Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1883-06-28
CHASED BY A LOG.
Experiences of the Michigan River Drivers.

Few people have any adequate idea
OF the dangers and discomforts attend
ing the life of ''river driver" Four
months of the year, and these during
the raw and chilly spring. when he is
working from daylight till dark in the
water, his clothes re often wet and fire.
quently frozen for week at time. If
he falls into the cold river in the morn
ING, he must keep on with his work till
night. Often the heat of his bed-for
the riverman's etiquette teaches him
that clothes are made to be worn, not
hung on a chair at nights only sutfi-
Gent to thaw out the garments without
drying them. l talked with one of these
river drivers. Every bit of information
was given grudgingly, though earnestly
and with candor He said:
Il have followed the river every
spring for twenty years and there are
mighty few streams in Michigan that
l haven't gone to the bottom of.
Dangerous business? Well, that de-
ponds on what part of the job you are
working at If you are the cook, there
amt much danger, unless the boys find
pebbles in the beans, or mice in the
blackstrap. But if the crew are break
ing q jam and the old man sets YOU to
'hitching on things are liable to be
pretty lively. What is 'hitching on
and a 'rollway?' Ever see high bank
at river? Well, loggers draw their
logs during the winter to the highest
bank OF a stream they can reach, and
roll them down it onto the ice below,
piling them up by thousands and tens
of thousands. In the spring these piles
of logs have got to be loosened so that
they will float down the river. That is
what is called breaking jam Now
about 'hitching on
sometimes they break a jam by
prying out the logs with canthooks and
sometimes they run rope across the
river. A yoke of oxen are 'hitched on
to it, and it is thrown around a loo. The
oxen are then started, and snake out
the log. Why is that dangerous? 1t Of
ten happens that one log is wedged in
such a shape that it holds from fifty to
a thousand others and to save time this
log must be hauled out first. Then if
the logger isn't minding his concerns
when the pile starts, the whole lot is on
to him in a jify. Did [ ever meet with
any accident? Yes; but the most serious
accident [ ever met with didn't turn out
very badly. We were breaking jam
at the highest rollWay on the Manistee
River. There were millions of logs on
the bank, and it was pretty ticklish
work. / hadn't had as many turns of
rheumatic then as [ have had since, and
[ called myself as timber a man as ever
lodged a norway. was 'hitching on,
and after [ had been at work a while
the boss, who was giving orders from
across the river, sung out DO you see
that loose log up near the top? I looked
up. The rOllway was about 100 feet
high, and there was big log ten or fif-
teen feet from the top that appeared to
be loose.
Il started up over the logs with my
peevy in my hands. The log was about
twenty feet long, and showed my peevy
into it to sort of see how much work it
was going to be to loosen it. | found
out, [ tell you. [ no sooner touched her
then she started like flash of lightning
down the rOllway. There was no chance
to run around the end of the log, and it
was too high to Jump over, SO the only
chance had was to turn and give her
foot-race. We were, as [ said, near $50
feet from the brink The river was
about sixty feet wide, and was pretty
deep. That was in my favor, if Icould
only reach it. / didn't stop to calculate
chances or pick nice stepping places,
but l just made jumps for all [ was
worth, and before I'd fairly light away
I'd 90 again, and you bet that log was
right after me. [ could feel the wind
from it, and it seemed every time [
struck that it was on to me. [ don't be-
lieve my heart beat. or that | breathed,
going down that rollway, and thought
of every tear [ had been on and every
mean thing [ had ever done. | kept
ahead all right until [ got within about
twenty feet of the river, and then she
struck me. Twas in the air, and when
the blow came [ went like q cannon ball
out into the river and to the bottom. AS
| came up dozen of the boys grabbed
me and brought me ashore. They had
been watching me from the other bank,
and when they saw me shoot out into
the stream they rushed into the water
to bring out what they thought would
be my corpse. But wasn't hurt par
ticle, though it took some time to get
my 'bellus' into running shape again.
That log struck me on the hips and
threw me fully fifty feet, and that was
what saved my life; for if [ had landed
near the bank that log would have
crushed me-"
THAT was q close call!'
''Tolerable, tolerable. Correspond
e72t Detroit Free Press