The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1884-04-17
ATBOOTJACK CAMP.
Bill Nye Unfolds his Store Of Sad Ex-
perience in the Lumber Regions.

From the Denver Opinion.
l put up at Bootjack Camp, on
the raging Willow River, where the
gay-plumaged chipmunk and the
SPIT ce gum have their home. Win
ter in the pine woods is fraught with
fun and froIic. 1t is more fraught
with fatigue than funds, however.
This winter a man in the Michigan
and Wisconsin lumber camps could
arise at l-2 a. m, eat a patent pail
full of dried apples soaked with
young Hyson and sweetened with
Persian glucose, 90 out to the tim
Der with a lantern, hew down the
giants of the forest, with the snow
up to the pit Of his stomache, till
the gray owl in the gathering gloom
whooped and hooted in derision,
and all for $12 per month and stew
ed prunes. / did not try to accu-
mulate wealth while | was in camp.
I just allowed others to enter into
the mad rush and wrench a fortune
from the hand of fate while |
studied human nature and the cook.
I had a good many pleasant days
there, too. I read such literary
works as I could find around the
camp, and smoked the royal Havana
smoking tobacco of the cookie.
Those who have not numbered much
do not know much of true joy and
sylvan tobacco.
They are not using a very good
grade of the weed in the lumber re-
gions this winter When say lum-
Der regions | do not refer entirely to
circumstances of a weak back. Mon
key wrench, oil can, and screw dri-
yer sent with this joke; also rules
for working it in all kinds of goods.)
The tobacco used by the pine chop
pers of the northern forests is called
the Scandinavian I do not know
why they call it that, unless it is be-
cause you can smoke it in Wisconsin
and smell it in Scandinavia.
When night came we would gath
er around the blazing fire and talk
over old times and smoke this tobac-
co. I smoked it till last week, then
l bought a new mouth and resolved
to lead different life. I shall never
forget the evenings we spent togeth-
er in that log shack in the heart of
the forest. They are craven on
my memory where times effacing
fingers cannot monkey with them.
We would not always converse. The
crew talked the Norwegian language,
and | am using the English language
mostly this winter. So each enjoyed
himself in his own quiet way. This
seemed to throw the Norwegians a
good deal together. 1t also threw
me good deal together. The Sean
dinavians soon learn our ways and
our language, but prior to that they
are quiet cIannish.
The cook however, was an Ohio
man. He spoke the Sanduslsv dia-
lect with a rich, nut-brosyn favor
that did me much good, so that af-
ter had talked with the crew a few
hours in English/and received THEN
harsh corduroy replies in Noske,
gladly fed to the cooks shanty. There
I could rapidly change to tho
smoothly flowing sentences peculiar
to the Ohio tongue, and while I ate
the common twisted doughnut OF
commerce we would talk on and OF
Of the pleasant days we had spent
in our native land. | talked to hin
of his old home till the tears woulC
yunbidden start, as he rolled out the
{ dough with--a common Budweisel
beer bottle, and shed the scalding
tears into the flour barrel Tears are
-. T&Lays unavailing, but sometimes
Lsglk they are more so when they
ce shed into a barrel of flour. HI
was an easy weeper. He would sheC
tears on the slightest provocation o.
anything else. Once I told hin
something so touchful that his eyet
were blinded with tears for tn,
nonce.I Then took a pie and stole
awayFso that he could be alone Will
his sorrow.
He used to grind the coffee at
m. The coffee mill was nailed VI
against partition on the opposite
side from my bed. That is one rea
son | did not stay any longer at the