The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-07-29
MAKING A "eEAN HOLE"

A Tenderfoot's Amusing Experience In .
Washington Logging Camp.
my first experience Mt lumbering," said
q certain prominent citizen the other night,
twas in making d bear hole. OF course you
don't knew what a bean hole is. No moro
did ] when l went up on Rum river in 1868
and applied for work in one OF Washburne's
camps. l neglected to tell the boss that /
didn't know the difference between a gee
haw and a cross haul, and maybe he took me
for an all rounder at the business. Anyhow
l was hired offlland, and the next morning
the foreman said to me, 'Weistling, you
take Joe and Charlie here and 20 over
to the new camp and chink up and build a
bean hole All right l said, as cheerful
as could be, and off we started.
LAS soon as we'd got into the timber l
halted the boys and asked, What's this
chink up the old man wants?' Joe looked
at me pretty hard and told me about tight
ening up between the cabin and logs with
clay. And what's n bean hole?' I inquired.
But the boys seemed to be getting pretty
tired about something. You see, they didn't
like the idea of being put under such a
%greenhorn, and both claimed they didn't
know what q bean hole was. So ! told them
to wait there a minute, and / ran back to
the foreman and said, Look here, Mr.. C,le,
how big do you want that bean hole?' oh,
6 by 8 or 8 by g. he said. And how deep
do you want it?' three or four feet,' he
answered.
"Well, when we got the new camp we
chinked the cabin all right, and then
measured off a space 8 feet square, and WI
started to dig 8 feet deep. l was going
to carry out the boss biggest figures to
show what u good man I was. We dug all
that day and it was hard work, for the soil
was loose, and the sides of the hole kept
tumbling in on us. When we got back to
camp that evening the foreman asked me
if I'd finished the bean hole, and I told him
not quite. but we'll finish her up tomorrow.
Toward 400 next day we were pretty near
through and we were smoothing the bot
tom Of the sepulcher when the foreman
showed up to examine progress. l didn't
notice him till / heard him roar, What
the are you fellows doingTI looked up,
and there stood the old man with mixture
of establishment and Indignation on his
face. Then l knew SOM hing was wrong
-I'd had my misgivings all ~along-but
answered as coolly as l could that l wa
making a bean hole.
ga bean hole2' he shouted, "a bean hole:
wen, you come OUT OF ClhC Dean mole quick,
you BANKED bean hole idiotl' And then lie
began to laugh, and I never heard a man
laugh like that before nor since. 1t seemed
as if he never would get through, and OF
course 1t sounded very unpleasant to me
l soon learned what bean hole is.
you see they build a log inclosure about
8 feet high and S or G feet square and fill it
with clay. In the middle they sink a deer
hole and start a fire of maple sticks in it.
When there is a good bed of Goals, they put
in u pot of beans and cover it over with
ashes and clay, and the beans steam in
there till they are done and make the best
eating 0 ever got in the woods. But the
bean hole wound me up in that camp. The
story went all through the woods and from
| the head waters Of Rum river to Anoka,
and there was SO much snickering wherever
l went that ! couldn't stand it. Why, mer
| came 10 TN Is miles from other camps to &c,
asquint at the chap that built the bean hole
So, though l didn't make any more special
ly bad breaks there, | pretty soon called fol
my time and got out of the country
South Bend (Wash.) Journal.