, 1886-07-03
ON THE P~ENOBSCOT.
PERlLS AND PRivATiONS OF THE
LUMBERMAN'S OCCUPATION.

6O"SIttN'Nf~ WV
A Peculiar and Hazardous Work-Whers
the Trouble Comes-A Tremendous
Stampede Of Logs-The "wangans," or
Bangor, once the greatest lumber
market in the world, though doing a
much smaller business han in Penob-
scots palmy days, Is still the home OF ex-
pert loggers and drivers; INT the head
quarters for the most approved kinds Of
lumbermen's Implements. Such Is the
fame of Bangor cant-dogs and axes and
battsaux that operators In the compare
lively new logging regions of the west and
far-on Pacific slope send here for them.
But It Is the men Of tho Penobscot who
are principally sought, not for cutting the
logs, for almost anybody . swing an ak,
but for the sperilous work of driving the
logs through rapid waters and over roar
ing falls n swift rapids. Every spring,
when the trees have been felled and when
the warm sun has transformed frozen
streams n rushing torrents. men from
the Kennobec and Connecticut come to
Bangor to hire crews who are clever with
the Ak and cant-dog, and who arc not
afraid to break . jam or sleep on the bare
ground In a single blanket. They are es-
pecially anxious to get Bangor boys when
they have . hard drive in prospect, for
they know that the Penobscot red-shirters
will pull them through II 1t is a possible
thing.
A VERY HAZARDOUS WORE.
Not many people understand how logs
are driven from the wilds where they are
cut 10 many miles to the great booms near
the mills where they are sawn into UNI
Der. 1t Is a peculiar and a hazardous work,
and when a lot of drivers start away for
tho headwaters with their pick-poles.
cantdogs and axes 1t is just as natural to
expect that some OF them never will come
back alive as it would be in case of a
company Of soldiers starting for a battle
field. After the loggers get through dump
ing the logs over into the frozen streams
but . brief period ensues before the snow
and Ice melt and carry the big spruce
sticks in great masses down stream
INT create big jams, backing the water up
so. that many Of the logs are floated over
submerged flats. to be left high and dry
whom the first detachment of drivers
break the jams and let the water loose.
Then the drivers work begins. The
grounded logs, in the upper country
where horses can not be used, must be
carried to the streams by the men. and
often 1t requires twenty strong drivers,
wading knee deep In mud, to carry a
single stick to the water. The farmers
whose meadows are thus strewn with logs
often claim the timber as a recompense for
tho obstruction 1t causes to their opera
lions, and at times they appear with shot
gum to prevent the drivers from a-urying
of the logs. But the boss driver orders
his men to ''bring that stun down" and
the stun" ~gena.aIiy comes.
SeyAseh crews are employed on a drive
OF any considerable size, or at the head or
lower end. Others along the line or ut the
rear. There are many rocks, rapids and
falls where the moving mass is likely to
jam, and these places must be carefully
watched to prevent a general Hanging
up" Of the logs. Sometimes one big stick,
caught on ? rock, will hold back hundreds
OF thousands OF feet, and then some dar-
ing fellow is ordered out with an ak to
chop away the obstruction. 1t is at the
risk of his life. He must be quick, for at
the last stroke Of his ak the big log snaps
asunder with a boom like that of a can
non, and then there is n tremendous
stampede of all the logs behind it. II the
driver Is lucky and agile he gets ashore all
right. leaping from log to log, hut one
misstep, or q little slowness, is likely to
precipitate him Into the seething mass, and
II 1t Is ever found below, his body is
mangled almost beyond recognition. Gen
orally 1t Is never found.
THE coMMIssARY DEPARTMENT.
As the drive progresses the men follow
through the woods or along the rocky, I'M
even shores after 1t. INT %"wangans," OF
commissary departments of the different
gangs, going on before. The driver works
as long as'it Is light enough to see a log,
and when the moon Is bright they often
go to work at 8 O'Clock in the morning and
continue until the last glimmer of twi-
light. They eat their plentiful but coarse
evening meal, and. wrapped In their
blankets. lie down to sleep. While they
sleep, which seems to them but an hour,
the "wangan" moves ahead five or six
miles, and when they awake there is that
distance to walk through the woods be-
fore breakfast.
saw a Bangor man who had just re-
turned from the Connecticut, where he
had driven six weeks, Sundays included,
for S.50 a day. aud he brought IA sad story
with him. After escaping several perils
himself he had seen one of his camp-mates
go down to a cruel fate, while another was
barely snved alive. These two.a Bangor boy
and an old driver from st. John, N. h. had
come up from the lower end of a drive near
North Stratford, Vt, to help break a big
jam above. They walked through the
woods to a point just above the jam and
then started down stream for 1t on n log
apiece. Before they knew 1t they were In
white water around some rocks; one log
was lost and the two were left clipging to
b other. When they reached the jam
the Bangor boy wa crushed up against it,
while the st. John man was swept under
and lost beneath the wilderness Of logs.
The young fellow. pinned by the big stick
TO which he chung, cried In vain for help,
for the crew were out Of hearing, and was
just about to 90 under when another float
ing log truck his and swung It around in
such n way As TO hberate him. Then he
managed to struggle ashore, and, terribly
injured, was conveyed to the nearest house
River driving is a dangerous business, but
there are plenty OF men here ready to take
its chance.-New York World.
sixteen Miles Of Decorations.
A noted pyrotechnist of London has just
gone of to Lisbon, where he has con
tracted to supply sixteen miles of decora-