The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1883-09-13
CHASED BY A LOG.
EXPERIENCES oE THE MICHIGAN
RIVER DRIVERS.

Few people have any adequate
idea of the dangers and discomforts
attendingthe life of a '.riyer driver"
Four months of the year, and these
during the raw and chilly spring,
when he is working from daylight
to dark in the water, his clothes are
often wet and frequently frozen for
week at time. If he falls into
the cold river in the morning, 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 to be
worn, not hung on chair at nights
only sufficient to thaw out the gar
ments without drying them. I
talked with one of these river driv-
ers. Every bit of information was
given grudgingly, though earnestly
and with candor. He said:
81 have followed the river every
spring for twenty years and there
are mighty few streams in Michi-
gan that / haven't gone to the bot
tom of.
Dangerous business? Well,
that depends on what part of the
job you arc working at. Ifyou are
the cook, there amt much danger.
unless the boys find pebbles in the
beans, or mice in the blackstrap.
But if the crew sre breaking jam
and the old man sets you to, 'hiteh-
ing on things are liable to be pref
ty lively. What is 'hitching on
and a .rollway?' Ever see a high
bank at a riyer?' 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 thous-
ands. In spring these piles of logs
have got to be loosed SO that they
will float down the river. That is
what is called breaking a JAM
Now about 'hitching on
Sometimes they break ajam' by
prying out the logs with canthooks
and sometimes they run a rope
across the river. A yoke of oxen
are 'hitched on to it and it is
thrown around log. The oxen
are then started, and snake cut the
log. Why is that dangerous? It
often happens that one logis 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 onto him in
jiffy. Did ever meet with any
accidents? Yes; but the most SER
ious accident / ever met with didn't
turn out badly. We were breaking
a jam at the highest rollway on the
Manistee river. There were mil
lions of logs on the bank. and it
was pretty ticklish work. I hadn't
as many turns of rheumatic then as
have had since, and / called my.
self as timber man as ever lodged
a Norway. / was 'hitching on and
after I 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 abous 160 feet high, and there
was a big log ten or fifteen feet
from the top that appeared to be
loose.
4 started up over the logs with
my peevy in my hands. The log
was about twenty feet long, and I
showed my peevy into it TO sort of
sec how much work it was going to
be to loosen it. found out, / tell
you. I no sooner touched her than
she started like a fash 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 I had was
to turn and give her a foot-race.
We were, rs I said, near $50 feet
from the brink. The river was
about sixty feet wide, and was pref
ty deep. That was in my favor, if
l could only reach it. Ididn't stop
toAslculate chances or pick nice
stepping places, but I just made
jumps for all I was worth, and be-
fore I'd fairly light away I'd go
again, and you bet that log was
right after me. I could feel the
wind from it, and it seemed every
time I struck that it was on to me.
/ don't believe my heart beat, or
that / breathed, going down that
rollway, and I thought of every
tear I had ever been on and every
mean thing I had ever done. /
kept ahead all right until I got with
in about twenty feet of the river,
and then she struck me. was in
the air, and when the blow came /
went like a cannon ball out into
the river and to the bottom. AS l
came up a dozen Of the boys grab
bed 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 I wasn't hurt parti-
Gle, though it took some time to get
my fbellus' into running shape again.
That log struck me on the hips anb
threw me fully fifty feet, and that
was what saved my life, for if I had