Daily American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1852, 1852-03-03
scenes IN River Life In Maine.

From lakes and tributary streams, the va
rious parcels of logs cut and drove by different
companies issue forth, and form one grand drive
on the main river, where the separate crews
unite, and make common cause in the driving
operation In other instances, one drive may
precede another making the river for miles one
general scene of logs and river-drivers. Some
times the foremost logs of one drive, unobstruct-
ed pass on and mngle with what is called the
"tall-end" " OF the preceding drive. Under such
circumstances, if there be any grudge to graft
ty by the foremost crew, or a substantial joke
to be put, such truant logs are run aground, in
to creeks in meadow land, among the bushes,
and on the shore. A crew of thirty or forty
men will take. log belonging to another crew,
and run it up high and dry on to the land,
stand it on end, prop it up, and leave it in that
position. The rear crew, on coming up, stimu-
! lated by the prank, knock away the props and
throw it down; score OF pixies pierce its sides,
when they shove it upon the run perhaps twen-
ty rods to the river again amid the most vocif-
erous hurrahs and whooping, enough to give
one quite an idea of the Indian war whoop.
Some, perhaps, who may trace these lines, may
be curious to know how the logs of one party
may be distinguished from those of another.
The answer is, precisely as one farmer distin-
guishes his sheep from those of has neighbor, by
in some particular from every other. A repre-
sentation Of these marks, which are cut in the
side of the log, would remind one Of the letters
or characters of the Chinese.
No employment that am aware of threatens
the life and health more than river-driving.
Many poor fellow finds his last resting
place on the bank OF some wild stream, in
whose sitting depths his last struggle for life
was spent; where the wild wood skirts it's
margin where too the~lonely owl boots his
midnight requiem. have visited many spots
| that were from facts called up by retrospection,
lonely and painfully silent, but have never been
so spell-bound SO extremely oppressed with
feeling of sadness, as while standing over the
little mound which marked the resting place
of river driver on the banks of lonely stream,
far away from the hearth of his childhood and
the permanent abodes of civilization The
silent ripple of the now quiet stream, (for the
spring floods were past,) the signing of the
winds among the branches of the trees which
waved in silence over the unconscious sleeper,
rendered the position too painful for one pre-
disposed to melancholy When, in those wild
regions we have the misfortune to lose one of
our number, after the body is recovered, we
place it in a coffin composed of two empty flour
barrels. One is passed over the head and
shoulders the other receives the lower extrem-
tiles, when the two are brought together and
fastened his grave clothes generally being some
of his common wearing apparel Seldom, if
ever, does the voice of prayer rise over their
| bier under these circumstances in silence the
corpse is committed to its rude burial, while
now and then half-suppressed sigh is heard,
and the unbdden tears steal down the sun
burnt cheeks Of his manly associates. Events
of this kind generally come suddenly, though,
when in dangerous circumstances are often an.
ticipated. After such an occurrence, an air OF
sobriety pervades the company; jokes are dis.
pensed with the voice of the song is hushed
and for several days the department. of the men
is characterized by degree of cautiousness
unusual, except when reminded by some such
impressive example of the frailty and uncer
tainty of human life. But with most, the i'm.
preston soon wears of, and their accustomed
cheerfulness is regained; their exertions mark
ed with the same daring as before the accident
or, as though life had never been lost in the
business.
Lower down the river, in the vicinity of new
settlements, the usual ceremonies on funeral
occasions are practced when an itinerant cler,
gyman chances to pass that way. The follow
ing notice of such an occurrence was cut from
the Bangor Courier:
Passing into the town of Passadumkeag
late one evening during the past summer, a
crowd had gathered in the street. 1t proved
to be the funeral Of a river-drver His body
= had been taken from the water and shrouded
in the open air. Many of the sympathetic vii.
3 layers were there and a pious elder, who
r chanced that way breathed a prayer over his
remains before they were borne to their final
place of rest"