The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1882-04-28

you cOulu stay III night, OF get Doaru, OF
you could get drurl, all at the same price.
Whisky, pork andsbeans for breakfast |;
pork, whisky and beans for dinner, etc.,
for the weeks bill of fare. But it improv-
ed as time went ON, and we we'll remem-
Der our boarding there afterward when
there was less whisky and more victuals.
We had made contract With the land
lord to board out some butter we had sold
him, and were working out the contract.
The landlord at the time was winding up
his business, and we noticed as each
boarder left that our sleep was more and
more disturbed at night. Finally we
were left alone, and had failed to get any
sleep for the last eight or ten nights, and
we thought we would look into the mat
ter. when we learned to our surprise that
as fast as each room became empty, all
the bedbugs left for the next, and so on;
and we found that we had been supplying
the whole house for the past few days.
We remember well one morning when we
were so weak we could hardly get down
stairs; how we walked up to the landlord
and told him we must give up that con-
smiled as we left to return no more. We
have often wondered since that time what
the programme was among those bugs af-
ter we left"
The foregoing rough sketch, it must be
admitted is scarcely overdrawn. The fare
was universally rough, as were the man
ners of the most who congregated around
the social board. Nor were the bedbugs
the only vermiu of which the traveller had
to complain. Lucky was he if he did not
carry away in his clothing some of those
crawling things whose name is never
mentioned to ears polite. In summer no
netting at doors or windows prevented
swarms of mosquitoes from singing lul-
laby song. but have neverheard of their
soothing any one to slumber. Fleas filed
up the intervals with their cheerful gam
bols. But all such annoyances were more
frequently treated as a joke than a griev-
ance, such was the merry spirit of the hap
py pioneer.
LUMBERING---A SKETCH BY NEAL BROWN.
laundering commenced on the Wiscon-
sin river about thirty years ago. Most of
the lumber is now shipped by railroad,
but formerly it was foated in RATS to the
Mississippi, much of it as far as st. Louis.
The historical association Of those times
are full of rare interest. The wild and
perious life of logging and rafting had a
flavor peculiarly its own, something like
that led by the western argonauts, who
delved in the golden sands of California
during its early history. Here as there,
fortunes wE,e made and lost in day
Destructive floods would strew the river
with wrecked lumber, but no reverse of
fortune can beggar the man of energy,
and the early lumbermen accumulated
wealth as rapidly as they lost it. Clad in
the picturesque red flannel, men of cul-
ture and refinement hewed down the for
ests of pine during the long winters, and
committing their harvests to the spring
freshets, guided it along for hundreds of
miles of peiilous passage to Market
Hundreds of these men would gather at a
rapids, waiting to take turns in rafting
their lumber over, with the river covered
with RATS for miles, and all hands shout
ing and swearing, and making perfect
pandemonium of noise. tra.y o
In the social life of the people there
was an absence of conventional and arti-
fetal rules, and frankness, energy and
generosity were prevailing traits of char
acter Life in such forests as these could
not but develop characteristics not found
under the dwarfing and enervating infu-
ence Of more conventional civilization.
1t is rare treat to sit down and be-
guile one of the oldest inhabitants into
narrating incidents of pioneer life in the
pineries. 1t is to be hoped that all this
early history, and the character of those
who frequented this country in those days
will yet find faithful historian in some
western Bret Harte or Mark Twain II
furnishes rich field tothe artist in char
acter delineation. The romantic and va
ried experiences of the lumber argonauts,
who toiled for gold in the rich forests OF
the North Western pineries is as well
worthy of perusal as that of their breth-
rem Of the western slopes of the Rocky
Mountains. The excitement and adven-
ture Of the one find parallel in the other
NUMBERING ON THE CHIPPEWA, WISCONSIN.
The death of Mr.. Joseph Roberts aged
eighty-two years, at Hubbardtown, Mich.
calls out the following recollections of for
ty-two years ago:-
ain the winter of 1889, Silas Burt came
from Wisconsin, where he was in the en-
ploy of the Prairie du Chem Fur Co., to
Livingston Co., N. Y, after men to build
mill at the Falls of the Chippewa River,
and came to Mr.. Roberts to induce him to
go. He asked for one week to decide. at
the end Of which time Mr.. Burt returned,
and was informed that he would 60 for
twenty shillirgs ($2.5O) a day from the
time he left home, which was accepted
He was told to hire twenty-one men, take
charge of them, and go to Wisconsin"
The details of the journey through the
eastern states are irrelevant, though in q
degree interesting, until we find them in
the Northwest. The narrative says:
1.-THE next stop brought them to Galena,
the last town on the Journey. At this