St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-06-20
WORKING AT EHE JAM.
The Two Hundred or More Lumbermen
Pulling the Logs at Tay-
lor's Falls.
A Work That is Full of Excitement and
Has Something of Dan
ger in It.
Experienced Men, Who Have Spent
Their Lives on the River
and in Camp,
Estimate on the Logs in the JAM
Curious Looking Suits of
Clothes.
Among the Logs.

Special to the Globe.
TAYLoR'S FALLS. June 19.-"If yer
aon't want stem ender ter smash yer
frame an spoil your dude clothes, yer bet
ter get back ON the bank" said husky
river man to GLOBE man, who had ven
tured down on the logs near the end of the
jam at Taylor's Falls, where the men in
red flannel trousers were at work the other
day. From where the men are at work.
the jam looks much more awe-inspiring
than OH the bluff a hundred feet above
From that view the height to- which the
logs are piled above the water-level does
not appear, and so easily do the men make
their jumps from one log to another that
much of the real excitement of the work is
lost. But from the floating logs that con-
stantly roll in the water as it boils
up from under the jam the real condition
of things is painfully apparent to one who
is not used to such sights. Standing on a
log at the water level the great mass of the
jam rises so high that the view OF the long
stretch of logs is lost, and one can see
little but the huge ends and sides of those
that make up the lower end of the jam.
They seem to be jammed together and
fastened together so closely, and they APP
pear so large and heavy, that withsthe boil
stranger The men leap about among
the monsters as carelessly as any river men
ever did where it was plain sailing, and APP
parentIy never think that when the pile
driver on the boat below looSenS some big
one, a thousand or more may come
with it and some "Stunender' sweep the
pigmy lumberman into the boiling waves
and eternity. The men are experts how
ever, and have their eyes about them, and
a well-directed jump takes them out of
harms way just in season to escape the
danger.
One of the most picturesque spots in the
Northwest. is, just at present, profaned by
the appearance of some hundred men, with
unshaven faces and suits of clothes as vari
colored as the toboggan suits in st. Paul
last winter, who wear spikes in their boots,
and spit tobacco juice with reckleSsness
that is appalling. They seem to have con-
siderable money with them, and they have
worn the floors of the saloons rough and
sliverY from contact with their
spikes as they have walked up for
beer. Curious suits these men wear.
When they went up in the woods last win
ter they wore heavy pair of wooden
drawers. in cOlOrS to suit the taste, and
over these a heavy pair of trowsers. They
also had on from one to three shirts, thick
and of as many colorS as Joseph'S coat.
Now that the warm weather has come they
see fit to wear spring suits, which they
manufacture by taking off one layer of
shirt and cutting off their trousers legs
about foot below the divide, thus secur-
ing good ventilation for the lower half of
their legs and adding a touch of Oddity, to
say the least, to their general appear
ance. Their walk is anything but graceful,
but their appetiteS are remarkably good.
Many of them avail themselves of
All opportunity to get shaved, and when
one comes from a barber shop it raises cries
of ''look at the dude" that are kept up un-
til he sets up beer to the crowd. They
smoke straight-stemmed pipes, and if any
one should offer them cigarets they would
feel inSulted.
''This amt not only the biggest jam that
was ever in the Northwest but the biggest
there ever was in the world" remarked an
Old-timer, called Mike by his companions,
whom a GLOBE reporter asked on this
point. There's $50, 1000, 900 feet in there
if there's one. You hear me? I've
run this river for twenty-six years
an was here two weeks on the fust Jam
that was ever hung up at this place. That
was in '65. I've follered the business fur
thirty-five years, an know the Kennebec
an Connecticut as well as 1 do the st.
CroiX. I know what jams is. and I tell yer
this is the biggest one in the world"
The man was probably 60 years old, as
straight as any log that he ever rode. and
had blue eye that would have been I'M
usually clear and sharp if it had not been
for the fact that he had been drinking beer
at frequent intervals for an hour or two.
Estimates vary exceedingly on the guam
tity of logs that are hung up, running from
125, 900, 600 feet to twice that quantity, ac-
cording to the amount of beer the man has
had that makes the estimate.
~
In pulling out the logs a great deal of
judgment is required to know just which
are the key logs that should be caught by
the ropes in order to loosen the largest
number. A rope of two inches diameter is
used and on this are attached huge hooks
about like ice tongs, only larger and
stronger. There are probably 200 or 800
feet Of this rope in single length. and it
takes from six to ten men to handle it. An
experienced man is at the end, picking his
way among the logs at some distance from
the water. He knows his BUSINESS and
though it looks as if he Topped the end of
SAS AOPS esOooC oily Tvs eohCl oV IduOOul, uO
never does this until he has some good
reason for taking this particular log.
Sometimes, by making an es-
pecially fortunate choice. raft
of a hundred logs are Iooseued. AS the lit
tie engine down on the boat puffs away
winding up the rope there is heard terri
BILE grooming and creaking among the dry
logs. 1t is terrible strain that is brought
to bear, and then the whole end of the jam
seems to be moving down stream. The
creaking continues and all at once mass
of logs packed together, their ends sticking
i'll all directions, parts from the larger mass
and comes down on the boiling water and
floats away. No sooner is it loosened from
the big jam than a score of the lusty river
men run from log to log and mount it, with
their canthooks pulling the small tangle
apart. They keep up continuous shout
ing and leaping from log to log until they
are all untangled and float away. then, by
few jumps on stray logs, they are back
again for the next pull.
Lace Curtains
Selling at 1917 cents, remnants, at Nc
I oi,,'c Woh ho CT,