city limits. And what kind of "aromas" I had to smell …

Meanwhile, no one dared to call the goldsmith, laugh at him or cheat with money. Everyone knew that it was better to communicate with representatives of this profession with courtesy: if you offend him, "accidentally" he would pour feces from a barrel into your yard or you. And this is not just a horror story: such facts were well known to the townspeople.

There are other versions of such a beautiful name for this profession. According to one, for example, bowel movements in Russia, either as a joke or out of a sense of tact, were called "night gold." By the way, manure was sometimes called "gold", thereby emphasizing how much the prosperity of a Russian person depends on a good harvest. Well, the work itself on fertilizing the soil with cow dung or chicken droppings was often called "gilding". Here you can also remember what superstitious people believed: to see excrement in a dream - to money.

The profession of goldsmith was important not only for maintaining aesthetic cleanliness in the streets and courtyards. Thanks to these people, it was possible to contain the epidemics that periodically occurred in cities. Of course, it is impossible to prevent the spread of plague or cholera by just cleaning the street, but if it were not for the goldsmiths, the epidemics would be even worse.

Alas, representatives of this profession have always been at risk - they were especially susceptible to infection with infectious diseases and helminths often got into their bodies.

The profession of goldsmith existed until about the end of the nineteenth century. With the advent and spread of sewerage in the form that is familiar to modern man, the need for the services of goldsmiths has disappeared by itself. There is only a beautiful word left.

Well, in order to better understand how people lived in Russia, you must definitely find out secrets of Russian wells