The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-09-25

and suits of 'dittoes" are not to be the
universal wear for mankind in the
twentieth century. Telegraph.
THE LoGGERs OF THE NORTH.
Observations Among the Rough Men of
the Lumber Woods.
Early in the spring the first thaw
breaks up the winter camps and drives
the lumbermen into the towns for
''hurrah' time.
These men pass three or four months
of the winter in camp. telling and haul
ing timber. During all that time they
are remote from the temptations of
etfete civilization, with no opportunities
of spending money. Picture two thou
sand or three thousand of these men
streaming into town with their winter
savings The widest kind of revelry
runs riot. Saloons and gambling houses
are in full blast night and day, while
Sunday has merely calendar signiti-
canoe no longer synonymous with the
Sabbath" Pandemonium. Why, band
of bowling dervishes would be Bible
class compared to gang of lumber
Nv
set of men they are, too; seasoned by
vigorous work in the open air-that
clear, dry atmosphere of the northern
woods, redolent with the fragrance of
the pines
And what lusty-lunged fellows!
After three or four drinks of pine top"
whisky their sole aim is to display this
startling power. At a lumberman's
! whoop Comanche would seek shady
the boys" would turn steam calliope
a sickly green.
Still, boisterous as they are, their
fun is of harmless kinda good.
natured, wholc-souled lot of men
as a class - manly and courageous,
always ready to help a comrade
and generous without stint. Rows
are of infrequent occurrence and
then confined to fsticutfs. Shooting and
stabbing affrays are rarely heard of.
1t doesn't take long for the men to
get rid of their money after striking a
town. When that's gone, they wait to
go down on the drive that is. driving
the logs downstream, work that starts
in as soon as the spring thaws and
heavy rains have swollen the streams
and rivers
All sorts and conditions of men are to
be found in their ranks, from the un.
lcttered semisavages who sign the pay
roll with crosses to the college gradu.
ates who have the right to tack two or
three capitals to the end of their
names. | have met men among them
who could quote the English poets from
Chaucer to Browning and who could
learnedly discuss the political history of
Europe and argue on the authorship of
the Junius letters.
One night in barroom in Marinette
| heard a half-drunlen lrmberman de-
liver on the spur of the moment, a SER
mon on intemperance that would hold
the finest congregation in Chicago spell
bound. How did that sort of man get
there? Ran away, maybe, from sor-
row or IL crime. Who can tell? The
pine woods are hiding many a man with
stain or 4 grief on his past. There
isn't safer refuge in the United States.
OF the foreign element the Scandina-
vans are Jne lnOSI important lacIOr, re-
cruited mostly by emigrants from the
lum Der regions of Sweden and Nor
way.
Many an hour have put in with
scandinavian lumbermen, observing
their quaint dialect and odd traits of
character Their most distinctive points
are stolidity, plodding perseverance and
answering honesty. 1t is byword
among drummers in the northwest that
they never fear to trust a Scandinavian
merchant for goods. These northern
people have none of the volatile, mer-
curial temperament of the Latin races;
their passions are not easily swayed,
but once aroused. either in anger or Joy
they burn a white heat-it is then that
the old Viking spirit flashes for awhile
the fierce tempestuous spirit of those
brave, warlike natures that dreant of
heaven as never-ending tableau of
wars and victory and glory.-G. Huge,
in Chicago News.