Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-05-25

above the-1,dbouss swell Or, If an ex-J
pert, ne VIII simply '.bpcket" hole IN
the trunk and driving a stout stake
into 1t, stand percL<d upon that slender
toothofd as he .dex.erorsly swings his
blade, The size of the redwood giants
IS World-iamons, and it is legend of
zine coast lhat woodman having clidp-
peu 10, week on one side Of a tree
maikeu AROUND it and found another
chopper who had been Ut work for
monih on the other side Huge theF
pare, put beautiful wood to chop, fairly
turing tne lnquisitive blade to the mys-
terles oi untold centuries wrapped up in
their reu hearts, and the death-bellow
OF the forest colossus as, in his final
agony ne plunges down some dark,
WOODED canyon, crushing all before him,
may DC heard reverberating in dull
| thunder through the cloaked hills at all
seasons of the wear -
bu' II Is not until the cypress swamps
OF the southland are reached that the
AK taheS 10 water. In those dark
snauowed and moss-draped lagoons the
chopper becomes amphibious and per-
forms hls.work while skillfully balanced
! III one OF the most treacherous of all
J aquatic eohtryances, dug-out. Should
any one think there is no science re-
quirea 10 chop from a dug-out, let the
skeptic try it. A person not an mex
pert manu- with an AK, but a novice at.
swinging one while tcetering in n
canoe, dd so, and mourneti Once on
the Bayou Ieche he padded up To a big
I tree whose great dubious stem reached
far under wafer, and, fastening his dug
out TO theVlctim, seized his AK and belas
~ stood erect in the PROV. Balancing
himself Tor moment until true equi-.
! llbrhlmwas attained, he swung back his
ak and made n bold strokesat the tree.
! The dug-out attempted a somersault in.
| stantly. 1t shot out of water at the
! stern; the cutter shot under water at the
] bow; and where the AK went is mys.
Fiery to this day. The South has world
-of wealth in the cypress, and it has been
comparatively lightly drawn upon. II
Is a soft, ino=graincd wood, very frce
from knots and bleIpishcS, and easily
4 worked. Without question the most
/ easily manipulated wood in the world Is
j the sOt. smooth. glossy grained mahog-
4 any pine Of California, the famous red
/ wood. Its grain is SO straight and 20
] dpiicately woven that, to use chop
pcrs' expression, it splits If you shake
an AK at it. ~. 80.
OF the AK in the oak-lands of the
Southwest, where it laboss for France
and Spain, sending them annually
thousands of dollars worth of slaves.
and also of its dcsultory existence in
cordwood chopTing, 'grubbing,n char
coal-sticking. o0p-polc-cutting, and
kindred industries, little need be said
save that it does its share of the work
honestly. and has settled policy that
no man shall hold intercourse with it
with its coat on. This Difference it cx-
acts from all with whom it enters into
business relations, whether among the
icc-locked lakes and rivers of the white
pine, the laurel-scented canyons of the
coast range, or the magnolia-haunted
lagoons of the mournful, moss-draped
cypress. There is no healthier, clean
er, and more ENJOYABLE exercise in the
world than swinging an AK. In handling
one, nearly every muscle of the body
is brought into active play. In fact,
the AK Is whole gymnasium in itself
n torpid liver, dyspeptic stomach, or
malarfa-hauntcd system it seizes upon
mercileSsly, chops out the trouble,
mangles it, hurls it away, and fills the
laudablc vacancy with the appetite of Il
wolf and the digestion of an ostrich.
As mental, moral and religious in
Structor it occupies an exalted position.
In the first place it inStrlcts where
there is plenty of elbowroom and fresh
air, and, while the eye and hand are
occupied, the mind, prompted and re-
inforced from IA body wei attuned to
healthy exercise, finds new fields of
meditation and cogitation in which
to ramble, investigate, improve itself
and invent. And q. a healthy body
generates healthy brain, the latter re-
turns the courtesy by supplying the
former with honest physical desires.
There is hardly another physical labor
affording the independence of the AK
man. In timbered lands he is always
in demand, and his workshop is from
ocean to ocean and from Hudson Bay
to the gulf. In the. woods there is al
ways room for good choppers, and an
aXman need never he idle from Septem-
Der to April. y Tribune.