St. Landry democrat., 1888-01-21
BREAKING A LOG JAM.
Rescue of His Brother by the
Hero Of Kettle Creek.

All through the autumn axes ant
saws were busy cutting and peelins
logs in the great pine forests lying neal
Kettle Greek, and during the winter
hundreds of men and teams worked
by daylight and moonlight. trailing
them down the icy slides and banking
them on the various landings. Now
at the end of the season, millions OF
feet of timber were piled along the
stream.
Meanwhile, as was to be expected,
some accidents had occurred; falling
tree had hurt one man, misplaced
skid another, and some of the workmen
had been injured on the icy and dan
gerous trails and at the landings.
But the work next in order, that OF
the spring floating, was of sort to
make all former perils forgotten. For
some of it, indeed, men were selected
as for a. forlorn hope on the battlefield,
none but the most skillful and daring
being accepted. Even among these
the preference was given to the unmar-
ried-to those, that is. whose death
would be least calamitous. Full of
danger as such is, however, men did
not shrink from it, especially as it came
after period of enforced idleness.
Upon one of the many landings. all
at once alive with men plying lever and
cant-hook, were two brothers, William
and Samuel Layton. They were young
men. William was but twenty, and
Samuel scarcely eighteen, but they
were already recognized as the best
me& in camp.
Beginning as 'peelers'' before they
were twelve years old, they had made
their way up through the several
grades, until they were now ..ja.n-
breakers occupying the highest and
most dangerous position known to the
woodsman's craft. They were not
large of frame, but were compactly
built, and had not only unusual mus
cular strength, but that peculiar knowl-
edge how best to exert the muscles to
action, which characterizes the skilled
workman.
So far this spring they had been en-
ployed upon q ''rough-and-tumble
landing, SO called by the lumbermea
because the logs are run in from trail
track, and pitched down the bank hap
hazard. Breaking such a landing is
dangerous, az i single log
often holds back hundret IT others, al
of which, the moment it ID loosened,
come ttlmbling after with dangerous
1t proved to &c SO in the
present case, and William Layton had
already had one narrow eseape from
death, in consequence of having gem
erously chosen post of danger rather
than let his brother take it.
But for two days past the work had
without accident The men
waded about in the ice-cold water,
rolling the logs away from the shores
and bars 'sacking," they called it,
and occasionally breaking an insignifi-
rant jam, but doing none Of that spe-
cial work which makes log-foating SO
peculiarly hazardous. They had been
merely skirmishing; the great battles
were yet to come.
On the third day, however. notice
was received Of a big jam at the Bar
bers, a rocky rapid four miles farther
lown the stream, and a crew of FIVE
men. including the Layton brothers.
was sent TO break il.
Piled in the rocky and gradually
narrowing channels of the creek lay.
Millions of feet of timber, wedged and |
welded into an almost solid mass by q |
PRESSURE of food and logs impossible to
.stimate.
It was an evil-looking job, but the
men went at it not only without hest
alton. but almost with eagerness.
Carrying their floating levers, they
Iprang lightly over the logs, and we're
DON on the front of the first great jam
i the season.
On the shore 8 crowd of men, wo-
,eia and children had gathered to seeI
be Jam go out One gray-haired
srnssr, whose son was among the |
sack,srs, y prophesied that there would
Z trouble when the logs started; he
,as olal his son had smaller wages
"A less risk. .sThere's danger ahead, /"
IA he. s4That's an awful ugly jam.
me old man spoke nothing more
q !, the truth. For nearly two miles
III from the point where the obstrnc-
"A occurred the stream Z was filed !