The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1891-12-31
IN THE LUMBER CAMPS,
The Maine Woodsman Leads a Happy and
Healthy Life.


Healthy Life.
Let the high-collared dudes talk as
they may about the coarse fare, coarse
company and coarse clothing that are
common in the woods. there is pleas
ure and an abandon in a lumberman's
camp that can be found nowhere else
in the world. In the first place lum-
ber camp comes the nearest to being a
perfect republic of any society in the
world Living, working, eating and
sleeping together for day after
day and week after week. with
no communication with the outside
world save an occasional messenger
who comes like a bit Of sea-wreck
to those happy Robinson Crusoes, every
man comes to consider every other man
his equal, and the fraternal feeling here
engendered like that of armv expert
ences, usually extends through life.
Quarrels and bitter disputes, such as are
common in country and town, are al
most unknown here. If one of the num-
Der happens to have an acid disposition
he is ostracised by the whole camp. and
allowed to mediate upon his folly until
contemplation shall have cured him of
his faults. Men who are addicted to
coarse and brutal language become
Modified and made kinder from asso-
citation with those who are of finer
grain, and gradually the whole life of
the camp is elevated to standard that
will compare favorably with the aver
age civilization of the state.
What chance life in the woods is to
study animals in the winter. Then the
bear hides away in leaves or under
wind-falls; the coon finds a hollow tree
and sleeps away the cold days and
lights with the resinous pine woods for
coverlid the woodchuck curls himself
up in dry knolls far below the frost and
burns the fuel he has accumulated dur
lg the summer for heat; the little chip
munk takes his wife to dry, airy
earthen chamber and there they live
on beechnuts and acorns regardless of
deep SHOWS or clustering winds, and
the freckled, crawling caterpillar
that fed on green leaves and
heritage when it was worm
spins for himself a sillxen blanket
and wraps his body thereon, safe away
more richly furnished than any king or
prince that ever ruled. Meanwhile the
hawks and woodpeckers and chickadees
fit here and there among the limbs and
trunks of trees seeking food and pleas
ure wherever they may be found; the
beavers and muskrats build houses that
will reach above the highest floods, and
from barks and grass roots find palata-
bic meals; the mink and otter and
fisher cat and lynx hunt day and night
for game, regardless of laws or game
wardens, and moose and deer and
caribou dig in the snow for grass, eat
moss from pendant limbs, or browse
greedily upon twigs and evergreens.
And whatever mammal or bird does the
woodsman knows it. There is no fool
ing him. Men may pay short visits to
the woods, catch brief glimpses of the
scenery and go home and write books
and books upon the habits of plants
and animals, but the lum herman knows
more than books and more than book
makers. The life and habits of those
who surround him are his books. In
these he studies day and night, and yet
so great is the lesson that though he
apply himself for years the whole is
never learned.
Another blessing of wood life is that
sickness and poor appetites are prac-
tically unknown there. The food is
not dainty, but it is clean and we'll
cooked, and the exercise of the work,
coupled with the climate and air, gives
sharp appetite, which in turn brings
good digestion, sound sleep and health.
1t would be far better than drugs and
doctors medicine for hundreds of the
sickly, dyspeptic clerks in big cities, if
they were to drop pencil and yard
stick and betake themselves to the
woods of Maine for one winter and live
on pork and beans and bread and mo-
lasses, drinking their scalding tea from
tin dippers and get up a circulation by
exercise, and leading regular life
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