Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1881-10-20

tidt tue iOyS ulu not 1Oul tnere- From
the brow at the top, n strong wire ran
down the foot, where there was bell.
A lever at the top worked the wire.
When n load of logs had come to the
brow and was ready to be sent down.
the men at the top first gave the lever
a wrench, to notify the men below to
stand clear. A big pine log, thirty feet
in diameter, weighing at least two tons.
and coming out on the slow with the
velocity OF a cannon bell, was no plav-
thing. Sometimes :he logs would go
end over end. clean across the river. A
log plunging down made peculiar.
roaring noise. The whole shoot trem-
bled and seemed to hum under it. 1t
was something as when. in saw-mill.
great ''circular" goes tearing through
long log.
Week after week the wooded noun
tain side across the the branch echoed
to that deep, prolonged whir-r-r-r!
We had thirty teams drawing in logs to
the brow. At least a thousand logs
were sent down every day. Only one
log was let 90 at a time. But each
passed down the shoot, distance of
about three thousand feet, in less than
half minute, particularly in the morn
ing when the slide was icy. Besides
the men at the brow and at the toe, we
kept boy on the shoot, halfway up,
to tend the wire and to report if any
trouble occurred. That winter we had
hired for this purpose lad whom they
called Tort Guillot. What Tort" was
a nickname for 1 am sure l do not
know. His father. Clam Guillot,
French Canadian. worked for US and
kept Tort stimulated to his work BY an
occasional birching." The boy had
drivers "corks" in his boots, and
used to walk up and down on the plank
boxing over the slide, or lie on it look
ing through the cracks at the logs as
they shot down under him.
About three o'clock one afternoon,
as was sealing pile of logs beside
the slow. l heard q heavy crash away
up the side of the mountain, and mo-
ment or two after saw Tort hurrying
down the top OF the shoot. He ran out
where was standing.
" I'm 6,sehe," he said, had '.Stubbed'
and jumped the giissade, tearing
through the plank boxing.
Tort was not little excited, and no
wonder. for the log had jumped not
very far from where he had been sit
ting a. the time. While he was telling
me this, we heard the bell strike-fol-
lowed almost instantly by another
crash way up the side OF the Stoss. A
second log had jumped. Running to
the semaphore, set the signal to stop
sending down logs. then Climbed up
with Tort to see what was the matter.
Not quite halfway up from the slow
we came to great ragged hole in
the plank covering. Splinters lay
on the snow in all directions.
The logs had dashed through the plank
ing. as if it had been brown paper, and
flown on like arrows. We saw one of
them standing end up against a tree,
two or three hundred feet below. Get
ting into the shoot through the hole, we
up the slippery bed on our
hands and knees. 1t was queer place. |
Wads of woody fiber lay about, secured !
M from the hewn timbers which formed 1
the floor; and every nook was driven
FULL of bark meal, from the logs. Here
and there long sliyers stuck in the /
blanks overhead and on the sides, so
irmly that We could not tear them out
with our hands. Fifty or sixty feet
Up the shoot from the hole, found the
.ause of the mischief. One of the long,
square timbers of the bed had warped
rom its matchings, a. the upper end.
It was against the end of this timber.
which projected three or four inches.
hat the logs had stubbed and glanced.
4 little work with the adze and few
Extra nails would make all right. but it
vas getting dusk, and, rejecting that /
hould have time the following morn
NC for so short a job, before the days
work began. l sent word to the upper
,ang to commence work on time as
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