The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1885-03-04
AIoGeINc-cAMP Boss.

"Far a Young man | have done
some pretty tough scraping in the
rockies and mining regions Of New
Mexico and Arizona, but a few deys
ago had the worst scare of my lie
in the lumber districts Of Northern
Michigan" The speaker was a
Young man Of some twenty-seven
wears. dressed in roufh-and-ready
stvle and wearing frizzy tow beard;
He shifted the position OF his broad
shoulders as be lounged back in an
easy chan in the Sherman House
Office, puffed his cigar vigorously,
and then continued: "lt was one
of those bitter cold days we've just
been having, and ! had got up at
three O'Clock to rouse the men and
get their sprinkler out. The airI
seemed full Of blue steel and cut TO
INV marrow like a razor. One OF
the teamsters got scared out and
played off sick. So | had to take
bis place. When We had got a
rood big load took the reins and
sat down on the butts of the logs,
leaving the two loggers on behind.
OF course, about about twenty feet
of the load hung off the last bob.
The road was a sheet of ice, for the
sprinkler ran over il every morning,
and the horses were sharp shod, SO
we slid along smoothly until We
came to the slide-a pretty steep
incline ending in a turn which was
mighty sharp for a road sixty feet
wide. a soon as we started down
nyh hgan 10 stand on end, for
the hufses gslloped like fury to
keep ahead of the bobs, which were
sl.winc all over the road. | got SO
paral, zed and nervous that when
we reached the turn | reined in too
suddenly. j felt the front bobs
Jump one way and the hind bobs
another. The hind ends of the logs
whistled through the air like willow
switches, and / heard the loggers
veil. For Gods sake. - -. The
next thing was a loud snap, snap,
snap-like the tremedous paper
crackers-as the big log-chains broke
ike so many cotton threads. Did
YOU ever use a switch sling? Whirl
il round and round your head, you
know. till a sudden twist sends the
end off the stick and spinning into
the air? Well, that is the way ! felt
and that is Just what thought OF
as | was shot off into the air, over
and over, till | struck in snow
drift a hundred or more feet from
the road. When | struggled back
through the snow found the horses
irving to kick loose from the few
bits of harness that dangled about
them, the bobs tangled abont the
trunk of small pine tee, and the
logs scattered to the four winds
One logger crawled back to the road
with a fractured leg. and the other
soon followed with a dislocated
shoulder. One had struck a tree
and the other had landed against a
stump. They afterwaid told me in
camp that those things were not at
all unusual, and, as | had some
pretty severe bruises myself, | con-
cluded that was not made to boss
a lumber camp. So j was driven
to town the next day to telegraph
the management that the head
teamster was filling my place, and
that l was on my way to Chicago;
and you bet your life | am glad |
did it. If you have never passed a
winter in the Michigan lumber dis
tricts YOU don't know what trouble
is. In the first place a man has to
work from three in the morning till
eight and sometimes eleven at night
NV daily life, while | was fool
enough to stay there, was some
thing like this: / kept store for
twenty teamsters and bossed them
at their work. | slept and ate in
the only approximately clean place
in the whole ranch-a little box
built out into the big room and all
lined with strong tobacco, curry
combs, socks. buckwheat, kerosene
and bad molasses. The box had nc
cover, so as lay on the only blan-
ket between me and the floor
could see the stars through the frosty
cracks in tie roof. The onions, cab
bages, beans and small keg oi
sauer-kraut were stored just outside
my door IN the big room, which was
heated red-hot by an immense open
fireplace. At night the men would
take off their soaking-wet rubber
boots and stand them by the fire.
"Those were awful old days fol
me. | had almost sleepless nights
and then had to get up before day
break, with the thermometer 20 oi
30 degrees below zero, and go abont
my work with a splitting headache
contracted in the foul air in which
i bad to pass the night. / am glad
l am out of it. 1t is an unhealthy
dirty, dangerous business, and unl,s
a man is in with the manag men
there is no money in it, Chicago